Africa Climate Week 2023: Adapting Agrifood Systems and Ensuring Food Security in Africa amidst Climate Change

When: Thursday, 7 September; 13:30 pm-14:30 pm (Kenya time)

Where: Nairobi, Kenya

Event type: In-person

Watch the livestream here

Background and Objective

Sub-Saharan Africa faces a challenging situation due to climate change, conflicts, COVID-19, inflation, and debt, leading to a food crisis. The crucial agricultural sector, which sustains livelihoods, faces a USD 30 billion loss due to extreme weather. Taking urgent climate action, like allocating USD 15 billion for adaptation, is cost-effective compared to inaction, which could cost USD 201 billion by 2050. Rapid response is vital for ensuring sustainable food and bolstering resilience against climate challenges.

To address these issues, FAO and UNDP, through the SCALA programme, and the Ban Ki-Moon Center for Global Citizens organized a side event during Africa Climate Week 2023 in Nairobi on September 7th at 1:30 pm. This panel-style discussion session aimed to find policy, finance, and data solutions for adapting agrifood systems in Africa with the involvement of speakers from governments, research institutions, youth, and farmers.

Main outcomes of the session

1.  Highlights of the session:

• Sub-Saharan Africa faces a multifaceted crisis, impacting agrifood systems and food security severely due to climate change, wars, political instability and pandemics, resulting in a substantial USD 30 billion crop loss, as FAO report highlights.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change underscores the necessity for swift agrifood system adaptation. Accelerated action is crucial, focusing on system-level approaches, sustainable production, equitable food access, and resilience-building efforts through multistakeholder efforts.
• SCALA Government representative from Senegal shared SCALA system-level and multistakeholder approach in Senegal.

2.  Issues and challenges outlined in the session:

• Bridging the gap between scientific knowledge, practical implementation, and policy-making processes poses a significant challenge in adapting agrifood systems to climate change in Africa.
• The event emphasized the obstacles related to accessing finance for climate adaptation. Unblocking financial architectures is essential to enhance financial accessibility for sustainable initiatives in the agrifood sector.

3.  Key recommendations:

• Climate efforts must recognize and leverage the key role of youth in driving climate adaptation efforts. Encourage youth involvement, innovation, and leadership in agrifood systems to enhance resilience and sustainable practices.
• It is crucial to develop comprehensive bankable concept notes to establish a strong business case for climate adaptation priorities. Simultaneously, focus on unblocking financial architectures to improve access to finance, supporting the implementation of sustainable initiatives in Africa's agrifood systems.

SCALA engagement during other events at ACW

The SCALA programme also participated in various events at the Africa Climate Week:

• The government representative of SCALA Uganda contributed to the side event on Supporting food security through long term low emission strategies (LT-LEDS) organized by the African Climate Action Partnership (AfCAP) by sharing the example of Uganda in developing an Agriculture long-term strategy (LTS) also with the support of SCALA (06 September).
• The government representative of SCALA Ethiopia contributed to the side event on Leveraging NAPs to accelerate adaptation in water resources co-organized by UNDP and UNEP and shared examples from SCALA watershed management approach in Ethiopia (08 September).
• The SCALA global team took part in a round-table workshop by the UNFCCC Adaptation Committee on Boosting region-wide coherence on adaptation (05-06 September).

Agenda