Climate Services in Senegal: Media training and field trip report

To demonstrate the success of the Senegal-based project on strengthening the scaling up of climate services, and enhance capacity for regional media to report effectively on climate change issues, CCAFS carried out media training and site visit from 28 to 30 September 2015. This activity was co-led by the CCAFS West Africa team and Coordinating Unit, in collaboration with local partners, and media experts. This report summarized key activities, outputs and outcomes from the visit. Both activities were designed to take advantage of the keen interest reporters are paying to climate change this year to focus their attention on agriculture’s role as a climate solution, especially through ground experiences and successes of CCAFS-led activities in Senegal (climate information services, climate-smart villages, etc.)

What do we know about livestock diseases in Ethiopia? A birds-eye view of recent evidence

The systematic evidence map allows users to quickly take stock of evidence on livestock disease prevalence and mortality. The map reveals the distribution and quantity of available evidence, and highlights areas for further investment and research

The Paris Climate Agreement: what it means for food and farming

The Paris Agreement opens the door for more adaptation and mitigation in the agriculture sector. Countries must take urgent action to reduce emissions from the agriculture sector in order to limit global warming below 2 degrees C. Funding and political will are needed to support developing countries to implement their plans to combat and adapt to climate change in the agriculture sector. The global agriculture community, including CGIAR, must step up and engage in key UNFCCC processes between now and 2020 to drive action and innovation on issues related to agricultur

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

What do we know about livestock diseases in Ethiopia? A birds-eye view of recent evidence

The systematic evidence map allows users to quickly take stock of evidence on livestock disease prevalence and mortality. The map reveals the distribution and quantity of available evidence, and highlights areas for further investment and research

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

Could consumption of insects, cultured meat or imitation meat reduce global agricultural land use?

Animal products, i.e. meat, milk and eggs, provide an important component in global diets, but livestock dominate agricultural land use by area and are a major source of greenhouse gases. Cultural and personal associations with animal product consumption create barriers to moderating consumption, and hence reduced environmental impacts. Here we review alternatives to conventional animal products, including cultured meat, imitation meat and insects (i.e. entomophagy), and explore the potential change in global agricultural land requirements associated with each alternative. Stylised transformative consumption scenarios where half of current conventional animal products are substituted to provide at least equal protein and calories are considered. The analysis also considers and compares the agricultural land area given shifts between conventional animal product consumption. The results suggest that imitation meat and insects have the highest land use efficiency, but the land use requirements are only slightly greater for eggs and poultry meat. The efficiency of insects and their ability to convert agricultural by-products and food waste into food, suggests further research into insect production is warranted. Cultured meat does not appear to offer substantial benefits over poultry meat or eggs, with similar conversion efficiency, but higher direct energy requirements. Comparison with the land use savings from reduced consumer waste, including over-consumption, suggests greater benefits could be achieved from alternative dietary transformations considered. We conclude that although a diet with lower rates of animal product consumption is likely to create the greatest reduction in agricultural land, a mix of smaller changes in consumer behaviour, such as replacing beef with chicken, reducing food waste and potentially introducing insects more commonly into diets, would also achieve land savings and a more sustainable food system

LD4D CoP Charter

The Livestock Data for Decisions Community of Practice (LD4D-CoP) was launched in January 2017 with members from the global livestock development community. LD4D will provide a forum for pooling and sharing of livestock data expertise. The Supporting Evidence-based Intervention (SEBI) project will act as a secretariat for LD4D in order to co-ordinate discussion between the different stakeholders in this space, including donors. The scope of LD4D will be relatively broad and directed by the stakeholders but the CoP will, in the first instance, concentrate on improving access to, and use of, livestock health and productivity data from low and middle income countries to support better decision making. This charter provides the basis by which LD4D operates and includes the background, scope, structure and governance

LD4D - Proceedings of Meeting 20-22 June 2017, Edinburgh

Proceedings of the Livestock Data for Decisions Community of Practice meeting, in Edinburgh, 201