Agriculture has played a crucial role in supporting smallholder livelihoods in Bangladesh. Despite being actively involved in various stages of production, including seed sowing, harvesting, and postharvesting, women's contributions are often undervalued. They are often regarded as a cheap labor force and are not given meaningful roles in the supply and value chains. One of the primary challenges they face is the lack of access to and ownership of land, which results in limited and unequal access to resources such as credit, services, markets, and information on modern technologies.

Traditional farming systems across much of Sub-Saharan Africa have greater organic inputs near to the homestead than in fields further away. This is likely to produce a fertility gradient that impacts production capacity, and so provides an opportunity to explore impacts of organic amendments on soils. Across 198 farm plots in 69 households in Halaba, Southern Ethiopia, we investigated the influence of different organic input systems on soil properties.

The African Heads of State and Government gathered for the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, from 4th to 6th September 2023. The African Leaders Nairobi Declaration is a key outcome of the Africa Climate Summit.

The Breakthrough Agenda was launched by 45 world leaders at COP 26 and is a commitment to work together this decade to accelerate innovation and deployment of clean technologies, making them accessible and affordable for all this decade. To kick-start this Agenda, countries endorsed Breakthrough goals to make clean technologies and sustainable practices more affordable, accessible and attractive than their alternatives by 2030 in the power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture sectors.

The Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) is a joint initiative of the African Union Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and the African Development Bank, that is conferred the mandate from the African Union Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.134 (VIII) of the 8th Ordinary Session in 2007, to support climate interventions in African countries. The initiative hosts the annual conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA).

Oral presentation on “Sociotechnical innovations for leveraging systems transformation, water management and food security under climate change: concepts and illustrations in the dry areas” – delivered on September 12th. This communication occurred during the 6th General Assembly of the IOFS in Tunis, Tunisia, as part of the Regional Conference on Resilient Agriculture in IOFS Member States, focusing on Climate Adaptation and Food Security (28 August 2023 / 04-12-13 September 2023).

On May 12 in Abuja, Nigeria, two CGIAR initiatives – Fragility, Conflict, and Migration (FCM) and National Policies and Strategies (NPS) – brought together policymakers, researchers, and representatives from the private sector and civil society to discuss how to advance food systems resilience amid crises while empowering women and youth, in the context of Nigeria. The workshop featured presentations from six other CGIAR research initiatives working in Nigeria and fostered lively discussions.

The masterclass on Climate-Smart Agriculture and Agribusiness Impact was delivered at Africa Food System Forum in Dar Es Salaam covering a diverse range of topics aimed at equipping participants with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the challenges posed by climate change in the agricultural sector. Divided into three sections, the masterclass delved into Agribusiness Sustainability through Climate Smart Approaches, Harvesting Success by Crafting Business Impact Pathways, and Attracting Investment through Impact-Driven Approaches.

Through its Work Package 4 “Real-Time Monitoring of Food Systems”, the CGIAR Research Initiative on Digital Innovation and Transformation seeks to improve real time monitoring of food system dynamics to inform multiple stakeholders who make time critical decisions to respond to variation and shocks, improve the flow of information for a better understanding of the food systems, and enhance digital data streams for improving decision making by food system actors.

Soil erosion and land degradation are critical challenges in Northern and Central West Tunisia. This report assesses the profitability of different forage mixtures used as a key rotation practice to mitigate these challenges. Various soil and water conservation (SWC) practices were put in place using a sample of 33 small farmers in the framework of the SWC@Scale-ProSol project. Cost-benefit and a partial budget analysis were conducted to assess the profitability of the implemented agricultural practices on the selected demonstration plots.