Why participate?

Your involvement will allow our consortium to set the corresponding research and innovation priorities and make sure that investments are targeted towards those areas where we can add value and contribute to collective change. We would like to gather feedback from a wide range of stakeholders and practitioners – including government programs, NGOs, farmer cooperatives and the private sector – and hope you will be a part of this conversation. We also welcome your help reaching out to other partners and Latin America climate experts across the spectrum to further explore Research for Development (R4D) topics for action pathways towards transformative change.

Who is the consortium?

The World Food Programme (WFP), World Bank (WB), the International Potato Center (CIP), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) will host a virtual stakeholder engagement process on behalf of the CGIAR, in partnership with the Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the Global Commission on Adaptation, and World Resources Institute.

The expected result of the process is a R4D priorities roadmap for the enhancement of the resilience of Central America and the Tropical and Central Andes climate-vulnerable households. The reported priorities will then form part of the Global Commission on Adaptation Report and, ultimately, these priorities will inform the activities that the CGIAR will carry out in the following 10 years. The process will also stimulate the creation of alliances and networks to collaborate in the implementation of activities aligned to these priorities.

Some of the questions and issues we aim to examine:

• What are the challenges and what is needed to enable food system actors in Central America and the Tropical and Central Andes to plan, invest and implement options to consolidate the adaptive capacity and food security of climate-vulnerable households?

• Pathways by which different R4D priorities can contribute to achieve three outcomes for Central America and the Tropical and Central Andes in 2030:

1. 10 million small-scale agricultural producers increasing productivity through the implementation of options that reduce negative effects of climate variability and extreme events, while reducing the climate change footprint.

2. At least 6 countries with strengthened climatic risk management policies and instruments.

3. At least 10 value chains have developed sustainable business models and innovative finance mechanisms.

• What are some of the main challenges and obstacles for the implementation of R4D processes in Latin America?

What is the GCA? The Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) report was launched at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York in Sept 2019, and it emphasized that adaptation, done right, will lead to better growth and development. The GCA’s Agriculture and Food Security Action Track calls for a large-scale, international mobilization over the coming decade to ensure small-scale producers´ resilience to climate change.

Action Track Goal: By 2030, 300 million small-scale agricultural producers in low- and middle-income countries enhance their resilience to a changing climate, including climate shocks and extreme events, increase household incomes and food security, and reverse ecological decline — in line with multiple SDGs.

The Commission is mobilizing a wide range of partners including development organizations, smallholder farmers’ associations, government agencies, businesses, and other organizations from around the world to achieve this goal by pursuing four main activities in 2020.

One of these activities is to mobilize research and development for climate resilience, so that during the current Year of Action, the GCA will support the development of the CGIAR’s (a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources) 10-year strategic plan, mainstreaming climate change into all activities through stakeholder meetings to take place with key food system actors of the eight Two Degree Initiative (2DI) geographic and thematic hotspots (the 2DI is a research for development initiative planned to address the most pressing challenges for climate change adaptation and resilience of 200 million smallholder producers).

One of those geographic hotspots is Central America and the Tropical and Central Andes and through this stakeholders’ consultation we will start developing a demand-led research agenda for addressing climate resilience in the region.