How to develop better policies that work for Africa's farmers

AICCRA works closely with partners and collaborators—including regional organizations, national government bodies, private sector entities, educational institutions and local farmers' groups—to more effectively scale the reach and uptake of science-informed, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices in Africa.?

With growing networks and deepening partnerships across the continent, we are proud to support more coordinated and harmonized efforts that start with—and include—farmers all the way to the highest levels of strategy design and policy development for Africa.?

Read in our stories from June, for example, how we've developed a curriculum with national education institutions in Ethiopia to effectively train extension officers, and how we've contributed insights and technical expertise to regional and continental climate strategies and discussions. We've also been working at the farm level in Ghana to connect lead farmers and agricultural officers to the tools they need to learn and teach CSA practices in their communities.?

Through such co-design and co-implementation of projects and activities, our partnerships are building capacity of Africa's small-scale farmers in climate-smart agriculture. ?

A new vision for scaling CGIAR innovation

Nowhere does the challenge of climate change manifest more acutely and urgently than in African agriculture. We know more can be done to "connect-the-dots" that link science, policy, and action.

AICCRA’s approach of catalyzing stronger ties between CGIAR researchers and African agricultural stakeholders solves what many have argued is a "missing middle" between science, technology, and innovation on one hand, and viable and sustainable climate-smart practices on the other, especially when delivered on a large scale where such action must navigate complex economic and social challenges.?

AICCRA has made important progress in forging relationships of trust and collaboration public and private sectors—and crucially farming communities too—enabling CGIAR scientific resources to be used in policy and practice.

Read more in a new blog from the World Bank Group , written by Ana Maria Loboguerrero , Simeon Ehui , Katie Freeman and Loraine Ronchi.

Supporting the African Union ahead of the crucial Africa Climate Summit

In 2022, AICCRA's network of experts supported the African Union in drafting its 10-year Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy - Africa’s first collective climate change action plan.

This month, we gathered for a Strategic Climate Investment Partnership Roundtable with the African Union Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy & Sustainable Environment (ARBE) and key national and international partners to discuss the steps and explore opportunities for the technical and financial support needed to implement the Strategy.

The Roundtable also served as a critical milestone ahead of the Africa Climate Summit , taking place later this year where formal ‘pledging’ and support announcements will take place within a dedicated investment session.

Stay tuned for more on the outcomes from the conversations in Ethiopia!

Watch: AICCRA at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact

"If we want to be coordinated, partnerships have to be at the core of this coordination - between local communities, the private sector, governments at different levels and research institutions and organizations," said Ana Maria Loboguerrero, AICCRA's Director as part of a high-level panel hosted by the African Union on the sidelines of the New Global Financing Pact Summit held in Paris this month.

"We believe that regional African organizations, such as ASARECA, CCARDESA, RUFORUM, CORAF, AGRHYMET, producing climate information are key. They are already playing a fundamental role in relation to the coordination of knowledge generation to be able to inform policies that can help to build resilience in the continent."

We were honoured to join this critical conversation on the strategy for the financing and partnerships needed to reach Africa's climate ambitions ahead of the inaugural Africa Climate Summit (to be held in Nairobi in September).

CORAF and AICCRA formalize the Community of Practice in foresight analysis for West and Central Africa

CORAF | West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development - the regional institution coordinating agricultural research in West and Central Africa, previously identified foresight analysis as a pillar of its 2018-2027 Strategic Plan. In response to this, AICCRA with Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT conducted a capacity needs assessment that was used to inform the creation of a regional foresight Community of Practice.

Leveraging this pool of expertise, the expert group has developed a foresight-informed regional preparedness and response plan to better manage pest and disease outbreaks in West and Central Africa.

In Benin this month, CORAF hosted a workshop to finalize the response plan and to formally launch the foresight community of practice - an exciting development for coordinated climate resilience in West and Central Africa.?

By working with key regional partners like CORAF, we're able to support farmers far beyond the borders of AICCRA's focus countries with developing climate-smart, science-based strategies for resilience.

Embedding climate-smart learning into national agricultural curriculums in Ethiopia

Supporting farmers to respond to the huge challenge of a changing climate means also supporting the individuals and networks who work most closely with them. That's why in Ethiopia, the federal Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training (ATVET) colleges, which have?trained more than 72,000 agricultural extension staff and will train more generations to come, are so important.?

