IFPRI research team published a book "Climate-Smart Agriculture in South Asia" that contains various methodology for priority setting, land use decision, and policy review. In addition, IFPRI in collaboration with CCAFS has developed an analytical toolkit for climate-smart investment plans at the sub-national level in India. The World Bank Group has shown interest in the concept delineated in the above-mentioned pieces of evidence and research collaboration has been established that will help World Banks' investment decision.

Energy plays a key role in human activities, driving economies and societies worldwide. Notably, 85 percent of the 800 million people without energy access live in fragile states. With the growing climate crisis and the need to move away from fossil fuels, investments in renewable energy are increasing, especially in Africa due to its vast renewable energy potential. However, there are challenges in introducing renewable energy projects in Fragile and Conflict-affected States (FCS).

As interest grows in supporting multi-stakeholder forums (MSFs) to address land-use and climate change, it is important to understand how these processes operate from the perspectives of their participants. The academic literature on their equity largely presents a dichotomy: participatory processes either allow for horizontal decision-making with more equitable and effective outcomes for local populations, or they mask technologies of governance that do not address – and may reinforce – structures of inequality.

Until the past half-century, all agriculture and land management was framed by local institutions strong in social capital. But neoliberal forms of development came to undermine existing structures, thus reducing sustainability and equity. The past 20 years, though, have seen the deliberate establishment of more than 8 million new social groups across the world. This restructuring and growth of rural social capital within specific territories is leading to increased productivity of agricultural and land management systems, with particular benefits for those previously excluded.

As we embark on the 'fourth industrial revolution', digital innovation emerges as a promising solution to critical challenges in food production, consumption, and the supportive triad of food, land, and water systems. This potential is particularly pronounced in less industrialised, agrarian-based economies. Digital advancements promise enhanced communication, improved data management, democratic and transparent governance, accessible financial services, and decision-making support.

In the recent campaign leading up to the presidential election of July 9, 2023 in Uzbekistan, the incumbent president pledged to ensure the implementation of water-saving technologies across all irrigated lands by 2030. This ambitious initiative aims to revolutionize the country’s agricultural sector by replacing old water-intensive irrigation practices with a mix of modern innovative technologies, such as drip irrigation or laser land leveling.

This Annual Report documents a firm foundation for results in all five Strategy impact areas of the One CGIAR Research and Innovation Strategy, demonstrating the relevance of WLE within the “systems transformation approach for food, land and water systems” that it maps out.

Owing to high rates of land and forest degradation, there is consensus that forest landscape restoration is a global priority with the Bonn Challenge and the New York Declaration on Forests committing to restore about 350 Million hectares by 2030, globally. However, there is a need for incentives that motivate these restoration efforts and disincentives aimed at restricting activities that result in further land degradation.

Although progress has been made in promoting gender equality in governments; gender and intersectional inequalities in national agrifood and climate policies are rarely meaningfully considered neither systematically addressed (Acosta et al.; 2019, 2020). The nexus between climate, agrifood and gender issues is relevant. Climate and gender policies often follow a top-down approach without integrating women’s and men’s knowledge, vulnerabilities and demands (Howland and Le Coq, 2022) and do not address structural causes of gender and intersectional inequalities (Huyer et al., 2020).

Recognizing the potential interactions and synergies between adaptation and mitigation in land-use policies in general and forest policies in particular, research on climate change policy has increasingly focused on integrating both objectives simultaneously (hereafter “interaction model”). However, while support exists for the integration of adaptation and mitigation, very few policies have successfully integrated both objectives in practice (hereafter “separation model”).

A lack of information about the living customary systems that manage commons in Madagascar hampers efforts to identify the levels at which collectivities charged with allocating land and enforcing land claims should receive legal recognition. To help address this knowledge gap and inform ongoing legal reforms aimed at recognizing collective tenure, we reviewed relevant legal texts and field studies of Malagasy tenure systems.