The African Union Commission (AUC) launched the inaugural strategic Climate Action Innovation Hub (the Innovation Hub) at the Africa Climate Summit (ACS). The Innovation Hub, hosted at the African Union House between the 4th – 6th September, was a unique event to profile Africa’s young people and women engaged in climate action through innovation.

Mali is a landlocked, Sahelian country of West Africa. The Climate Change Vulnerability Index produced by ND-GAIN in 2016 ranked Mali as the 166th out of 181 most at climate change affected-risk countries in the world. It is the 9th most vulnerable country and the 43rd least ready country to address climate change effects. Mali is home to the inner delta of the Niger River that runs through nine countries in the region.

Credit allows borrowers to access funds required to make an investment before returns materialize. For smallholder farmers, who must invest in agricultural inputs (i.e., seeds, chemicals, equipment, land, and labor) during the planting season before earning income from the sale of agricultural produce after harvest, credit helps alleviate liquidity constraints and promotes the ability of local agricultural production to support nutrition and food security. In rural Nigeria, access to credit—especially formal credit from financial institutions—is limited.

Global and local data consistency and interoperability is lacking for many crucial aspects of agrobiodiversity. Here we present a summary of public data availability for agrobiodiversity-related indicators of regional agrifood systems. Data have been drawn from surveys, reports and censuses in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. This brief can be used by researchers, policymakers, and development planners to understand the data landscape and to identify measurement priorities for future data collection and curation efforts.

This brief addresses two dimensions of women and seed systems development ̶ what women do for seed systems development, and what seed systems interventions could do for women ̶ in the context of South Sudan. In South Sudan, women play key roles in seed systems, as custodians and managers of seeds and seed related information, but these roles are not always recognized, respected, supported and rewarded. The brief proposes a number of seed interventions to empower farmers, with special attention paid to women.