Exploring gender- and nutrition-sensitive climate-smart agriculture value chains for Nwoya District, Northern Uganda

Recent statistics indicate a rise in food security among Uganda’s population over the period 2014 to 2019. Gender- and nutrition-sensitive agriculture may improve food and nutrition insecurity by sustainably addressing underlying causes of malnutrition. The Climate Risk Profiling Methodology is useful in assisting district-level agricultural development practitioners in identifying and prioritizing gender-sensitive value chain enterprise options with the potential to improve household incomes, food and nutrition security. Four value chain enterprises that may be promoted based on economic importance, resilience to climate change, gender sensitivity and importance for food and nutrition security are cassava, poultry, goats and beans. Considerations for policy action to improve food and nutrition security in Nwoya District amidst climate change include: boosting local production of diverse nutrient-dense foods; enhancing sustainable agricultural productivity and incomes; social behavior change; communication focusing on nutrition; providing supportive institutions, infrastructure and services; and the use of gender transformative approaches to boost women’s effective participation, agency and benefit from agricultural value chain enterprises

Integrating climate and nutrition risk planning for improved food and nutrition security in Mbale district

This info note summarizes findings of climate risk and nutrition profiling conducted by researchers from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) as part of a situation analysis for the second phase of the CCAFS project on Policy Action for Climate Change Adaptation (PACCA), which seeks to stimulate adoption of gender- and nutrition-sensitive climate-smart agriculture by aligning the national level agenda with implementation

Gender responsive policy formulation and budgeting in Tanzania: do plans and budgets match?

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women has been ratified by more countries than any other UN convention (Gabizon, 2016). The United Republic of Tanzania is one such country that hopes to fully utilize its human resources, both men and women, for socio-economic development. It is recognized that the continued marginalization of women constitutes a major obstacle to rapid socio-economic development of the country (MCDGC, 2005). The United Republic of Tanzania–through the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children–has prioritized gender equality through different instruments: the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania was amended in 2005 to increase women’s participation in the National Parliament and Local Authorities; the Women and Gender Development Policy of 2000 puts more emphasis on women in development, and the National Strategy for Gender Development was intended to promote gender equality and equity. Despite these developments, challenges still remain, as demonstrated by Tanzania’s low ranking (123rd out of 149 countries) on the 2013 Gender Inequality Index (UNDP, 2015)

Scenario-guided policy planning in Uganda

Using socio-economic scenarios in policy formulation allows for an anticipatory approach to governance processes and the formulation of policies/plans that take into account future uncertainty To fully benefit from the dividends of scenario planning in the Ugandan context, there is need to build the scenario-guided planning capacity of both public and private sectors. There is need for follow up and continuous engagement with government officials responsible after the review process to enable inclusion of recommendations generated into the final policy documents. In some cases, the abstract nature of national policy statements limits the level of detail, hence detailed scenario guided recommendations and information may not easily fit in the existing policy formats. The approach is new and requires extra awareness creation not only for the government officers who draft policies but also for other major policy actors such as the political leadership who approve the policies

Policy Action for Climate Change Adaptation. Project synthesis report, 2014-2020

Climate change is increasingly threatening the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Increased climate variability, including changes in mean temperatures, variation in the onset of rains, and increases in extreme weather events, are directly affecting the growing seasons of commercial and subsistence crops, significantly disturbing socio-economic activities in the agricultural sector and leaving many smallholder farmers in a situation of food insecurity and malnutrition. Within this context, it has become increasingly crucial that governments and relevant stakeholders in the region develop policy strategies that help adapt to changes in climate and help build more resilient food systems. To support these policy processes, the CGIAR Program of Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) started in 2014 the seven-year initiative “Policy Action for Climate Change Adaptation (PACCA)”. PACCA consisted of a first phase (2014-2017), which operated under the project entitled “Influencing and linking national and local level policies and institutions to adopt climate-resilient food systems” in Uganda and Tanzania, and a second phase (2018-2020), which operated under the project entitled “Stimulating adoption of nutrition sensitive climate smart agriculture by aligning national level agenda with implementation” in Uganda and Ethiopia. This report summarizes the main findings that emerged from Phase 1 and 2 of PACCA, presents the lessons learnt and achievements for climate change policy action work and reflects on both projects impact pathways, providing some recommendations for future policy initiatives in the region

The Role of Multi-Stakeholder Platforms for Creating an Enabling Climate Change Policy Environment in East Africa

Research-based evidence on the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices is vital to their effective uptake, continued use and wider diffusion. In addition, an enabling policy environment at the national and regional levels is necessary for this evidence to be used effectively. This chapter analyzes a 4-year period of continuous policy engagement in East Africa in an attempt to understand the role of multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) in facilitating an enabling policy environment for climate change adaptation and mitigation. The study shows how MSPs enhanced a sense of ownership, developed knowledge, created linkages between different governance levels and a wide variety of actors (including policymakers and scientists), and, most significantly, improved policy formulation

