Executive summary
The “Regional Asia-Pacific Workshop on Climate-Smart Agriculture: A call for action” was held on 18 to 20 June 2015, in Bangkok, Thailand, with the aim of sharing knowledge and experience on implementing Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) among stakeholders from the Asia-Pacific region. A total of 61 participants attended the Workshop, of whom 27 were representatives from 21 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The Workshop resulted in the following conclusions and recommendations.
Conclusions
I. Enabling environment (policy, institutions, legal framework, finance, governance, etc.) for sustainable CSA
• Scientific knowledge to address climate change and opportunity to apply CSA
• Analysis, simulation and climate projections and trends (e.g. are we ready for sea level rise in the coastal zone? Specific trends for specific commodity)
• Policymaking: which options to choose under variable and unpredictable climate change?
II. Priority actions (implementation level) for mainstreaming and scaling up CSA
a) Present situation – Lack of awareness of CSA
Future challenges associated with the situation – Political commitment in terms of integration of different ministries, and financing and allocation
b) Present situation – Need for mapping CSA practices, including available technology, knowledge, resources and policies
Future challenges associated with the situation – Capacity building: i) Who is going to do what? ii) Changes in mindsets and breaking the barriers of lack of collaboration
III. Enhancing regional collaboration and networking
Current arrangements are not satisfactory. Therefore, there is a need for platforms both at national and at the regional levels to:
• share knowledge
• facilitate collaboration and cooperation
• set joint goals
• raise awareness, both for farmers and for policymakers
• facilitate exchange of information related to resource mobilization opportunities, both for knowledge creation as well as technical assistance and implementation
• have political support
• be non-prescriptive
• find common goals x a) At the national level, a platform that:
• has one focal point, from Ministry of Agriculture • has membership from a wide range of stakeholders: governmental, academic, civil society, private sector,etc.
b) At regional level:
• has rotating chair(s)
• has a facilitating body hosted by a country
• is composed of the focal points (country members) of the national platforms
• core functions to be supported by the country members
• maintains close links with existing networks, e.g. ASEAN, SAARC, SPC and NEARC groups
• Regional CSA Secretariat be financially supported by the contribution from hosting country, participating member countries, and/or partners
• can draw upon support from FAO/RAP for initial setting up of the Regional Secretariat including drafting the TOR and other support for networking
Recommendations: The following recommendations were made:
i. Through a collaborative mechanism, improve understanding of climate change in agriculture by mapping climate change effects and scenarios and incorporate them in seasonal climate outlooks.
ii. Through active community participation, increase awareness on the impacts of climate change at community level that is location specific.
iii. Enhance institutional capacity on climate-smart practices for end users, including development of common CSA tools.
iv. Develop a common SWOT analysis for countries to develop their own mechanisms that are based on their experiences, from consultation to implementation and monitoring and evaluation of CSA approaches.
v. Identify appropriate mechanisms for engaging the experiences of stakeholders, including the creation of appropriate regional platforms for listening to grassroots stakeholders.
vi. Include mainstreaming of CSA in all National Reports and communication documents.
vii. Set-up a national committee/steering committee under the auspices of the highest policy making body of the government, through development of concept notes and policy briefs and raising awareness within the government. viii. Allocate more funds for CSA activities from the national governments by inserting them into national action plan.
ix. Pilot CSA at national level through local administration, by including participants from farmers, governments, civil society and community-based organizations.
x. Forge partnerships with development partners, FAO amongst others, through projects on stocktaking, mapping, inventory of technology, knowledge (including traditional knowledge), expertise and practices.
xi. Countries to initiate the development of national CSA platforms.
xii. Viet Nam, with initial support from FAO/RAP, to host a regional CSA platform.