The African Development Bank (AfDB), in partnership with the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and Wangari Mathai Institute have organized a forum on the future of resilient food systems to help improve food security and climate resilience in Africa.
Professor Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of GCA, while peaking at the opening ceremony of the forum, called for urgent financial support to put Africa on the path of food sovereignty.
“Africa needs urgent support to scale up the implementation of adaptation solutions that are already yielding good results for irrigation, developing drought-resistant seeds, crops and livestock diversification.
“Through the African Adaptation Acceleration Programme, AAAP, we are rolling out a $350 million project to build resilience for food and nutrition security in the Horn of Africa towards mobilizing new digital climate technology for market information, insurance products, financial services that can and must be tailored towards smallholder farmers’ needs.”
Prof. Verkooijen
Speaking on behalf of the African Development Bank’s East Africa Regional Director General, Nnenna Nwabufo was Dr. Pascal Sanginga, Regional Sector Manager for Agriculture and Agro-Industries and he noted that the forum was apt, coming hot on the heels of the recently concluded Dakar 2 Feed Africa-Food Sovereignty and Resilience Summit, organized by the AfDB.
“The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) is already contributing to closing Africa’s adaptation gap by supporting African countries to make a transformational shift in their development pathways by putting climate adaptation and resilience at the center of their policies, programs, and institutions. There is no doubt that AAAP will be a strong component of the Country Food and Agricultural Delivery Compacts to accelerate the transformation of Africa’s food systems and build a more resilient Africa.”
Dr. Sanginga
Reiterating the relevance of the forum, Professor Stephen Kiama Gitahi, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, pointed out that 70% of the Eastern African population live in rural areas and rely greatly on agriculture for their livelihoods.
Moreover, the Nairobi University Vice-Chancellor encouraged the trainers to simplify the modules in a manner that will boost the confidence of rural farmers for technology and accelerate adaptation.
“We acknowledge that gaps exist on climate adaptation in the rural communities and those can be smartly bridged with the use of digital smart agriculture and climate innovations to create great conservation impact in our region.”
Prof. Gitahi
This, Prof. Kiama Gitahi stated while citing the legacy of late Professor Wangari Maathai.
The three-day regional Forum – AAAP Digital Solutions, which was held at Nairobi, Kenya, provided training aimed at strengthening the capacity of stakeholders from across Eastern Africa to design and implement solutions that will improve food security and climate resilience in the continent.
The Forum also seeks to facilitate knowledge sharing among farmers on approaches to scale up the use of Digital Climate-informed Advisory Services (DCAS).
DCAS
DCAS are tools and platforms that integrate climate information into agricultural decision-making. These services range from digital mobile apps, radio, and online platforms to digitally enabled printed bulletins based on climate models and extension services that utilize climate information platforms.
DCAS offers crucial opportunities to build the resilience of small-scale producers in the face of worsening climate change impacts. From seasonal forecasts to pest advisories, effectively designed services provide producers with the resources to adapt to climate shocks and plan for new climate conditions.
More than 300 million small-scale agricultural producers across the globe have limited or no access to such services because service provision is still fragmented, unsustainable beyond project cycles, and not reaching the last mile.
The just ended forum brought together stakeholders from ministries of agriculture, related government agencies, public research institutions, farmer organizations, universities and non-profit organizations working on climate adaptation for food security in Eastern Africa. These included participants from Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Mauritius, Tanzania, Seychelles, Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya.
About Global Center on Adaptation
GCA is an international organization which works as a solutions broker to accelerate action and support for adaptation solutions, from the international to the local, in partnership with the public and private sector.
Founded in 2018, GCA operates from its headquarters in the largest floating office in the world, located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
GCA has a worldwide network of regional offices in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; Dhaka, Bangladesh and Beijing, China.
Wangari Maathai Institute, University of Nairobi
The Wangari Maathai Institute (WMI) for peace and environmental studies is a global center for teaching and research on environmental management, governance, peace and conflicts and the nexus between peace and democracy.
The center was founded in 2009 with the support of the Government of Kenya (GoK), the African Union(AU) and the African Development Bank(AfDB), to celebrate and immortalize the work of the late Nobel Laurete Prof. Wangari Maathai, who was a global champion on environmental conservation and governance.
The center trains future leaders and Champions for environment and is situated in the serene environment at the Upper Kabete suburb of Nairobi City.