Scenario guided policy planning: processes, comparisons, and lessons from East Africa

Key messages: Participants in policy processes require constant communication and networking among stakeholders to be able to exploit the available policy windows. The review process requires a dynamic and engaging tool. The robustness of a review tool is one step toward having a good and fruitful review process. Using socio-economic scenarios and quantitative evidence in policy review processes allows policy actors to develop a great body of information in an all-inclusive manner, keeping all stakeholders engaged. This alone, however, does not guarantee success. State and non-state actors need to invest in trust building if the citizenry is to benefit from the fast approaching private-public partnership frameworks. It is beneficial to work on a single policy document that is already under a review or formulation process

Gender in climate change, agriculture, and natural resource policies: insights from East Africa

Gender mainstreaming was acknowledged as an indispensable strategy for achieving gender equality at the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. Since then, governments have made substantial efforts in developing gender-responsive policies and implementation strategies. The advent of climate change and its effects, which have continued to impact rural livelihoods and especially food security, demands that gender mainstreaming efforts are accelerated. Effective gender mainstreaming requires that gender is sufficiently integrated in policies, development plans, and implementation strategies, supported by budgetary allocations. This study analyzes the extent of gender integration in agricultural and natural resource policies in Uganda and Tanzania, and how gender is budgeted for in implementation plans at district and lower governance levels. A total of 155 policy documents, development plans, and annual action plans from national, district, and sub-county/ward levels were reviewed. In addition, district and sub-county budgets for four consecutive financial years from 2012/2013 to 2015/2016 were analyzed for gender allocations. Results show that whereas there is increasing gender responsiveness in both countries, (i) gender issues are still interpreted as “women issues,” (ii) there is disharmony in gender mainstreaming across governance levels, (iii) budgeting for gender is not yet fully embraced by governments, (iii) allocations to gender at sub-national level remain inconsistently low with sharp differences between estimated and actual budgets, and (iv) gender activities do not address any structural inequalities. We propose approaches that increase capacity to develop and execute gender-responsive policies, implementation plans, and budgets.</p

Sustainable intensification of agricultural systems in the Central African Highlands : The need for institutional innovation

This study identifies entry points for innovation for sustainable intensification of agricultural systems. An agricultural innovation systems approach is used to provide a holistic image of (relations between) constraints faced by different stakeholder groups, the dimensions and causes of these constraints, and intervention levels, timeframes and types of innovations needed. Our data shows that constraints for sustainable intensification of agricultural systems are mainly of economic and institutional nature. Constraints are caused by the absence, or poor functioning of institutions such as policies and markets, limited capabilities and financial resources, and ineffective interaction and collaboration between stakeholders. Addressing these constraints would mainly require short- and middle-term productivity and institutional innovations, combined with middle- to long-term NRM innovations across farm and national levels. Institutional innovation (e.g. better access to credit, services, inputs and markets) is required to address 69% of the constraints for sustainable intensification in the Central Africa Highlands. This needs to go hand in hand with productivity innovation (e.g. improved knowhow of agricultural production techniques, and effective use of inputs) and NRM innovation (e.g. targeted nutrient applications, climate smart agriculture). Constraint network analysis shows that institutional innovation to address government constraints at national level related to poor interaction and collaboration will have a positive impact on constraints faced by other stakeholder groups. We conclude that much of the R4D investments and innovation in the Central Africa Highlands remain targeting household productivity at farm level. Reasons for that include (1) a narrow focus on sustainable intensification, (2) institutional mandates and pre-analytical choices based project objectives and disciplinary bias, (3) short project cycles that impede work on middle- and long-term NRM and institutional innovation, (4) the likelihood that institutional experimentation can become political, and (5) complexity in terms of expanded systems boundaries and measuring impact.</p

Crop-livestock-tree integration in Uganda: The case of Mukono-Wakiso innovation platform

Mukono and Wakiso are two districts where Humidtropics has one of its field sites in the Lake Victoria Crescent Zone of Uganda. This peri-urban area is highly populated, reducing the acreage under agriculture and threatening food security. The two districts have a booming business of real estate; many city entrants are opting to construct houses in either Mukono or Wakiso district. This increases competition for the land uses and exerts pressure on natural resources such as forests and wetlands. The districts are close to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, providing a big market opportunity for the farmers’ produce. Despite the business opportunities, the two districts have high youth unemployment close to the national average of 62 per cent, posing a challenge and opportunity for the IP (UBOS, 2002)