Events
The 4th Annual Ministerial Conference of the AAA Initiative
22 April 2024 - Meknes
The 4th Annual Ministerial Conference of the AAA Initiative took place on April 22, 2024, on the sidelines of the Meknes International Agricultural Show in Morocco. At this conference, African Ministers of Agriculture met to set out the AAA Initiative's strategic orientations for promoting and sustaining efforts to strengthen the adaptation of African agriculture to climate change, which is an essential priority for the continent's economic and social development. The Conference was a renewed opportunity for ministers to share experiences, perspectives and views on the challenges and opportunities facing African agriculture, and to chart a course of action for the future. It brought together 23 African countries, a diverse range of stakeholders including financial and technical institutions, donors and private sector representatives, researchers, development institutes, universities and scientists. It was also the occasion for the restitution of the key messages of the round table "Increasing climate financing for agricultural adaptation in Africa", organized upstream on April 18, 2024, which brought together eminent experts to explore innovative financial mechanisms and formulate concrete recommendations. The "Meknes Declaration on Financing Adaptation in African Agriculture", a key outcome of the conference, expressed a shared vision and concrete commitments to guide the mobilization of climate financing, particularly with a view to COP29.
AAA Initiative is at CoP28
03 - 04 December 2023
Join us December 4, 2023 at 5:00 pm at the Moroccan Pavilion during COP28 UAE in Dubaï for a compelling session on Climate Finance and Food Sovereignty in MENA. Organized by Positive Agenda Advisory in collaboration with the AAA Initiative and the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association – EMEA, the event comprises two panels addressing Climate Issues in the Region: Needs, Challenges, and Opportunities and How to Design Innovative Financial Strategies to Strengthen Food Sovereignty in the Mediterranean Region? The urgency to transform African agriculture into sustainable, inclusive, and resilient models is paramount. The event aims to foster impactful discussions, bringing together experts and stakeholders to explore innovative financial strategies for fortifying food sovereignty in the Mediterranean basin, emphasizing sustainable and resilient. Click here to download the concept note of the event.
On Sunday, December 3, 1:45 pm GST at the Moroccan Pavilion, Blue Zone of CoP28, Dubai: We welcome you to the launch of the Adaptation Insights Tool, a collaborative effort of the AAA Initiative Foundation with the Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT, with support of the Global Center on Adaptation funded by the german cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GiZ).
This tool integrates robust metrics on vulnerabilities, risks, and adaptation progress with detailed stakeholder mapping. The tool includes two sections: (i) Projects and Partners, a continental catalog of current and past projects, partners, and beneficiaries; (ii) Adaptation Tracking Wiki, a repository of methods and approaches. Together, these components foster an informed and collaborative approach to advancing agricultural adaptation across Africa. Click here to download the concept note of the event.
We are thrilled to extend an invitation to the IPAM side event at CoP28 in Dubai, set to take place at the Moroccan Pavilion in the Blue Zone on Monday, December 4th, at 3:30 pm GST. The International Platform on Adaptation Metrics (IPAM) is dedicated to the appropriate and effective use of metrics to bolster climate adaptation efforts. Currently comprising 15 Member Organizations and 103 individual experts from 32 countries across 4 continents, IPAM operates under the secretariat of the AAA Initiative Foundation. During this event, we will delve into discussions centered around four policy papers crafted by IPAM members in commemoration of CoP28. These papers delineate our proposals geared towards contributing to GGA and GST. Click here to download the concept note of the event.
Plan to Monitor and Evaluate Investments in Conservation Agriculture in Morocco
07 November 2023
On November 7, 2023, in Rabat, a stakeholder consultation workshop on a monitoring and evaluation plan for climate change adaptation projects was organized by the AAA Initiative Foundation, with the support of INRA and ICARDA, and brought together representatives from 17 agricultural management, development, research and finance institutions in Morocco.
This workshop is part of an ambitious project launched by the Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) to mainstream climate-smart agriculture into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) in Africa. As part of the project, the AAA Initiative Foundation for Adaptation in African Agriculture (AAA), with funding from GiZ through the Global Adaptation Center (GCA), aims to create two essential knowledge products to facilitate upstream planning of adaptation projects in agriculture, within the NAP implementation process: 1) An Adaptation Metrics Mapping & Evaluation tool and 2) A continental map of adaptation actors in agriculture for Africa.
The workshop focused on the first tool, developed in partnership with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Alliance Bioversity & CIAT), which covers all of Africa but looked at a specific case study related to conservation agriculture in Morocco. International experts from CIAT presented the tool and facilitated workshop sessions focused in particular on formulating impact pathways and defining monitoring indicators. During this workshop, two other direct seeding monitoring platforms in Morocco, developed by Al Mouthmir/UM6P and ICARDA in collaboration with Deep Faces company respectively, were also presented.
