Post-war economic opportunities in northern Uganda: Implications for Women's Empowerment and Political Participation

This document presents a women-focused study which looks at peace dividends and their nature, as well as the direction they are taking. The overall objective is to map out economic opportunities for women in post-war northern Uganda and the implications for their broader political participation and empowerment

Evidence-based opportunities for out-scaling climate-smart agriculture in East Africa

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is being widely promoted as a solution for food insecurity and climate change adaptation in food systems of sub-Saharan Africa, while simultaneously reducing the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. Governments throughout Africa are writing policies and programs to promote CSA practices despite uncertainty about the ability for practices to meet the triple CSA objectives of CSA. We conducted a systematic review of 175 peer-reviewed and grey literature studies, to gauge the impact of over seventy potential CSA practices on CSA outcomes in Tanzania and Uganda. Using a total of 6,342 observations, we found that practice impacts were highly context (i.e. farming system and location) specific. Nevertheless, practice effect across CSA outcomes generally agreed in direction. While our results suggest that CSA is indeed possible, lack of mitigation data precludes a more conclusive statement. Furthermore, the inclusion of potential adoption rates changes the potential of CSA practices to achieve benefits at scale. Given the uncertainty and variable impacts of practices across regions and outcomes, it is critical for decision makers to prioritize practices based on their desired outcomes and local context

Prioritize among climate-smart agricultural options and benefits for greater impact

Clearly showing the benefits of certain climate-smart agricultural (CSA) interventions over others in a particular context is key to facilitating prudent investment of scarce resources. Ranking certain CSA practices over others is complex because CSA implies multiple outcomes, which vary with context and scale. All stakeholders should have access to tools and information to help them rank and prioritize CSA practices, taking different criteria and trade-offs into account. Investing in best-bet practices identified through ‘best-fit’ XXX prioritization processes is the best way to realize locally relevant benefits of CSA. ‘Best fit’ means matching potential practices and their possible benefits to the local context using a prioritization process

Invest in climate-smart soil and land health

Better soil health can increase agricultural productivity. Restoration activities can build on-farm resilience and contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Land and soil health surveys can improve crop modeling predictions under various climate scenarios and guide more targeted interventions. Currently, most assessments of land and soil health do not consider the social, ecological, and biophysical constraints, or acknowledge the variations in the landscape. The Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF) assesses multiple indicators at the same geo-referenced location across landscapes. It provides a biophysical baseline at landscape level and a monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the processes of land degradation and the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures over time (Figure 3). With the LDSF, vulnerable areas that may require more investment in terms of land restoration can be identified early on and priorities determined

Target the pathways to scale out climate-smart agricultural technologies to farming communities

The process of getting climate-smart agricultural (CSA) interventions and practices to farmers is just as important as the interventions and practices. Given the complex systems in which CSA is implemented and the various CSA practices and technologies, there is no one-size-fits-all scaling pathway – so far Best-fit climate-smart agricultural scaling approaches are guided by the biophysical, socioeconomic and institutional context and attributes of the CSA technology

Design climate-smart agricultural interventions to be gender inclusive

Research suggests that gender equity is a critical factor in the adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices. If gender is not explicitly considered in climate-related interventions, the adoption of climate-resilient practices is unlikely to reach scale. Climate-resilient interventions must go beyond targeting women to focus on the underlying causes of gender inequality within communities. Involving men for women’s empowerment is critical. Gender norms cannot change in isolation. Men must see the value of women’s participation and control over benefits and resources. Gender-inclusive design should be included at each stage of the project cycle

Support farmer-to-farmer and community-wide social learning

Research suggests that farmer-to-farmer learning can be up to six times more effective in spreading knowledge of CSA practices than in areas where it is not carried out. Understanding the wider context and requirements for social learning is key. Peer learning is an effective way to disseminate CSA knowledge based on trust, relying on social networks, with learning and social multiplier effects. Together with collective action, it can lead to effective adoption of CSA practices. Such farmer-to-farmer learning can usefully reinforce – and be reinforced by – extension and other change agents. For it to work, farmer-to-farmer learning requires performance incentives and rewards

Formulate equitable climate-smart agricultural policies

A robust, resilient, and enabling policy environment is critical to take agriculture innovations to scale at national or regional level. Policy formulation processes that consider climate variability, socioeconomic and environmental shocks require participatory, inclusive, and explorative scenarios to guide decision making. Learning alliances, or multi-stakeholder platforms, foster policy dialogue at community, district and high-level planning stages and lead to integrated, coordinated, and gender-responsive policy recommendations Decision makers at legislative and top-policy level can consider these recommendations in creating equitable, climate-resilient policy

Assess whole-farm trade-offs and synergies for climate-smart agriculture

Research shows that climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is beneficial in increasing productivity, promoting resilience and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving benefits in all three dimensions is difficult, and so necessary choices among competing investments and objectives must be made. The complex nature of agricultural systems implies that there are always multiple outcomes and goals to choose from. Some are immediate whereas others are long term. Achieving some goals might compromise the ability to achieve others. To invest in and scale up successful interventions, evidence is needed to help select and assess benefits and limitations of different CSA interventions. Using this evidence to design portfolios of best-bet CSA options enables decision makers to identify and manage expectations, make informed choices and anticipate trade-offs

Monitor climate-smart agricultural interventions with a real-time participatory tool

Climate-smart agricultural (CSA) interventions often require “fine-tuning” i.e. feedback from multiple stakeholders e.g. farmers, extension agents, NGO workers, and policy implementers on their relevance in a given context. Getting essential feedback to ensure projects are on track in a timely way, especially for fast-moving CSA interventions with busy implementers, can often be a challenge. Smart monitoring combines ICT tools with the “5Q” approach to ask five questions of various implementers at different stages of the project. Rapid assessment results from answers to the “5Q” questions combined with ICT-driven geospatial data provide quick insights, which can be key to fine-tuning the trajectory to success. Such an approach not only provides a real-time monitoring tool, it is also cost effective: one 5Q survey round in a CSA project consulted nearly 1,000 farmers in just 45 minutes by automated phone calls at an operational cost of just US$300