This month, after more than two years of rigorous and collaborative co-design, AICCRA and partners have trained several of Ethiopia's ATVET teachers on a new climate curriculum.

The content of the new curriculum is designed to ensure?the graduates will have the competencies to access, use, and communicate the climate information that farmers need to adapt to increasingly erratic conditions.

Climate-smart agriculture training manual released in Ghana

Many African farmers rely on extension officers and climate information services for the knowledge and guidance needed to build resilience to climate change at the farm level. To sustainably support these efforts in Ghana , we've designed a practical manual to train extension officers?& lead farmers on climate-smart agriculture and One Health technologies.

Developed in partnership with Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ghana , the manual is designed to be relevant for extensionists working with small-scale farmers, starting with the 22 communities in Ghana we're currently working with. It focuses its guidance on sustainable sweet potato, yam & maize production, understanding the concept of One Health and approaches for gender and social inclusion

Improving the quality, efficiency, and bundling of climate information services for Kenya's agricultural sector

In 2022, under the leadership of International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) , key stakeholders drawn from Kenya's climate information services (CIS) and climate-smart agriculture (CSA) sectors met to outline some of the obstacles to the provision and use of CIS/CSA advisory services . Among others, key obstacles discussed were the lack of farmers' skills and knowledge in effectively interpreting weather forecasts and how to adjust their farming practices based on the information, and the limited coordination and collaboration between climate information providers and agricultural advisory services in Kenya - leading to gaps in services, duplicated efforts and a lack of coherence in policy making.

These stakeholders wanted improvements to the Kenya Agricultural Observatory Platform (KAOP) platform as Kenya's primary agricultural CIS platform. So, AICCRA and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) integrated systems from an AgData Hub into the KAOP back-end to optimise the platform's data processing .?

Now, thanks to this partnership between AICCRA, KALRO and the?Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), KAOP?now integrates ward-level weather forecasts. For farmers, this means access to more robust and location-specific agro-advisories. The combination of more powerful data processing and user accessibility means that these farmer decision support tools now combine more data collected from a broader spectrum of partners.

"We can already see the partnerships have diversified our data sources and are now facilitating a platform for agro-climatic analysis to build farmers' climate resilience and help authorities make informed policy decisions." - Ram Kiran Dhulipala , Senior Data Scientist, ILRI and AICCRA

AICCRA is facilitating partnerships like these between the public and private sectors to improve the quality, efficiency, and bundling of climate information services for African farmers.

Strengthening adaptive capacity of livestock in Ethiopia?through cross-sectoral projects

Organized by Unique Land Use, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) , AICCRA and Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network - FANRPAN , Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) , an inception workshop for a new project called Strengthening Adaptive Capacity of Extensive Livestock Systems for Food and Nutrition Security and Low-emissions Development in Eastern and Southern Africa brought together pastureland breeding researchers, policymakers, and experts.

Dr. Yosef Amha, Research Consultant at AICCRA East and Southern Africa hosted at ILRI Ethiopia, underscored our contribution to the project, particularly in analyzing past and future climate patterns, climate risks and early warnings, developing suitability maps for animal fodder and feeds, conducting gender and social analyses, and creating climate decision support tools for enhanced adaptation.

The primary objective of the workshop was to raise awareness and foster understanding of the new collaborative project among relevant stakeholders and partners in Ethiopia, while exploring potential synergies with current ongoing initiatives and policy processes.

What we're reading this month:

• Learn about the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) for policy discussions on livestock and climate change

Livestock production is affected by climate change, but also contributes to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions. This leads to ambiguity in how livestock are framed in climate and development policy processes.

In this new paper by AICCRA's Laura Cramer , Todd A. Crane and Art Dewulf , learn how the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) is used to investigate the role of knowledge brokers in Kenyan livestock and climate change policy processes.

• Read a story from AICCRA partner CORAF

CORAF and AICCRA are promoting the entry and advancement of women in agricultural and climate research, by strengthening their skills and providing them with leadership opportunities.

Read these stories and more on our news page or follow us on social media (@CGIARAfrica) for ongoing updates.

Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) is a project that helps deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. It is led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank.