The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Rainforest Alliance (RA) have developed improved practices for climate-smart agriculture in the cocoa sector, summarized under the term climate-smart cocoa (CSC) and is carried out as part of the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

This study takes stock of over 10-years of experience and increasing coverage of index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) programs to protect pastoralists from drought shocks in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region. The study reviews the status of national-level drought/climate risk financing solutions in the region and discusses the operational and technical feasibility of a regional IBLI program, summarizing critical lesson learned and providing a set of recommendations and options for regional implementation.

The climate services that are available to farmers and other agricultural value chain actors are quite heterogeneous across sub-Saharan African countries. While the literature highlights widespread gaps between available climate services and the needs of farmers and other decision makers, there has been little published analysis of how or why those gaps vary by country.

With the rapid increase in the dynamics caused by climate change, policies governing climate change have proliferated while the integration of gender considerations to address the gender-differentiated needs and impacts has remained a challenge. Stakeholder engagement is touted as a critical ingredient in climate change decisions and governance at different levels. However, detailed methods and outcomes of gender-responsive stakeholder engagement processes for climate change policy development are rarely published.

Ethiopia is one of the centers of genetic diversity of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.). The sesame genetic resources present in the country should be explored for local, regional, and international genetic improvement programs to design high-performing and market-preferred varieties. This study’s objective was to determine the extent of genetic variation among 100 diverse cultivated sesame germplasm collections of Ethiopia using phenotypic traits and simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers to select distinct and complementary genotypes for breeding.

This strong correlation between agriculture and climate change has led to the emergence of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) that seeks to balance agricultural productivity within the bounds of our climate. The CSV approach is participatory research for development approach that serve as testing ground for best context-specific CSA technologies and practices. International organizations have identified scaling of agricultural innovations as a priority agenda. In 2015, CGIAR-CCAFS began expanding the CSV approach in Southeast Asia with the establishment of seven CSVs in the region.

Water is an essential resource for all life, but is extremely difficult to manage productively, sustainably and equitably. Good water governance has been a major theme of multiple international conferences for at least two decades (Woodhouse and Muller 2017). Without good governance, we cannot achieve poverty reduction, food security, environmental sustainability, equity and other global development goals or respond effectively to the ravages of climate change. Achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) depends on the availability of water to users.

Since 2019, when WLE/IWMI reported on the impact of its research on groundwater knowledge generation and management in Laos, policies and investment programs have evolved that are benefitting groundwater-dependent communities. There is now greater recognition of the strategic importance of groundwater, and more emphasis placed on the systematic management of groundwater by responsible government agencies and in development projects.

Since 2013, the Government of South Africa, WLE/PIM/IFPRI and research partners have collaborated to assess the role of water infrastructure in adapting to potential climate change impacts. This has helped policymakers prioritize building resilience into infrastructure investments and implement climate sensitive development programs. The findings and recommendations of this research have been built into major policy and investment plans, including Operation Vulindlela, highlighted in the President’s 2022 State of the Nation Address as one of five key sectors.

A research-based strategy to reduce food waste and recycle it is adopted by the government.

After decades of activism by Indigenous Peoples and their allies, the need to formalize Indigenous land rights has received increasing global attention as a strategy to address climate change. Research has highlighted the compatibility between community forest management regimes and carbon sequestration, reiterating the essential role that securing Indigenous land tenure must play in forest-based climate change mitigation strategies.

This paper explores outcome indicators and process principles to evaluate landscape resilience in agro-ecosystems, drawing on outcome indicator case studies of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). Four questions are addressed: (1) which outcome indicators and process principles feature most prominently in the seminal literature on resilient agro-ecological landscapes? (2) to what extent are these principles represented in CGIAR Outcome Impact Case Reports (OICRs) and selected peer-reviewed studies?