Section A – Concept

Introduction

This module introduces key climate change issues that need to be addressed in agricultural sectors to help achieve the SDGs, including the role of the agricultural sectors as a contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. It revisits the evolution of CSA and looks at its relationship with broader policy goals and frameworks, as well as complementary approaches to sustainable food and agriculture, such as sustainable production intensification and agroecology. It provides guidance on how to operationalize and implement CSA, and clarifies core concepts related to creating enabling environments, mobilizing synergies, managing trade-offs and overcoming barriers to adoption.

Climate change adaptation & mitigation

This module makes the case for adaptation and mitigation actions in the agricultural sectors, particularly in the context of countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. It first considers climate change adaptation and mitigation approaches and methodologies individually and then brings them together to identify potential synergies and trade-offs. It highlights the complexities that must be addressed during the process of designing a CSA intervention.

Managing landscapes for CSA systems

This module introduces the concept of integrated landscape management and describes how it can help CSA achieve national and international development goals. It provide case studies, describes common obstacles and potential solutions, and offers step-by-step instructions to indicate how CSA can be implemented on a large scale using a landscape approach.

Section B Agricultural production and natural resources use

Climate-smart crop production

This module presents the principles, practices and technologies for the sustainable and profitable production of annual and perennial crops to meet food, feed, energy and fibre needs, and promote economic growth in a world where populations are expanding, the climate is changing, dietary patterns are evolving and pressure on natural resources are increasing. It looks at specific crop systems and the projected impacts of climate change on crop production, such as increased concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, higher temperatures, alterations in precipitation regimes, and increased pests outbreaks. The module also describes the off-farm elements that enable farmers to adopt climate-smart crop production practices.

Climate-smart livestock production

This module assesses the role of livestock in CSA. It considers the impacts of climate change on livestock production and presents an overview of the emissions associated with the sector. It describes the principles of climate-smart livestock production, focusing on increased efficiency in the use of resources and building resilience. The module gives insights into the main strategies for achieving climate-smart livestock production and outlines specific practices suitable for the main production systems. It also looks at what is needed to establish an enabling environment for climate-smart livestock production.

Climate-smart forestry

This module focuses on sustainable forest management as the foundation for climate-smart forestry. The module looks at the risks climate change poses to forests and trees outside forests and how the ecosystem services provided by forests can improve the resilience of agricultural production systems. It also discusses the sector’s actual and potential role in climate change mitigation.

Climate-smart fisheries & aquaculture

This module explores how the objectives of CSA can be reached in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. It describes how an ecosystem approach to fisheries and aquaculture can establish a framework to holistically address climate change across marine and coastal systems. It provides a summary of strategic climate-smart approaches for the sector and notes the progress the sector is making in this regard. It also outlines priorities for future action alongside areas where further research is needed.

Integrated production Systems

This module describes the principles of integrated production systems and provides concrete examples of how these systems can support the objectives of CSA. The module details the contribution each integrated system can make to the sustainable intensification of production, and to climate change adaptation and mitigation. It also provides guidance on adaptive management and looks at barriers to the adoption of climate-smart integrated production systems and the enabling environment needed to overcome them.

Water management

This module provides an overview of the current status, trends and challenges of water management for agriculture. It considers the impacts of climate change on water management and the vulnerability of rural populations and farming systems. It presents a range of possible adaptation and mitigation options at different scales of intervention. The module also introduces approaches and tools to assess climate change risks and select climate-smart water management options.

Sustainable soil & land management

This module looks at soil and land management in the context of climate change. It provides technical details on the concepts of sustainable soil management, and considers how the large-scale implementation of climate-smart soil and land management practices could enhance climate change adaptation and mitigation. The module also highlights the types of institutions and policies that can support the wider adoption of sustainable soil and land management practices, and offers tools and assessment methodologies to assist decision makers in this regard.

Genetic resources for food & agriculture

This module describes the nature of genetic resources for food and agriculture and outlines why these are essential for CSA. It outlines the expected impacts of climate change on plant, animal, forest, aquatic, and micro-organism and invertebrate genetic resources. It describes the management of these resources, in particular their characterization, evaluation, inventory and monitoring. It also looks at how the sustainable use and development of genetic resources can contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation, and at the same time support the conservation of genetic resources for food and agriculture. It also considers enabling institutional and policy process.

Energy management

This module looks at the relationship between food and energy in a world where the climate is changing and competition for natural resources is increasing. It describes how energy is used in agrifood chains and how the sector can produce energy. The module links the objectives of the energy-smart food programme, which focuses on the water-energy-food nexus, with those of CSA. It outlines possible energy solutions for CSA and indicates potential synergies and trade-offs.

