Humidtropics in the Central Mekong Action Area

This chapter introduces Humidtropics, the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics, and the research for development (R4D) activities implemented from 2013 to 2016 in the Central Mekong Action Area. The chapter also provides an overview of the other book chapters

Integrated systems research for sustainable smallholder agriculture in the Central Mekong: Achievements and challenges of implementing integrated systems research

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Guidelines to engage with marginalized ethnic minorities in agricultural research for development in the Greater Mekong

This document is an output of Humidtropics, a CGIAR Research Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics. This document is designed to help researchers who want to engage with ethnic groups to ensure agricultural research for development (R4D) stops contributing to their further marginalization. It can be used by those wanting to design new projects that engage with ethnic minorities from the start or those already implementing projects and wanting to improve their current practice. Based on an analysis of internal and external factors that lead to marginalization of ethnic minority groups through agricultural R4D, the Guidelines are organized around three sets of challenges: (a) the agricultural R4D system as a whole; (b) for research teams; and (c) for agricultural R4D projects. The document identifies for each challenge strategies that can help prevent further marginalization according to different stages in the project cycle. The overall approach that these Guidelines recommend is transdisciplinary action research. The strategies are thus those that can help agricultural R4D researchers to carry out transdisciplinary action research that engages more effectively with marginalized ethnic minority groups in order to achieve more inclusive and equitable rural development from agriculture

An operational approach to high resolution agro-ecological zoning in West-Africa

Research ArticleThe objective of this work is to develop a simple methodology for high resolution crop suitability analysis under current and future climate, easily applicable and useful in Least Developed Countries. The approach addresses both regional planning in the context of climate change projections and pre-emptive short-term rural extension interventions based on same-year agricultural season forecasts, while implemented with off-the-shelf resources. The developed tools are applied operationally in a case-study developed in three regions of Guinea-Bissau and the obtained results, as well as the advantages and limitations of methods applied, are discussed. In this paper we show how a simple approach can easily generate information on climate vulnerability and how it can be operationally used in rural extension servicesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A conceptual governance framework for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction integration

Climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) have similar targets and goals in relation to climate change and related risks. The integration of CCA in core DRR operations is crucial to provide simultaneous benefits for social systems coping with challenges posed by climate extremes and climate change. Although state actors are generally responsible for governing a public issue such as CCA and DRR integration, the reform of top-down governing modes in neoliberal societies has enlarged the range of potential actors to include non state actors from economic and social communities. These new intervening actors require in-depth investigation. To achieve this goal, the article investigates the set of actors and their bridging arrangements that create and shape governance in CCA and DRR integration. The article conducts a comprehensive literature review in order to retrieve main actors and arrangements. The article summarizes actors and arrangements into a conceptual governance framework that can be used as a backdrop for future research on the topic. However, this framework has an explorative form, which must be refined according to site- and context-specific variables, norms, or networks. Accordingly, this article promotes an initial application of the framework to different contexts. Scholars may adopt the framework as a roadmap with which to corroborate the existence of a theoretical and empirical body of knowledge on governance of CCA and DRR integration

Assessing the feasibility of adaptation options: methodological advancements and directions for climate adaptation research and practice

The Paris Agreement put adaptation prominently on the global climate action agenda. Despite a surge in research and praxis-based knowledge on adaptation, a critical policy roadblock is synthesizing and assessing this burgeoning evidence. We develop an approach to assess the multidimensional feasibility of adaptation options in a robust and transparent manner, providing direction for global climate policy and identifying knowledge gaps to further future climate research. The approach, which was tested in the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 °C (SR1.5) to assess 23 adaptation options, is underpinned by a systematic review of recent literature, expert elicitation, and iterative peer review. It responds to the challenge of limited agreement on adaptation indicators, lack of fine-scale adaptation data, and challenges of assessing synergies and trade-offs with mitigation. The findings offer methodological insights into how future assessments such as the IPCC Assessment Report (AR) six and regional, national, and sectoral assessment exercises could assess adaptation feasibility and synthesize the growing body of knowledge on climate change adaptation