Through analyzing policies and interventions and exploring the context, enabling environment analysis assesses the current situation that influences the design and impact of the scaling investments and supports.

Analyzing the existing multi-stakeholder platforms, dialogues, and networks helps create an overview of all relevant stakeholders for setting up multi-stakeholder dialogues and together achieve large-scale impact with innovation scaling.

As part of the AICCRA, the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) are tasked to develop curricula and training materials to accelerate the mainstreaming of Climate Information Services (CIS) and Climate- Smart Agriculture (CSA) into University’s curricula in Africa. This report describes the activities of a training of trainers’ (ToT) workshop on soil nutrient and water management in crop production course module, held from 28 February to 03 March 2023.

Climate change is a key driver of the spread of pests and diseases that affect food production in West and Central Africa. Science-policy linkages are essential for developing effective pests and disease management systems that can minimize agricultural losses to pests in Africa. With AICCRA support and engagement, a regional plan for preparedness and response to pest and disease outbreaks in West and Central Africa has been developed.

Women are less represented in agricultural research and development sector representing only 25% of agricultural scientists in Africa in the last decade, and a much lower proportion of decision makers on agriculture and climate change at institutional, national, and global levels. Research activities on climate change and outputs must be inclusive, gender-oriented and promote gender equity to enable women scientists to make a greater contribution and be represented at all levels.

The world is facing a number of challenges such as climate change, diminishing soil quality and stagnant crop yields, which call for scalable solutions to ensure food security for a growing population. In this paper, we explore the role of data science in modern agriculture, highlighting the importance of big data analytics, geospatial technology, and machine learning.

Accelerating the scaling of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) requires institutional innovations and interactions among stakeholders operating across scales. The West Africa CSA Alliance (WACSA) and the Central Africa CSA Alliance (CACSA) are two CSA institutional innovations operating at regional scale and aimed at facilitating dialogue and discussions among stakeholders, as well as fostering collective actions to transform and reorient agricultural systems in face of climate change.

Covering 41% of Earth's land, drylands are home to nearly 2 billion people relying on forests, rangelands, and agrosilvopastoral systems for survival. These areas provide crucial environmental services, supporting biodiversity, preventing erosion, averting land degradation, enhancing water infiltration, and boosting soil fertility. Amid global change, they serve as resilient landscapes and communities.

This report aims to explore the intersection of gender and social inclusion, with a focus on the challenges and opportunities faced by women and youth in the agribusiness sector. It examines the ways in which gender norms and stereotypes shape social inclusion, and how exclusionary practices can perpetuate gender-based inequalities. The report draws on the gender analysis studies, baseline surveys and positive case study examples from diverse settings to highlight the key issues and strategies for promoting Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) in the agribusiness sector.

This chapter advances the state-of-the-art understanding of tipping cascades across scales and systems between Earth system and social tipping points. We consider a tipping cascade to occur when extremes or passing of a tipping point in one system triggers or increases the likelihood of reaching a tipping point in another. Here, this means that crossing an Earth system tipping point or experiencing an extreme volatility in the natural system can lead to cascading impacts that trigger social tipping points, and vice versa.

Voluntary Sustainability Systems (VSS) are varied in their commitments, actions and performances on gender equality. But as more VSS seek to address gender inequalities in agri-food value chains, the timing is ripe to reflect on existing evidence to inform future strategies. A recent evidence review sought to understand if and how VSS can support women’s full and effective participation and leadership in decision-making in agri-food value chains.