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THEME FIVE

Policy, Institution, and Innovation for Climate Smart Agriculture and Biodiversity Conservation

Climate risk and vulnerability

  • Exposure of population to the impact of climate change; sensitivity of food systems to climate impact; coping capacity of population to address the impact
  • Prioritizing allocation of resources and focusing policies on vulnerable groups at different levels
  • Institutional arrangements in reducing vulnerability and trends in local adaptation to climate change; characterizing farmers on the basis of vulnerability; identifications of options for enhancing farmers capacity to adopt CSA technologies, access relevant knowledge and transforming local capacity towards partnerships for joint action; examining the role of self-organized collective action among farmers in building mitigation adaptive capacity; institutions, environmental scarcity and resource-based conflict; cross-regional comparison of farmers adaptation to climate change and implication for regional cooperation
  • Vulnerability differentials along gender.
  • Farmer level decision-making

  • Assessing information needs of different actors (extension agents, farmers, experts, policy makers) to make decisions with respect to climate change; ability to incorporate relevant and updated climate knowledge and information into decision-making processes; the role of social factors (networks, gender, social norms, values, climate-attitudes), and uncertainty in decision to adopt CSA technologies and practices; identification of effective outreach strategies to favorably influence beliefs, climate-risk perceptions and willingness of farmers to respond/adapt to climate change
  • Incentives and constrains farmers face while making adoption decision
  • Adaptation action as a semi-public good and assessing farmers’ willingness to undertake adaptation practices; assessing the level of climate-risk perceptions and capacity to respond; assessing the effectiveness of investments in adaptive capacity development at farm, landscape and agro-ecosystem levels; market-based incentives and awareness of the long-term ecological benefits as drivers for adaptation
  • Social learning and innovation as a mechanism to enhance adaptation and mitigation capacity at farm level
  • Assessing the existing innovation models applicability to climate-related behaviors, given the strong influence of national, regional and international governance regimes on farmers adaptation and mitigation actions
  • Intra-household dynamics in farm level decisions related to CSA technology adoption
  • Policy related factors affecting adoption of climate smart agricultural technologies (varieties, irrigation systems) in the context of declining yield and increasing agricultural water stresses; the role of social networks
  • Entrepreneurship and commercialization of CSA technologies
  • Assessing the differentiated effects of seasonality on communities and households across years with respect to consumption expenditure and drawing patterns in food consumption and dietary diversity
  • Land titling, certification and land tenure security and investment in CSA technologies.
  • Managing climate risk and uncertainties

  • Assessing risk and uncertainties relate to climate change and extreme weather events (flood, droughts, pests and diseases) and effects on food price fluctuations and farmers’ technological choice
  • Evaluation of climate-risk insurance options in terms of accessibility, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability in eastern and southern Africa and designing strategies for scaling up; the evolution of climate-risk insurance markets, their determinants and outcomes with specific reference to the private sector participation in the provision of climate –risk insurance
  • Examining legal and policy framework to encourage stakeholders’ collaboration in climate-risk knowledge sharing; differentiating insurance products on the basis of their effectiveness in addressing different types of risks; analyzing climate information systems performance at different scales and its implication for the development of local and regional infrastructure
  • The role of community-based/social insurance or informal social protection in responding to climate-induced shocks; comparative analysis of formal and informal insurance in supporting resilience and adaptive capacity
  • Assessment of safety-net measures in reducing vulnerability to climate-related risks
  • Modelling responses of farmers to climate-risk management interventions including safety-net
  • Exploring the role of ICT infrastructure in improving access to climate information.
  • Climate change, food security and migration

  • The relationship between migration and climate change and its effects on rural income and livelihoods
  • Understanding of how climate change affects rural labor force in land use and management, land tenure, cultural integrity (loss of cultural resources) and thus stability of food production
  • Impacts of climate-induced rural migration on adaptation and household resilience; cultural dimension of risking taking in migration decisions as related to planned resettlement
  • Gender dimension of climate-induced migration
  • Regional integration of agricultural trade to manage (respond to) food price volatility under changing climate; climate resilient value chain and food systems; strategies for improving market access and value chain
  • Changing food habit and consumption preferences in relation to natural resource scarcity (land and water) as imposed by climate change
  • Market-based incentives in using biofuels as a mechanism for emissions reduction (adaptation measure); its impact on food crops production, land use change and food security
  • Assessing localized nature of climate impacts to ensure relevance of policies and programs to enhance food security.
  • Valuation of ecosystem services and environmental protection

  • Non-market valuation of ecosystem services and its importance for policy decisions; environmental policies for biodiversity conservation
  • Resilience of socio-ecological systems to climate shocks
  • Understanding the complex relationships between ecosystem services and human wellbeing
  • Drivers of land use change and policy implications for biodiversity conservations
  • Identifying institutional mechanisms to integrate scientific evidence and indigenous knowledge of ecological systems and supportive policy processes
  • Institutional arrangements in the payments for ecosystem services and how the structure of property rights affect the development of incentives for enhancing local actions
  • Estimating the impact of improved ecosystem services on human wellbeing
  • Assessing public responses to multiple ecological stressors and trends in human adaptation strategies
  • The interaction of knowledge, technology and institutions in facilitating resilience and adaptation to climate change
  • Evaluating the success and failure of community-based approaches in restoring ecological and agro-ecosystems
  • Distributional conflict and co-management (community-state/private-public) of natural resources (water, forest, rangelands and fishery).
  • Governance (landscape, watershed and regional level) for sustainable natural resources management under changing climate

  • Challenges in private-public partnerships for mitigating climate changes and food insecurity; institutional arrangements to respond to these challenges
  • Identifying mechanisms for strengthening inter-sectoral linkages and foster cross-scale (between communities, regions) collaboration in resilience to climate –risk in agriculture
  • Security of water rights and its link with agricultural water management with specific reference to state-managed irrigation systems, community –based irrigation systems management and the role of local institutions (rules and practices) in safeguarding rights and their limitations and potentials to support adoption of water saving technologies and adaptive management
  • Assessing fairness in the REDD+ projects and their impacts in improving local livelihoods and sustaining local activities; comparisons of regions in their performance of REDD+ projects and identifying their potentials, limitations and desirable alternative interventions
  • Institutional mechanisms to address equity issues related to smallholder farmers investment in GHG emissions mitigations;
  • Collective action by resource poor farmers and herders in enhancing their distributive bargaining power towards benefits from their mitigations actions and prevent damages caused externally
  • Carbon trade and establishing climate finance within the framework of green development.