National and international cooperation and development projects (CDP) are fundamental for peacebuilding. However, unforeseen global crises, like COVID-19, can endanger such projects, requiring rapid adaption. In Colombia, the coronavirus outbreak threatens to slow the implementation of peace-related projects, while simultaneously violence over control and ownership of land increases.

The two most important activities in maize breeding are the development of inbred lines with high values of general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA), and the identification of hybrids with high yield potentials. Genomic selection (GS) is a promising genomic tool to perform selection on the untested breeding material based on the genomic estimated breeding values estimated from the genomic prediction (GP).

Intervention Context: WFP’s activities in Burkina Faso and Niger focus on fragile agrarian communities in the Sahel, where cyclical floods and droughts combine with decreasing soil fertility and increasing desertification, among other challenges, to aggravate food and livelihood insecurity. Increased competition for land for food crops and pastures as well as water for domestic, productive, and livestock use, intensify conflicts over ownership and usage rights for land and the commons such as forests. in particular, this competition has heightened conflicts between farmers and herders.

Creation of Ethiopia’s digital agro-climate advisory platform, a collaborative partnership between government institutions and CGIAR centers, represents a breakthrough in providing climate-information and timely decision-support tools to smallholder farmers to strengthen adaptive capacity and resilience. Partnership between Ministry of Agriculture and EDACaP team with Ethiopia’s FANA Broadcasting Corporate led to dissemination of agro-climate messages to 13-15 million smallholder farmers across FANA’s 11 regional broadcasting centers in Ethiopia.

Livestock production is central to the livelihoods of a billion poor people. Transforming livestock production would have transformative effects on local economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Development efforts in the livestock sector have tended to be top-down without enough feedback loops to understand farmer realities and aspirations. This, despite the Farmer First movement that began in the 1990s. The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) was developed as a reaction to top down livestock feed development approaches.

The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources is one of the three objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); while under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and agriculture (ITPGRFA) Article 9.2b addresses the right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilization of PGRFA. Benefits may include monetary and non-monetary benefits, including but not limited to those listed in the Annex of
the Nagoya Protocol.

1.5 billion people live in fragility and conflict-affected settings (FCAS) and they face an increased risk of food insecurity and poverty trap. A systems approach in collaboration with innovators in FCAS is needed to produce practical and inclusive solutions that can improve the resilience of food, land, and water systems (FLWS).

The report aims to provide an overview of the feasibility and pre-implementation phase activities being undertaken by AICCRA under The Aggregator Growth Development & Investment Program in Ethiopia to co-design a comprehensive scalable climate-smart bundled finance solution targeting the Wheat Value Chain.

Training on climate-smart aquaculture (CSA) practices for smallholder fish farmers targeted small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SMEs) in Zambia, as well as fisheries and livestock extension officers offering services to the farmers. The SMEs included recipients of accelerator grants from the Accelerating the Impact of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project that were given for the aquaculture value chain and other SMEs offering aquaculture-related goods and services.

This study assesses the impact of a participatory development program called Seeds For Needs, carried out in Ethiopia to support smallholders in addressing climate change and its consequences through the introduction, selection, use, and management of suitable crop varieties. A doubly robust estimator was employed to properly estimate the impact of Seeds For Needs interventions. The results show that program activities have significantly enhanced wheat crop productivity and smallholders’ food security by increasing wheat varietal diversification.

Climate-related disasters, especially in vulnerable regions like Sri Lanka, necessitate proactive and anticipatory measures. In response, a detailed community risk assessment was conducted in Nuwara Eliya, Ambagamuwa Divisional Secretariat Division (DSD) to develop anticipatory action plans for floods and landslides. Focusing on vulnerable populations, including impoverished families, pregnant women, and elderly communities, the Anticipatory Action Protocols aim to empower communities and reduce potential hazards' impact.

The Rethinking Food Markets and Value Chains for Inclusion and Sustainability Initiative aims to provide evidence on what types of bundled innovations, incentive structures, and policies are most effective at creating more equitable sharing of income and employment opportunities in growing food markets, while reducing the food sector’s environmental footprint. The Initiative is organized into four working groups (Work Packages-WP).