Strengthening regional capacity for climate services in Africa, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 27 October 2015.

CCAFS (through the International Livestock Research Institute and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society) and the Africa Climate Policy Center sponsored a workshop on ‘Strengthening Regional Capacity for Climate Services in Africa’, held on 27th October 2015 at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The workshop, which was associated with and reported to the fifth conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-V), aimed to initiate a collaborative effort to strengthen capacity, through African regional institutions, to support smallholder farmers with relevant climate services. The workshop brought together 17 participants including scientists and technical experts to learn from and build on examples of good practice in farmer-focused climate information and advisory services, and to share elements of good practice in food security contingency planning. Discussions highlighted two key constraints to achieving the potential benefits of climate services for smallholder farming and pastoralist communities across Africa. The first is limited capacity to produce relevant climate information that is tailored to the needs of farmers, at a scale that is relevant to farm decision-making. The second is limited capacity to communicate climate-related information effectively, in a manner that farmers can incorporate into their decision-making. Organizations present at the workshop offer several promising innovations that have potential to overcome some of the critical gaps in the production and communication of climate-related information for farmers. Gaps in capacity to produce farmer-relevant climate information are closely linked to gaps in capacity to work with farming communities to communicate the information effectively and support its use. Financial investments and capacity-development efforts should address these gaps in parallel. National meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) have the mandate to produce weather and climate information; but institutions in the agriculture sector are generally better positioned to translate raw climate information into decision-relevant information and advisories, and to communicate that information with farmers. If climate services are to work for farmers, they must therefore be developed and implemented jointly by NMHS and agricultural technical institutions. This may require new institutional arrangements at the national level. Regional institutions, such as African Climate Policy Center (ACPC), IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC) and AGRHYMET Regional Center, are well positioned to assist national governments to strengthen climate services that can benefit smallholder farmers – at scale. The workshop provided an opportunity to advance discussions about collaboration toward strengthening climate services for agriculture in Africa, through regional organizations and processes

Integrating climate change in agriculture and food security policies and strategies: Experiences and lessons from East Africa

Several African countries are proactively putting in place policies and strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation in agriculture at national and local levels. In order for policy makers to develop and implement successful climate change policies and programs, they require reliable and timely information on the uncertainties and complexities related to climate change, including risks, and vulnerability. In East Africa, CCAFS scientists have been working with policy makers from 2011 to identify suitable policy and institutional frameworks that support evidence based policy and program development. This entails making available evidence from research to support policy development and implementation at different levels—local, national, regional and global

Preliminary results from climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives in the Nyando climate-smart villages

Preliminary results from climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives in the Nyando climate-smart villages. Key messages include: shift in farming techniques reduces number of households eating one or no meals each day, households adopt three to five crop innovations and above, greatly expanding on-farm choices for resilient varieties, and resilient crossbreeds of small livestock better adapted to changing feed and water conditions in Nyando provide additional income

Stories of Success: Climate-Smart Villages in East Africa

This booklet presents some of the emerging stories of success of climate-smart agriculture technologies and practices that are positively changing the lives of smallholder farmers across East Africa. They were selected from a portfolio of climate-smart agriculture interventions and have potential for scaling up. We hope that the stories contribute to promoting climate-smart agriculture, and help other smallholder farmers in similar vulnerable systems

Building adaptive capacity and improving food security in semi-arid Eastern Kenya

Collective action has led to increased agricultural investments, and provided an avenue for dissemination of climate-smart technologies. Cereal–legume intercrop innovations offer farmers multiple benefits that contribute to increased farm resilience, greater food security and better incomes. Farmers are taking up soil and water management practices to address the risk of declining rainfall amounts and variability. Wote in semi-arid zone of eastern Kenya, is characterized by highly weathered soils. Soil erosion is rampant due to lack of adequate vegetation cover at the beginning of the rainy seasons, and also due to the sparse shrubs. Land degradation and limited soil fertility replenishment have contributed to reduction in agricultural productivity, reducing potential crop yields due to soil nutrient depletion. The population density is estimated at 110 persons per square kilometre

Climate-smart villages and progress in achieving household food security in Lushoto, Tanzania

Preliminary results from climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives in Lushoto climate-smart villages, Tanzania

Selected outcome-focused monitoring tools for communication and engagement

Key messages The development and research sectors have begun monitoring communication and engagement efforts over the last decade, with the result that there are now a number of tools available. It is rare that blueprints of tools can be applied across a variety of communication and engagement activities in development and research. Analysis and skill are required to select the right tool and adapt it to the research for development context to be monitored. Additional efforts are needed to go beyond monitoring outputs of communication and engagement activities. It is recommended to integrate the use of tools into the actual communication and engagement activities rather than have them stand alone

Youth Engagement in Climate-Smart Agriculture in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges

Engaging youth in agriculture is increasingly being recognized as a critical component of the sustainable development pathway. Worldwide, there is growing concern that young people have become disenchanted with agriculture. About 85% of the young people live in developing countries, where agriculture is likely to provide the main source of income. It is, therefore, vital that young people are actively engaged in agriculture. In order to understand the challenges and opportunities for young people in agriculture, especially in the context of a changing climate, CCAFS East Africa, CSAYN, ACLYP, ICCO Cooperation, AgriProfocus and the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock hosted a series of events and discussions in 2016 and 2017. These included three online discussion forums focusing on different themes including youth, climate-smart agriculture, agribusiness, information communication technology (ICT) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were hosted on the Climate and Agriculture Network for Africa (CANA) platform. Building on the online discussions, a webinar was also organized in 2017. In 2016, the youth engagement efforts culminated in a side event at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) in November, in Marrakech in Morocco. This report summarizes the outcomes of the online discussions, webinar and side event, focusing on the challenges and opportunities of youth engagement in climate-smart agriculture

Measuring how communication and engagement efforts help deliver outcomes

Key messages Initial steps towards outcome-focused monitoring, evaluation & learning (MEL) on communication and engagement can be small, but they must be systematic. To achieve broad participation, MEL needs to be lean and do-able. Well-designed MEL adds value by feeding information and lessons into future work and decision-making. Adequate time must be devoted to embedding MEL into the initial activity plan and following it throughout the communication engagement activity and afterwards. MEL is easier when it is done more often. It is helpful to draw upon resource persons. Preparatory work and capturing feedback through mechanisms built into the communication- engagement activity is more informative than soliciting responses afterwards. Peer exchanges about MEL practices and adaptable templates are beneficial. Aligning specific communication activities with the established impact pathway can ensure more strategic and focused activities and products that contribute to outcomes and impact