AICCRA recently organized a virtual roundtable discussion to present the findings of an AICCRA report on policy coherence for climate-smart agriculture in Africa.

Participants from major organizations were invited to give feedback on the paper, and provide recommendations of actions that promote policy coherence.

What is policy coherence and why is it important?

Policy coherence is all about aligning action in different but connected areas of policy in different sectors—often involving different groups of stakeholders—towards a common goal.

Greater coherence between policies, frameworks and programmes that deal with climate change, agricultural development and food security is a prerequisite for the adoption and transformation of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) across Africa.

More coherent policy can trigger the desired transformation of resilient agricultural production and food systems needed to support Africa’s development goals.

The report aims to:

• Assess Africa-wide efforts that support CSA policy coherence;
• Evaluate the institutional and stakeholder environment that informs and influences CSA policy development in Africa;
• Identify policy gaps and entry points for enhanced policy coherence;
• Provide case studies and examples of best practices to strengthen policy coherence at various scales; and
• Outline recommendations on areas where policy makers, development partners and financial institutions can support efforts to promote policy coherence.

The experts, who were invited to give feedback on the paper, highlighted and reinforced some of the key recommendations of the paper. This included emphasis on the following areas:

Kwame Ababio, Senior Programme Officer, Africa CSA Programme, AUDA-NEPAD, highlighted the need to invest in policy champions. He explained that focus has been on continental policy champions, but that Africa needs to look at policy champions at national and local levels, where implementation takes place. Ababio highlighted that farmers implementing CSA projects are key local champions as  uptake is done through peer-to-peer exchange learning.

Ana Maria Loboguerrero, AICCRA’s Interim Director, said that Africa needs to urgently move from the formulation to the implementation of CSA policies. She highlighted the importance of local context in terms of implementing CSA technologies and practices. In addition, she emphasized the need to enhance capacity building for implementation to succeed at various scales, particularly the capacity of local stakeholders in policy implementation.

George Wamukoya, Team Leader and Leadership Programme Director, African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES), brought attention to capacity building in the science-policy interface. He explained that policy must be evidence-based but that Africa needs to do more to unpack the best available science so that it is able to inform decision making. For CSA, a key question is what those main practices are that countries are using to deliver positive or negative results.

He further highlighted:

"This study comes at a right time when we are trying to put in place frameworks on how to deliver climate responses at a national level through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Long-Term Strategies (LTSs).”

Caroline Mwongera, Global Lead, Policies & Institutions for Climate Action, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, emphasized the need to enhance broad-based inclusivity and integration. She highlighted the role of actors outside of public institutions, such as the private sector and civil society, not only at the national level but also at the sub-national, to be accountable in terms of reporting CSA implementation.

Romy Chevallier, lead author of the study and policy consultant for Theme 1 of AICCRA’s work stream, responded to some of the questions from the audience and encouraged participants to give her feedback on the paper and its recommendations. “There is a lot of food for thought,” she continued, adding that that she would incorporate suggestions from the roundtable discussion in her finalised policy coherence report.

A policy brief was produced based on the recommendations of the working paper.

Authors

Romy Chevallier, AICCRA Innovation Consultant

Lili Szilagyi, AICCRA Innovation Communications Specialist