The conclusions of this workshop will be used to finalize the digital adaptation monitoring tool for agricultural projects in Africa, which will be officially unveiled at a side event organized by the AAA initiative on December 3, 2023, at COP28 in Dubai. An important step towards sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture in Africa.
Supporting the 1 million hectare conservation agriculture programme
12 octobre 2023
The AAA Initiative recently attended a workshop on Morocco's ambitious 1 million hectare conservation agriculture program by 2030, a pillar of the Generation Green strategy. Entitled "Challenges and Opportunities for Resilient Agriculture in Morocco," the October 12th event was held at the National Institute of Agronomic Research in partnership with the World Bank.
In his remarks, Mr. Riad Balaghi underscored the AAA Initiative's longstanding support for climate-smart agriculture in Morocco. Recognizing the scale of this program, the AAA Initiative is joining forces with the Global Center on Adaptation, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas to construct a robust M&E framework. This will be critical for assessing progress and effectiveness.
The AAA Initiative remains committed to advancing sustainable agriculture in Morocco through collaborative partnerships and knowledge sharing. We look forward to supporting the realization of this ambitious effort.
3rd Annual AAA Ministerial Conference
3-4 May 2023 - Meknes
The 3rd Annual AAA Ministerial Conference was held on May 3 and 4, 2023 in Meknes, Kingdom of Morocco, in the margins with of the Meknes Agricultural Show. In addition to African countries, the Conference brought together a diverse range of stakeholders, including financial and technical institutions, donors and private sector representatives, researchers, development institutes, universities and scientists. One of the highlights of the conference was the "Scientific Committee Meeting", which enabled experts and researchers to present their work and discuss perspectives and recommendations, as well as opportunities for African agriculture to adapt to climate change. The "Donors' Round Table" was another crucial moment of the conference, where major donors and investors discussed ways of mobilizing the financial resources needed to support adaptation efforts in African agriculture. On the second day of the conference, African agriculture ministers met to discuss the strategic orientations and actions of the AAA Initiative. The meeting was a renewed opportunity for ministers to share experiences, perspectives and views on the challenges and opportunities facing African agriculture, and to chart a course of action for the future.
Pan-African Regional Programme
Kick-off meeting of the Pan-African Regional Programme
AAI’s South-South peer capacity Exchange Programme. Rabat, October 3-6, 2022
The Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI) and the Adaptation of African Agriculture to climate change initiative (AAA) organized a kick-off event in Rabat (October 3-4, 2022) with representatives from the National Designated Authorities (NDA) of 23 African partner countries, to present the overall principles, issues, goals, phases, activities, and timeline of the Pan-African Regional Programme.
This Pan-African Regional Programme is building the necessary long-term capacity needed to identify, design, and develop transformational climate interventions in agriculture and energy for agriculture sectors. A grant has been raised to this end from the Green Climate Fund benefiting 23 African countries. In addition to the NDAs from the 23 countries who are partners of the Pan-African Regional Programme, NDA representatives of eight additional African countries who already developed their Climate Smart Agriculture Investment Plans (CSAIP) were invited to share and reflect on their experience during the kick-off meeting.
As an organizing partner, the CGIAR supported AAI and AAA, through its Accelerating Impacts for Climate Research in Africa (AICCRA) project.
During the event, the CGIAR presented a portfolio of research products, tools and methods that can inform implementation of the Pan-African Regional Programme and showcase their practical application and impact, through case studies.
Following the two-days kickoff event, and with the financial support of the European Union (EU) and financial and technical support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Africa Adaption Initiative (AAI) through the project, “Enhancing Knowledge and Evidence to Scale-up Climate Change Adaptation in Africa”, organized a two-days training from October 5 to 6, 2022 on AAI’s knowledge and capacity for climate change adaptation project development hub and launch an initial concept for the first AAI South-South peer capacity Exchange Programme (SSEP).
This first-ever SSEP was also held in Rabat on October 5 to 6, 2022, and was facilitated by Sustainable Solutions for Africa (SSA), which is a consulting firm based in Togo.
