A presentation on a positive role that research can play supporting development interventions by Fiona Flintan, in December 2022 at the EU workshop: Regional programme in livestock and pastoralism for climate change adaptation in Eastern/Horn of Africa, Movenpick Hotel, Nairobi

A presentation on the positive role that research can play in supporting development interventions by Fiona Flintan, in December 2022 at the EU workshop: Regional programme in livestock and pastoralism for climate change adaptation in Eastern/Horn of Africa, Movenpick Hotel, Nairobi

Livestock production is a major livelihood in many parts of Africa, providing multiple benefits and uses that include milk, meat, payment of dowry, measure of wealth, draft power among others. In particular, extensive livestock systems support most of Africa’s livestock population, with 63%, 82% and 70% of the continent’s cattle, sheep and goats, respectively. Mostly, they are raised in climate-sensitive arid and semi-arid areas of Africa in subsistence level rain-fed systems.

The primary objective of this working paper is to review literature (i.e., peer-reviewed and grey) on the extent to which women’s full and effective participation in climate change policies at different scales; defined at the level at which a policy is implemented, including macro, meso and micro; improve women’s resilience to climate change and environmental hazards.

Most of the smallholder farmers in Mali are confronted with multifaceted challenges, which include low productivity, post-harvest crop losses, underdeveloped markets, vulnerability to climate change, and gender inequality affecting the distribution of resources. These problems require interventions such as institutional reforms that facilitate efficient rural service delivery, development of markets, creation of physical infrastructure, and supportive government policies while ensuring a stable and conducive political environment.

Traditional pastoralism is a unique and resilient system for ensuring adaptation to climate change. This adaptation is particularly important to deal with a dynamic process of unpredictable climate variability and permanent human interactions in dryland ecosystems in Africa. It is considered of fundamental importance to ensure the application of innovative techniques and mechanisms to deal with these changes, and that these technologies are strategically integrated into community social structures and resource management value systems.

The CGIAR Initiative on Climate Resilience, ClimBeR, aims to transform the climate adaptation capacity of food, land, and water systems in Zambia and five other low- and middle-income countries, ultimately increasing the resilience of smallholder production systems to withstand severe climate change effects like drought, flooding, and high temperatures.  

The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), developed discussion briefs that would further enhance the knowledge of ClimBeR’s stakeholders on resilience, inclusiveness and women empowerment in climate change adaptation in the Philippines. This brief discusses social equity in the context of adaptive social protection.

Climate change and its impact on agricultural production and productivity is a major factor of concern in the agricultural sector. Many indicators point to the significant depressing role that climate change has on the agricultural sector, spanning from production to marketing of the primary and secondary products. Women and youth comprise most of the rural population in the

At the start of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030), the restoration of degraded ecosystems is more than ever a global priority. Tree planting will make up a large share of the ambitious restoration commitments made by countries around the world, but careful planning is needed to select species and seed sources that are suitably adapted to present and future restoration site conditions and that meet the restoration objectives.

The pastoral systems of Eastern Africa have been affected by the alternated incidence of recurrent drought and flood for the last decades, aggravating poverty and local conflicts. We have introduced an innovation to convert floods to productive use using water spreading weirs (WSW) as an entry point to capture and spread the torrential flood emerging in the neighbouring highlands into rangelands and crop fields of low-lying pastoral systems in Afar, Ethiopia.

The digital ecosystem and its actors have increasing influence over how food is produced, what food people buy, and the flow of information among farmers, supply chain actors, and consumers. Efforts to transform food systems towards sustainability, including climate change resilience and mitigation, similarly rely on digital resources and offer the opportunity to scale up best practices rapidly at low cost.