Food security and adapting to climate change in the Sahel:
A landscape approach
Anthony Nyong, Ph.D.Manager, Compliance and Safeguards Division
African Development Bank
The Sahel
Challenges• Climate change combined with other factors, is putting
more pressure on the societies in the Sahel.
• The 2011 drought in the Horn of Africa threatened about 12 million people with malnutrition, disease and loss of their livelihoods.
• Heavy dependence on the ecosystem for rainfed agriculture, fisheries, and livestock management to sustain livelihoods.
• Addressing the challenges in the Sahel should consider the interlink between food, energy, water and human security.
• Solutions call for a more integrated approach – sustainable ecosystem and landscape approaches.
• But limited capacities & capabilities to address these challenges holistically – Institutional and policy support & access to finance.
Key policy and strategy issues• Policies and strategies to support landscape approaches
to food security should, at the minimum, consider:
o greater coherence, coordination and integration between climate change, agricultural development and food security.
o Soil and water conservation strategies in the context of climate change and sustainable development.
o Supporting pastoralism with more climate smart-policies – holistic management of grassland ecosystems and controlled grazing.
o Integrating different energy production options - fuel wood production, biogas and solar energy into the farming system.
o Strengthening gender equality in measures to improve food security.
o Including local populations and indigenous knowledge systems.
• Policies should be consistent and anchored in national development plans
Strengthening institutional capacities
• Collaboration across sectors to expand opportunities for Sahel’s rural population.
• Linking national-level efforts across borders and countries.
• Strengthened research capacity to fill knowledge gap.
• Capacity to design viable and bankable projects
• Ability to use climate science information in assessing risks and vulnerability
• Existence of viable and credible national institutions to support financing and insurance needs.
Access to finance• Considerable investment is required in both upstream
and downstream aspects of sustainable agriculture
• Available financing, current and projected, are insufficient
• Mechanisms to disburse are weak and fragmented
• Need to innovatively combine financing from public and private sources, as well as those earmarked for climate change and food security to meet the investment requirements of the agricultural sector.
• Improve national allocations to agriculture while exploring other innovative financing sources
• Important to develop innovative mechanisms that will link small holders to finance as well as leverage private finances
Improving access to and delivery of finances
Table 1: Climate Finance in sub-Saharan Africa – The State of Play
Source: ODI (2013) : Climate Finance Regional Briefing Sub-Saharan Africa.
Opportunities• Several successful sustainable land management innovations that
protect fragile soils, improve productivity, and create income opportunities for the vast rural population.
o Farmers in the Sahel have good adoption rates for new seed varieties and breeds.
o Integrated practices through agroforestry, agro-pastoralism and intercropping are widespread and rainwater harvesting
• The establishment of CILSS provides an institutional framework to implement policies and strategies across country borders
• The Sahel enjoys strong international support
• Some countries have introduced policies to create safety nets and/or enhanced the abilities of rural farmers to receive credit facilities from Banks (Ethiopia, Nigeria)
• Creation of National Agricultural Insurance Companies (Nigeria)
• Some countries have experience in establishing national climate change Funds to attract investments towards climate-smart agriculture (Nigeria, Kenya).
African Development Bank’s Interventions
• The African Development Bank is granting $4 billion to the Sahel to make it a region of stability of economic growth.
• The Bank launched a $300m program to support pastoral production to build resilience in the in the Horn of Africa.
• The Bank is committing $US10 billion Climate Change Action (2011 – 2015) to support low-carbon and climate resilient development in Africa.
• The Bank published the Africa Ecological Footprint report that drew attention to manage Africa’s natural resources in an integrated manner.
AfDB’s Climate Change Action Plan
(Investing $US10 Billion between 2011 and 2015)
Parting thoughts• Sustainable landscape approaches to food security
seems the right way to go, but existing structure of global funds do not support this.
• The Green Climate Fund may miss the opportunity to address this.
• The prospects for regional operations across state boundaries remain bleak in current negotiations.
• Need to revive the carbon market so that programs like NAMA and REDD can support mitigation efforts in agriculture.
• Leverage private sector investment in agriculture and in adaptation finance.
• Filling important knowledge gaps – to avoid negative externalities.
Thank You