Developing sustainable food systems & value chains

This module takes a holistic view of the food system. It uses a sustainable food value chains approach to identify areas of intervention to adapt to climate change and, where possible, mitigate climate change in the food system. It identifies key considerations for selecting appropriate value chains, the roles of the various stakeholders, and possible interventions to develop climate-smart value chains and food systems.

Section C Enabling environment

Enhancing capacities for a country-owned transition towards CSA

This module introduces the core principles of a system-wide, country-owned capacity development approach for CSA. It provides operational guidance to support countries to inclusively assess their capacity needs and design, undertake and monitor contextualized capacity development interventions. The module also looks at capacity development methodologies, tools and practices. It also considers other catalytic factors for CSA, including multistakeholder processes and networks, agricultural innovation systems, local institutions at the landscape level, farmer field schools, indigenous knowledge and knowledge sharing, information and communication technologies, and communication for development.

Supporting rural producers with knowledge

This module outlines the evolution of agricultural extension and advisory services, and describes why they are an important vehicle for fostering the wider uptake of CSA. It also provides examples of how extension and advisory services are already supporting CSA. The module looks at the key challenges and opportunities in this area, and considers the capacity gaps that need to be addressed in order to allow extension services to reach their full potential in promoting CSA.

Enabling policy environment

This module looks at how key international agreements and policy frameworks can help guide effective national planning and implementation on CSA. It considers the need for integration and coordination among national policy processes related to agriculture, fisheries and forestry climate change. The module provides examples of policy measures that can create incentives for adopting CSA approaches and reduce the different types of barriers to their adoption.

Investing in CSA

This module looks at the challenge of meeting the investment needs of CSA and provides an overview of the available financing sources. It places a specific focus on opportunities related to climate finance. The module also describes the main the principles for incorporating CSA into the agricultural investment cycle and provides a summary of practical tools and approaches for mainstreaming CSA into investment processes.

Climate resilience: Synergies between disaster risk reduction & CSA

This module introduces the concept of country-driven disaster risk reduction and highlights the common ground it shares with sustainable development and climate change adaptation. It demonstrates how policies, institutional mechanisms and practices that have proven successful for disaster risk reduction can also contribute to meeting the interlinked objectives of CSA. The module highlights four core areas of disaster risk reduction that are essential elements for CSA: multihazard risk assessments, disaster risk governance, investments in disaster risk reduction, and emergency preparedness, response and recovery.

The role of gender

This module introduces basic concepts of gender mainstreaming, analysis and planning. It outlines essential considerations and tools to effectively integrate gender throughout different stages of CSA interventions, from design and implementation to monitoring, evaluation and reporting. It also provides examples, drawn from research and community-based projects, where gender has been successfully integrated into climate change work.

Social protection & decent rural employment

This module looks at the social dimensions of climate change. It highlights the interconnection between agriculture, climate change and poverty, and describes how social protection and decent rural employment can support the objectives of CSA. Social protection through its protective, preventive, promotive and transformative functions strengthens the capacities of countries and individual households to manage climate-related risks and build climate resilience. The module further examines the linkages between CSA and decent rural employment in relation to ‘green jobs’.

Climate impact assessments and appraisals of options

This module gives an overview of methodologies, frameworks, and principles that support the assessment of the impacts of climate change on agriculture, food security, and livelihoods. It also looks at appraisals of the effectiveness of CSA interventions in enhancing adaptation, mitigation and food security. It focuses mainly on the subnational and national levels. Some case studies, however, address activities at the producer or project level. The module provides practical guidance on how to conduct assessments and appraisals relating to policies and project justification and design.

Programme and project monitoring and evaluation

This module presents an overview of important climate change-related monitoring and evaluation activities in programme processes and project cycles, and describes their various purposes. The module provides guidance on how to address monitoring and evaluation issues in CSA context. The module also considers the importance of adaptive management and developmental evaluation in light of the challenge of complexity that climate change and CSA interventions present for planning, monitoring and evaluation. The module also reviews some of the challenges specific to monitoring and evaluation in the context of CSA and offers some guiding principles to help address them.

The theory of change for the CSA approach: A guide to evidence based implementation at the country level

This module develops a theory of change for CSA in policy making, and lays out a set of steps that need to be taken to implement CSA approaches nationally. The module considers how evidence is generated and prioritized and looks at suitable tools and methodologies for doing this. In the theory of change, system-wide capacity development and partnership-building plays an overarching role. For this reason, the module explores the four categories of capacity enhancement that are essential for the sustainable implementation of CSA.