Presentation from Dr Caitlin Corner-Dolloff (CIAT) about decision-support framework for targeting investment towards climate-smart agriculture, presented on July 8 at the Our Common Future Under Climate Change science conference in Paris.
2. Alliance for CSA in Africa
Vision
25 x 25
Map of a selection of CIAT-ICRAF CSA initiatives
with CCAFS, WB, USAID from 2014-2105
West Africa CSA
Alliance (WACSAA)
Global momentum
building for CSA
3. “The overall aim …. is to support efforts
from the local to global levels
for sustainably using agricultural systems to achieve
food and nutrition security for all people at all times,
integrating necessary adaptation, and
capturing potential mitigation” (where possible and
appropriate)
Defining
Climate-smart agriculture
Lipper et al. (2014) Nature: Climate Change
• 24 authors from 15 institutions
5. A set of filters for
evaluating CSA options &
establishing CSA
investment portfolios
CSA Prioritization
Framework
Users:
1° National decision makers
2° Donors, NGOs, implementers
Multi-
level
Linkable
Stakeholder
Driven
Flexible
Simple
6. CSA Prioritization Framework
Filters for selecting CSA investment portfolios
*Analysis of
context variables
Long list of
CSA practices
CSAPF Pilots: Colombia, Guatemala, Mali, Vietnam
*Ex-ante assessment
based on CSA
indicators
*Stakeholder
workshop
Ranked short
list of priorities
*Economic analysis
– assess costs and
benefits
Ranked short
list based on
CBA
*Integrated analysis
of opportunities &
constraints
* Stakeholder
workshop
CSA investment
portfolios
7. Workshop 1
Guatemala
Filtering: Indicators of CSA Pillars
Workshop
Literature
review
Expert
interview
+
+
Lessons:
• Participatory indicator selection -
link science with desired change
• Improved communications and
visualization of data key for CSA
decision-making
Ranked long list of possible
CSA Practices
ScoreCSA Practices
8. Prioritized
Practices
Portfolios Designers
Producers Research MoAgr
Agroforestry
systems: live fence
Varieties tolerant to
pests & diseases
1: low
resource
farmers
Varieties tolerant to
drought and water
stress
1: low
resource
farmers
Conservation
agriculture
2: FS,
drought
Crop rotation
(maize-beans)
Reservoirs + Drip
irrigation
X: FS,
drought
Guatemala
Filtering: Integrated Analysis
CSA indicators, CBA, externalities, barriers and opportunities
Lesson:
Prioritization does not
imply one output
• Multi-variate analyses
allow users to create
differentiated
portfolios based on
intended
application and
beneficiaries
9. Lesson:
Process is as important as
the content
• Discussions of data create
space for collaborative
integrated planning
between users
• EU modifying calls based on
results – other potential
applicants linked from
beginning
Mali
CSA at the Regional Level
Policy/Research
forums (AEDD)
Regional
governments
NGOs (C-GOZA,
Sahel Eco)
Donors (EU,
Swedish
Embassy)
CONTEXT
POTENTIALUSERS
12. Partnerships for Scaling CSA
CSA-Plan
Uptake of CSA Plan components, including CSA PF,
in 15+ countries in Asia and Africa 2015-2018
ICRAF - T. Rosenstock, C. Lamanna
CIAT - E. Girvetz, C. Corner-Dolloff
My name is Caitlin Corner-Dolloff
I work for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
I’m here to present a Decision-support framework our team has developed with CCAFS for targeting investment towards climate-smart agriculture practices and programs
There has been a clear increased in global momentum around CSA
I have highlighted a few initiatives on this slide, such as the
Global Alliance for CSA
The NEPAD CSA Vision aiming to have 25 million farming households achieving CSA by 2025
And there are a number of different alliance developing in Africa
GCF has also highlighted CSA as one of 5 priority investment areas.
This map shows where our team alone has worked on CSA initiatives the past 2 years
GACSA – 500 million farmers globally
NEPAD 25 x 25
W Africa – 19 countries
ACSAA – 6 million
GCF – CSA is one of the 5 priority investment areas – up to this point only about 5% of climate funding has gone towards agriculture
Cut logos
Could link the name of the alliance with regions they are working in
But what is CSA exactly?
- CSA in an approach for supporting the alignment of climate change and agriculture development objectives
It aims to improve planning by explicitly looking at the tradeoffs between food security adaptation, and mitigation
All of my work is being conducted in the global south, and there we often look at mitigation as a co-benefit, where possible and appropriate.
CSA is multi-dimension and complex to operationalize
Many users want to have a list of things that are CSA or not
But, the reality is that CSA is a continuum within every system.
As our colleague Todd Rosenstock always says, “many practices can be CSA somewhere, but non are likely to be CSA everywhere”
“There is no, let’s just do CSA!”
Demonstrating a key challenge for scaling out CSA
So given these challenges, our team created a CSA Prioritization Framework
aimed at increasing evidence-based decision making around CSA
The framework is a set of filters for:
evaluating CSA options
And establishing CSA investment portfolios
It was originally designed for national decision
The key principles of the process are to ensure it is:
Flexible – to address differentiated needs of users
Stakeholder driven
Simple – to link with available resources and within planning cycles
Can work across levels
and can link with existing tools and methods preferred by users
Our team applied a set of filters on CSA practices linearly to go from a long list of CSA practices to investment portfolios.
You can also do these steps by themselves or in other orders
We first assess the list of CSA practices that match with a given biophysical and socio-economic context
This leaves you with a long list of CSA practices that apply in an area or production system
We then used CSA indicators to evaluate the practices and through a stakeholder workshop identifies best-bet options
This short list of options was then evaluated using economic analyses to see costs and benefits
In the final stage phase we conducted an integrated analysis looking at the indicators assessments, economic analysis, and barriers and opportunities to establish CSA investment portfolios with user groups.