SECOND ANNUAL MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE AAA
Food Security Facing Climate Change
November 4-5, 2019
Context
The Second Annual Conference of the AAA Ministers was organized under the banner « Food Security Facing Climate Change ». It aimed at advocating for sustained efforts to ensure food security in Africa against a backdrop of accelerating climate change by mobilizing international financial resources. The conference brought together key financial and technical institutions, donors, the private sector, research and development institutions, universities and scientists to fostering the upscaling of the adaptation of African agriculture to climate change. It did also gather the Scientific Committee of the AAA Initiative, composed of leading international experts and scientists, ensuring the scientific and technical relevance of the way ahead.
The Second Annual Conference of the AAA Ministers was organized for two days (4-5 November 2019), hosted by the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (Morocco). The first day was devoted to the Scientific Day, led by the Scientific Committee of the AAA Initiative, for examining key issues for the African agriculture, as well as the way forward to fostering financial resources and the role of the private sector, to ensure Food security in Africa under the pressure of climate change. In parallel of the Scientific Day, the Donors Roundtable discussed ways to mobilize the necessary funds for the identification and implementation of agricultural projects in Africa. During the second day, the African Ministers of Agriculture will met for advising on vision and strategic routes for the AAA Initiative.
Workshop
First dialogue on mobilizing resources at scale to support Adaptation and Resilience of Agriculture in Africa.
22 - 23 July 2019, Rabat
General Context
The year 2020 marked the beginning of the first cycle of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). The NDC implementation period runs for five (5) or ten (10) years depending on the time horizon defined by countries in their submission. The actions and measures identified in the NDC are expected to start delivering outcomes to ensure countries achieve the targets and ambitions set in their NDC by the end of the implementation period. Showing leadership and ambition for climate actions, all 54 African countries have signed the Paris Agreement and submitted ambitious conditional and unconditional Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). More than fifty (50) countries have ratified ambitious NDCs, with investment requirements above US$ 2.5 trillion. It is crucial that African countries are fully engaged with the implementation of their NDCs and secured significant and adequate support withmeans of implementation. The total cost of adaptation estimated for all African countries is US$7.4 billion a year consistent with the range of US$7-15 billion a year estimated by the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report. Since the submissions of their NDC in 2014, African countries have undertaken several steps to advance the implementation of their communicated NDC by:
undertaking consultations on the implementation of NDC;
refining or updating the analysis underpinning the NDC;
developing NDC implementation or investment plans that prioritize specific sectorial or cross sectorial climate actions;
aligning their NDC actions with their country policy priorities;
designing institutional arrangements and coordination mechanisms to support NDC implementation ;
improving the regulatory and institutional framework;
identifying and prioritizing policies and measures;
assessing how to attract or reorient investments toward climate actions and, designing monitoring systems to measure progress toward NDC goals etc.
These steps are important. They are necessary pre-conditions and enablers of effective actions that need to be implemented for delivery of the targets associated to NDC. However there is a need to better understand how much has been actually delivered towards effective implementation of the NDC of African countries. Expectations on all countries to meet the level of ambition associated to the Paris Agreement are immense. While they are progressing towards the implementation of their first NDC, countries must also submit in 2020 the NDC of the second cycle, as well as their long-term low emission strategies in accordance with Paris Agreement Article 4:19 and Decision 1/CP.21 par. 35.
The current and projected adverse effects of climate change pose a real challenge for Africa, these adverse effects have proven to be detrimental for the continent's economy, its people and its resources. Several leaders have expressed the need for climate action to become a high priority in the development agenda of all African States, but the challenges of addressing such multidimensional and conflicting imperatives remains important.
The first African NDC Implementation Dialogue provided an opportunity to take stock of the effective implementation of NDCs in African countries. And to understand where countries are in their journey towards achieving the objectives and ambitions associated with their NDCs. The focus on the agricultural sector helped countries develop a strategy to advance the implementation of identified priorities in this sector.
Objectives
Take stock of the progress on the implementation of African countries NDC, with a focus on targets related to the agriculture sector.
Share experiences on initiatives and actions by AAA, AAI and members states to advance country agenda on low emissions, climate resilient and sustainable agriculture.
Explore avenues to maximize existing financing opportunities, including the Green Climate Fund to leverage resources at scale for a sustainable agriculture under climate change in Africa.
Identify the need of support for effective and strategic approaches to address the challenges of Adaptation of Agriculture in Africa.
Promote the exchange of experience and expertise and establish a collaborative framework between member states for the sharing of information and experiences on the implementation of the NDCs in support of Adaptation of the Agricultural sector
Expected outcomes
At the end of the dialogue, it is expected that participants have learnt from AAA, AAI, experts and other countries, developed strategic directions to support the progress of the implementation of their NDC, gained a better understanding of other African countries’ experiences and developed a common Africa strategy to support Africa in the implementation of the targets for the Agricultural sector.
