African countries are adopting a range of context-specific climate-smart technologies and practices to meet their food security and climate change goals. Improved livestock production is the most prevalent practice, followed by improved water management, conservation agriculture, agroforestry, and, notably, digital agriculture. The application of digital technology in the design and delivery of integrated weather and market advisories using big data analytics is increasingly helping countries identify conditions that may endanger food security and inform farmers’ decisions to adequately respond to and, when possible, capitalize on, the changing conditions.

Higher finance flows to adaptation compared to mitigation reflect the priorities of African countries to address the sector’s climate vulnerability and increase resilience. Compared to estimates as at September 2018, the proportion of finance flowing into climate mitigation increased lightly from 34 percent to 36 percent in January 2020, suggesting that countries are increasingly paying attention to the vast potential for African agriculture to reduce agricultural emissions through climate-smart practices.

Chapter 2 of this brief reveals the central role of CSA profiles and investment plans for scaling up CSA, with countries with CSA profiles or investment plans accounting for more than 80 percent of investment.

Chapter 3 provides insights from CSA investment plans (CSAIPs) for Lesotho, Côte d’Ivoire, and Zimbabwe, three front-runners in the preparation of investment plans.

Chapter 4 illustrates how countries are using CSA to build resilience and mitigate carbon emissions,

Chapter 5 concludes with recommendations to enhance efforts to scale up CSA for transformational change in Africa.