This document summarizes the EAFF report on 'African climate processes, actors and institutions: What this means for farmers.'

The first edition of HER Voice, the official newsletter of the CGIAR gender equality research initiative (HER+) highlights the significant strides made by HER+. Our achievements include the development of a gendered social norms index, a pioneering framework for women-led climate-smart socio-technical innovation bundles, a comprehensive review of gendered resilience through social protection design, and the unveiling of the Women’s Empowerment in Agrifood System Governance Assessment Tool (WEAGov).

The potential for profitable groundwater irrigated area development in Nigeria is 5.04 million hectares (ha), almost all of it located in the country’s central and northern states. To develop this vast area, granular water budgets, financial service provision and support to grow sustainability of production will be needed.

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.