Climate change can manifest in various ways, including altered precipitation patterns, increased temperatures, and more frequent extreme weather events. These factors can adversely affect crop yields, jeopardizing food security and the livelihoods of the majority of the population dependent on agriculture. Agriculture in Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) is a major contributor to the national economy and is estimated to contribute about 17% of SADC’s gross domestic product (GDP). Smallholder farmers in Southern Africa contribute up to 90% of food production.

The Ethiopian Meteorology Institute (EMI) generates seasonal climate outlook forums three times a year and provides this information to various socio-economic sectors. These forecasts are crucial in sustaining and developing Ethiopia, as they help minimize risks associated with weather and climate hazards while maximizing positive impacts. The institute has implemented the National Framework for Climate Services in Ethiopia (NFCS-E) and started co-designing and co-producing climate services with key socio-economic sectors.

This Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) handbook has been developed as a resource material for use by CSA practitioners in providing training, policy advocacy, and upscaling CSA technologies and practices for improving sustainable productivity, adapting to the effects of climate change, and mitigating climate change.

Agroecology is a farming approach which embrace a set of ecological principles, practices, and local knowledge generation to boost the resilience and adaptation of sustainable food systems. However, a transition towards agroecology food system is also not an easy task and involves the piloting of a set of very complex practices, tools, arrangements, and policies combined with behavioral changes and sustainable financing business models.

Many questions and debates are being undertaken in the literature about the “context-specific transition pathways of agroecological transformations and their related conceptual, political, institutional, social, and other challenges and opportunities. Pilot projects for Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) are key areas where these questions and related assumptions can be tested, piloted, and reported for better lessons and future conceptualization.

Climate change and climate shocks are putting the most vulnerable people at risk, as extreme weather events are becoming more and more intense in many regions of the world. Extreme heat, drought, floods and unpredictable farming seasons are harming farmers and their production systems, threatening their livelihoods. In marginalized and vulnerable populations, aquaculture is a key means for sustaining livelihoods because of its contribution to food security and nutrition, but many fish farmers in Zambia endure unfavorable climates for sustainable fish farming.

The Gender Equality Initiative (HER+) conducts innovative gender and social science research to develop actionable solutions to enhance climate resilience and the empowerment of women in Africa and Asia. As there is no one-size-fits-all solution to these challenges, HER+ identifies and models diverse scenarios for co-creation of socio-technical innovations. According to Barret et al 2022, co-creation of bundled approaches is essential to enable new technologies and practices to emerge, adapt, and be upscaled within and across diverse contexts.

Zambia has historically qualified as a regional model of stability and peace. However, this status is being undermined by several socio-political factors, including deeply entrenched patterns of social inequality and gender discrimination, high levels of poverty and youth unemployment, as well as recurring episodes of electoral violence. Climate and extreme weather events compound most of these vulnerabilities and even create new ones, generating societal dynamics that will likely increase social tensions with greater risk of insecurity.

Despite their crucial role in combating hunger, malnutrition, and poverty, many plant species cultivated as fruits, vegetables, roots, and tuber crops remain neglected and underutilized worldwide, and Sri Lanka is no exception. Integrating these crops into farming systems has the potential to create nutrient-dense, climate-resilient, and sustainable agricultural practices.

Africa is one of the lowest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change, yet key development sectors
have already experienced widespread losses and damages attributable to human-induced climate change, including biodiversity loss, water shortages, reduced food production, loss of lives and reduced economic growth (high confidence).