As the effects of climate change are severely straining West African agricultural systems, the adoption of more incisive interventions in support of sustainable development agendas for the region is highly critical and cannot be further delayed by governments. Neglected and underutilized species (NUS) are one important ally in pursuing resilience in both production and food systems because of their promising traits in terms of nutrition, adaptation to local agroecosystems, and economic potential for local populations.

Organised by CTA, the European Commission (EC), the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and Concord, the Brussels Development Policy Briefings have been a flagship initiative providing an inclusive policy dialogue forum for 13 years, focusing on the most critical issues facing agriculture and rural development in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific countries. The Briefings offered a structured mechanism for the exchange of information and experience among representatives of the development community in Brussels.

This study explored the potential of the Innovation Platform approach, in improving the participation of rural female farmers in Maize value chain. It intends to identify the peculiarities, in terms of challenges and opportunities related to its application to the rural women realities. The study collected data from 120 small scale maize producers in South Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from 2015 to 2017, using individual interview and focus group discussion (FGD) for data confirmation.

Every year, millions of dollars are spent on tree-based landscape restoration activities. Over the last five decades, there are few success stories of such interventions and even those do not match the anticipated objectives for which the resources were spent. News articles that announce planting campaigns of millions of seedlings are common. Despite all this, in many countries, vegetation cover has not improved due to poor seedling survival rate. This makes the return on investment low.

Following the launch of the CSA strategy for the Central American Integration System (2017), supported by CCAFS, actors from all levels (local, national, regional/international) implemented 259 transformations aligned with the strategy’s objectives toward scaling Climate Smart Agriculture. These transformations include CSA policy formulation and implementation, capacity strengthening and partnership around CSA, mechanisms to facilitate and articulate climate financing. Most of the transformations are concentrated in the policy area.

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on youth unemployment in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region using panel data from the World Bank World Development Indicators for the period 1994–2017. Results from the Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS-Parks) technique show that FDI has an insignificant effect on reducing youth unemployment in the SADC region. This could be because the type of FDI in the region is partly mergers and acquisitions, which has fewer jobs creating capacity compared to Greenfield investment.

Over the past 10 years, there have been a myriad of foresight exercises and scenarios developed that are relevant to consider in the context of building climate-resilient pathways of development in the SADC region. These scenarios consider different pathways for developing climate-resilient food and agricultural systems relevant for the region. However, not all the scenarios ar e developed for the r egion; most are either at SSA or country level, with a few at regional level, and several at global level.

In 2020 the CGIAR CAS Secretariat is conducting independent reviews of the 12 CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs), including this one of WLE. The reviews will provide information on quality of science and effectiveness in each CRP. This review covers the Phase II years of 2017 through 2019, with a view to identifying lessons for future research modalities.

The report discussed how the local government unit in Ivisan municipality, Capiz, Philippines coped with, mitigated, and prepared for climate related risks in the livelihood and agri fisheries sector. The goal of the research was to produce Climate Related Risk Maps and Adaptation Plans in agriculture (Climate Smart MAP/CS MAP) for the 15 villages of Ivisan. The maps will assist in decision making and planning for risks, in normal and severe years, on a long term basis.

This study aims to describe the identification and genome sequencing of two isolates of Banana Mild Mosaic Virus, and, based on the virus sequences available in GenBank, to design and test a new diagnostic primer for a routine indexing use.

Community-based seed producers are a relatively under-researched and under-documented category of seed producers, but have the potential to cater to the diverse seed needs and interests of smallholder farmers. This working paper presents a number of such community-seed producers, with a focus on community seed banks.

This working paper presents results of an impact assessment of management innovations that were introduced in agricultural carbon projects in East Africa. We evaluated the effect of project design, management, and monitoring transfer of responsibilities to local communities on the performance of agricultural carbon projects. The assessment included the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the projects on the smallholder farmers.