In a move set to transform how nations approach agricultural investments in the face of climate change, a pioneering collaboration was unveiled at the 2023 Africa Food Systems Forum (AGRF) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
This initiative aims to provide countries with cutting-edge tools and insights to ensure the smart allocation of resources in agriculture while bolstering resilience to climate-related challenges. To achieve this, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and AIM for Climate partnered with the United States of America and the United Arab Emirates.
The announcement was made during the pre-forum of AGRF. This collaborative effort aims to encourage governments to seek policy support for monitoring and optimising public expenditure in agriculture, ultimately aligning it with climate mitigation and adaptation objectives.
Climate change poses a formidable challenge to food and agriculture, with Africa experiencing some of the most pronounced vulnerabilities in the world.
This partnership seeks to provide countries with resources and evidence-based support to address these challenges effectively.
Marco V. Sánchez, deputy director of agrifood economics at FAO, emphasised the urgency of the collaboration, stating, “As climate change is affecting food and agriculture more than ever, particularly in Africa where food vulnerability to climate change is the highest in the world and where agriculture is the least ready to adapt, countries need resources and evidence-based support to tackle it.
“We are here today to show that we have innovative tools and a team of people to help governments spend what they have, and could have in the future, but in a climate smarter way to get the best outcomes for agriculture, the economy, and above all, people’s lives.”
With many countries grappling with economic challenges exacerbated by socio-economic shocks and the visible impact of climate change on food security, this initiative offers a comprehensive climate-friendly package of analyses and tools that can expedite inclusive agricultural transformation.
Among the key offerings are policy insights into which agricultural expenditures may require adjustments over time as climate change continues to exert its influence. This data will be invaluable in shaping national adaptation plans, strategies to meet climate commitments, and the development of climate-specific projects.
The analytical work will be spearheaded by FAO’s Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme, which will leverage a newly developed policy optimisation modelling tool.
This calculates optimal public budget allocations designed to drive inclusive agricultural transformation objectives, such as boosting agrifood sector output, creating off-farm employment opportunities in rural areas, reducing rural poverty, and increasing access to nutritious diets.
As part of this collaboration, the MAFAP programme will expand its public expenditure in agriculture database, which currently covers more than 15 African countries, by integrating climate mitigation and adaptation markers into its dataset. Furthermore, the policy optimisation modelling tool will be enhanced to account for the adverse effects of climate change on the efficacy of public budgets. This will enable the calculation of optimal public budget allocations tailored to specific climate-change scenarios in participating countries.
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