This is very much an action research methodology, intended to link with existing planning processes
And have been piloted in Colombia, Guatemala, Mali, and now in Vietnam
I will now walk you through some lessons from Guatemala
where the Ministry of Agriculture is working to modify a food aid policy that incentivizes adoption of CSA practices
Here you can see that we combined literature review, expert interview, and workshops to filter practices based on indicators
Indicators linked to the CSA goals were selected
And the assessment demonstrated the tradeoffs between the three CSA goals for every practice, here is an example for CSA
Stakeholders then used these quantitative assessments to select a short list of 10 practices for further analysis.
The key lessons that came out of this were:
Participatory indicator selection is critical to link scientifically relevant metrics with desired changes stakeholders hope to see from applying CSA
Without improved communication and visualization of relevant data
we will not be able to make the CSA conversation accessible enough for decision-makers to
deviate from decision they would have already made and shift priorities.
----(notes)
(Practices/indicators: Although practices could have a good performance as a result of the evaluation through indicators, the real benefit of each practice is recognized when an application context is assigned by stakeholders.
to link science with priorities)
-------
In the final phase for work in Guatemala we work with stakeholders to look at all of the assessments and then to define CSA investment portfolios
As you can see, the portfolios selected by producers and researchers are quite different
And the Ministry of Agriculture interestingly created two portfolios:
The first for small-scale producers that have low resources
And the second more generally to address food security and drought
The lesson here is that: prioritization does not imply one output
By using multi-variate analyses, users can create differentiated portfolios based on intended application.
THIS IS CRITICAL as CSA takes livelihoods into account, so even in the same geographic areas what is climate-smart for some farmers may be slightly different than for others
---- (notes)
Portfolios objectives:
Government:
Portfolio 1: Increase productivity of croplands introducing high quality seeds and soil conservation practices.
Portfolio 2 (selected): Guarantee Food Security introducing adapted varieties – for smallholder farmers with limited resources
Research: The FOOD SECURITY and sustainability of production systems of small scale farmers of Maize and beans in the dry corridor
Producers: reduce the impact of the climate variability on agriculture through conservation of producer’s natural capital (soil, water, landscape) to guarantee FOOD SECURITY and livelihoods.
The ‘consensus’ was actually the list of the practices that appeared as a priority more than once. Then the groups work on an action plan for how these different practices could be applied. It was not look at as a portfolios, but was instead having the groups discuss how they could operationalize parts of their portfolios together.
----
In Mali, we were applying this approach through a national science-policy dialogue forum
There were a number of potential users from different sectors, including here researchers, government (env, and agr) NGOs, donors.
We saw that the process is as important as the content
While discussing data is clearly critical for increasing the effectiveness of CSA
The forums for discussing data actually created opportunities for collaborative
We saw that the EU in Mali will be modifying their calls based on the outputs of the process
and through the prioritization process are engaging with potential applicants from the beginning
-----(notes)
The southern zone of Mali selected for the prioritization of the CSA practices
AMEDD: Association Malienne d'Eveil au Développement Durable/ The Malian Association of Awakening to Sustainable Development
AEDD: Agence de l'environnement et du développement durable/ Agency for environment and sustainable development (mission: coordinate the implementation of the environment protection policy, and work to integrate the environmental dimension in all the national policy. this agency is also the focal point for the national platform for climate change)
C-GOZA: Groupe de Coordination des Zones Arides / Coordination Group for Drylands (network led by NGOs working in strengthen capacities and knowledge exchanges around food security in African drylands. CGOZA works in the experimental project in terms of action- research: technologies developped for example with ICRAF have been scalled out with NGOs )
Embassy of Sweden: coordinate finantial and technitians partners related to environment (15 partners). the partners meet once a month, and each 3 months with the malian government to deliver political messages. also an important donor in Mali.
Sahel Eco: NGO leader of a programme DGIS funded by Netherland. they are defining activities for the programme for the next 4 years.
--------
In Colombia, we are piloting the approach with a local community based organization
We are seeing that the framework while designed for national users can work at the local level as well.
Local ownership of the prioritization process has been critical.
Community members are taking the role of researchers
We are minimizing extractive data collection and ensuring the community has data they can use to modifying their own local planning and link with existing projects
Metrics were also adapted to the local context
This brings me to my first key message which is that
Ideally, CSA planning will take place across levels simultaneously
To do this, tools
Linking actors, data, and priorities across levels to ensure robust and integrated CSA Planning
Secondly, it is important to integrate qualitative and quantitative assessments
It’s not just about the numbers
It’s important to understand the desires of stakeholders, and ensure participatory approaches are at the heart of CSA planning
And finally! CSA is about transformation
People are currently casting what they are already doing as CSA
CSA planning often ends up as laundry lists of actions that are already ongoing and the vision of how to transform into systems that better address tradeoffs is missing
The only way to get CSA away from being propaganda is to get evidence behind the decisions.
CSAPlan = a tailored process that guides stakeholders through CSA program design
Areas being strengthened: gender, landscape level assessments, value chain approach, adoption suitability modelling
Countries: (already have 15 new countries)
Profiles 11 new countries 2015 (Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Nicaragua, USAID 6)
CSA-Plan 5 countries through 2016 (VN, 2USAID (Uganda, Senegal?), 1LAM, 2IFAD learning alliance? Nicaragua, VN, Uganda)
Program design with COMESA 5 countries 2015 (Namibia, Botswana, TZ, UG, Kenya)