Resilient Food Systems at UNCCD COP15: Integrated approaches to sustainable land management
31 May 2022
Science, Policy & Institutions
The cross-cutting theme of Science, Policy, & Institutions is integrated into all RFS country projects and is a key focus within the Regional Hub. This theme focuses on fostering a common understanding of key evidence around ecological sustainability and resilience as well as integrating that evidence within relevant policy processes.
The multi-dimensional nature of agriculture and food security within sub-Saharan Africa is inherently complex, involving a wide range of actors, mandates, and priorities that often compete and conflict. Government ministries often work within specific mandates with little cross-sectoral communication, knowledge exchange, and collaboration. This has resulted in policies and institutions that fail to reflect the interconnected nature of climate, environment, agriculture, and food security.
Effective policymaking and public programme implementation is often further challenged by the information and data gaps that exist in African countries due to lack of capacity, lack of funding, or lack of quality control and data harmonisation. In the absence of accessible information and usable evidence, actors with both public and private spheres are often tasked with establishing strategies and action plans without a strong evidence base. This leads to, for example, agricultural policies and incentives programmes that are misaligned with future climate scenarios, resulting in potentially negative impacts, such as the promotion of crops that are ill-suited for future climate realities.
Science, Policy & Institutional interventions aim to bring together the right stakeholders in the appropriate forums to analyse and disseminate scientific and practical evidence in order to effectively align policy and institutional frameworks with realities on the ground. The ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between agricultural and environmental agendas through the promotion of integrated approaches that work to achieve food security, improved incomes, and the protection and rehabilitation of ecosystems in rural communities.
Interventions within this theme involve the establishment and promotion of mechanisms for multi-stakeholder coordination, planning and investment. These mechanisms and platforms provide an opportunity for cross-sectoral dialogue and collective decision-making. RFS country projects are also working to influence existing policy and institutional dialogue processes by improving access to information, facilitating knowledge exchange, and developing institutional capacities.
Within each country, the RFS programme is working to promote dialogue and collaboration between relevant government ministries and stakeholders from the development community, private sector, and civil society. The ultimate aim of this multi-stakeholder collaboration is the development of supportive policies and incentives for smallholder farmers to adopt productive, sustainable and resilient agricultural practices.
In Burkina Faso, the RFS country project team is facilitating national and regional dialogues to support the integration of Land Degradation Neutrality targets within national planning frameworks. The Nigeria team has established a Public-Private Partnership platform for policymakers, civil society actors, and representatives from all links within groundnut and rice value chains to establish sustainable structures and partnerships for value chain development. The Regional Hub has developed a digital Science-Policy Interface to provide up-to-date information to decision-makers and to document best practices for country project teams.
Explore the RFS Country Projects to see more examples of how RFS countries are implementing Science, Policy & Institutions activities.
Stories from the Field
Explore our stories from the field to learn more about how RFS country project teams are implementing activities related to the programmatic theme of Science, Policy & Institutions.
Relevant resources
We have a growing library of reports, briefs, case studies, media, tools and guidelines. Explore all resources related to Science, Policy & Institutions to get greater insight into our programme activities.
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Science, practice, and policy expert dialogue on food systems and resilience: Key priorities for aligning global ecosystem restoration, biodiversity, climate resilience and sustainable food policies with local level action
29 August 2022More infoBuilding and expanding upon the Science, Practice and Policy Expert Dialogue of the 2021 RFS Annual Workshop, This brief focuses on a range of practical strategies to translate international agendas into field and policy programmes.
Numerous high-level meetings and policy discussions occurred in 2021, and their associated action areas, goals and aspirations provide an important basis on which to coordinate action across global systems to ensure that ambition at the international level is sufficiently high to yield meaningful change, translating global commitments into national and local-level action.
COP15 Side Event Flyer
- Regional Hub
- Senegal
- Nigeria
- Burundi
- Knowledge & Learning
- Science, Policy & Institutions
- Brochures and Leaflets
12 May 2022More infoThe International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and its partners including World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), World Food Programme (WFP) and CIFOR-ICRAF host a side event at the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Case studies from three Resilient Food Systems (RFS) programme countries (Nigeria, Senegal and Burundi) and from IFAD projects in Cambodia demonstrate emerging lessons on integrated sustainable land and water management, and payments for ecosystem services in subsistence farming.
The Diversity Assessment Tool for Agrobiodiversity and Resilience (DATAR) Information Brochure
- All Countries
- Knowledge & Learning
- Science, Policy & Institutions
- Sustainable Land Management
- Monitoring & Evaluation
- Brochures and Leaflets
23 February 2022More infoDeveloped by the Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research (PAR), the Diversity Assessment Tool for Agrobiodiversity and Resilience (DATAR) is an open-source pilot software platform with a web interface, a web portal, and an Android app that allows for consideration and integration of diverse crop varieties, livestock breeds, and aquatic farmed-types into decision-making plans. This brochure has information on updates to the platform.
Country Projects
Burkina Faso
Burundi
eSwatini
Ethiopia
Ghana
Kenya
Malawi
Niger
Nigeria
Senegal
Tanzania
Uganda
Regional Hub
Project Themes
Agroforestry & Reforestation
Gender
Integrated Water Resource Management
Knowledge & Learning
Monitoring & Evaluation
Rural Extension & Capacity Development
Science, Policy & Institutions
Sustainable Land Management
Value Chains & Market Access
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