Proceedings: The dialogue was organized as a 2-day event.
Audience :
2 representatives per country :
- 1 representative of the Designed National Authority with the GCF,
- 1 representative of the Ministry in charge of Agriculture,
- AAI and AAA experts and partners.
INFORMAL STOCKTAKING CONSULTATION
Climate Smart Agriculture Investment Plans for Africa
Rabat, Morocco, from 10 to 11 June 2019
Background
At the invitation of the AAA Initiative and in partnership with the World Bank and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), an informal technical consultation was held on 10 and 12 June 2019 in Rabat to identify initial lessons learned in the preparation of National Climate Smart Investment Plans (CSAIPs). Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) aims at ensuring food security through the simultaneous achievement of three objectives: productivity, climate change adaptation and mitigation. The CSAIPs, as defined by the AAA initiative, take FAO's original concept of climate-smart agriculture and apply it to the design of a portfolio of field and bankable projects in the agricultural sector, in line with national contributions and national strategies. Already in 2017, the AAA Initiative had organized with the World Bank and NDC-Partnership a first technical meeting on the theme of CSAIPs, to launch the preparation of three of them (Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Morocco). The CSAIPs are seen as a key means to promote, at the national level, sustainable investments in agriculture in Africa in the light of climate change predictions.
Objective :
The overall objective of this consultation meeting was to identify initial lessons learned from the different technical approaches used in the preparation of CSAIP at different levels of preparation and implementation in 7 African countries and Bangladesh. The intermediate objective was to assist, through CSAIP's, other African countries in translating their agricultural NDCs into CSAIPs - and to highlight and strengthen the "CSA content" of their agricultural investment priorities. This consultation was conceived as a capacity building exercise for countries and teams working on CSAIP's, with the support of technical experts and the participation of representatives of funding and external support agencies that can potentially contribute to the implementation of the CSAIPs.
Modalities: The dialogue was organized over 2 days.
This informal consultation was attended by more than fifty (50) participants from different countries (Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Morocco, Bangladesh, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, etc), international technical and financial institutions (WB, ISDB, AFD, FAO, NDC-P, US_FAS, ...) and national partners (OCP, UM6P, MAMDA, GCAM).
International scientific symposium
International scientific symposium
July 14, 2016 – Skhirat (Morocco)
On July 14th, 2016, almost 100 international scientists gathered in Skhirat. This was an opportunity for them to share their scientific reflections and put forward solutions around the three technical pillars of the Adaptation of African Agriculture: soil management, agricultural water control and climate risk management. Among the participants, there were representatives of the IPCC, the UNFCCC, the FAO, the INRA (Morocco), the International Center for Development and Climate Change (Canada), Africa Rice, the General Council for Agricultural Development (Morocco), and various African universities.
« Given the existing challenges, science is called upon, today more than ever before, to provide the appropriate answers to solve the problems facing African agriculture because of climate change »
Prof. Mohamed Badraoui, INRA Director, Morocco
Interventions :
C. CHRISTENSEN - ONE ACRE FUND
A. KADI - AAA Scientific Committee Director
T.HAVEMANN - World Bank Consultant
R. LAL - Nobel Prize Recipient
R. LAL (2ème) - Nobel Prize Recipient
E. MANSUR - FAO of The United Nations
Y. FAL - FAO Resident Representative Morocco
G. BIRD - International Water Management Institute
A. AKHANNOUCH - Minister of Agriculture and Maritime Fisheries of Morocco
FIRST ANNUAL MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE AAA
High Meeting on the AAA Initiative
September 29-30, 2016 - Marrakesh (Morocco)
On September 29th and 30th 2016, a high-level international conference was held in Marrakech, in the presence of government representatives (the African ministers of agriculture), international organizations NGOs and corporates, as well as donors, project proponents, scientists and experts. The objective of the conference was to present the technical solutions and best practices, to develop the AAA initiative with concrete proposals in terms of projects and funding, and especially to encourage all the stakeholders to make sure that the Adaptation of African Agriculture be placed at the heart of climate discussions.
COP22 Exhibition
COP22 Exhibition
7-18 November 2016 - Marrakech
Find out more about the AAA initiative during COP22 at the exhibition space “Green Zone”, innovation’s tent number 2, Stands 401/403, from November 7 to 18, in Marrakesh (Morocco).The main entrance to the site being on the Mehdi Ben Barka avenue.
COP22 enabled the concrete implementation of the commitments formulated in the Paris Agreement – which has marked a historic milestone – while it also brought into focus the specific issues faced by developing countries, with priority to Africa. COP22 was the “COP of Action” and the “COP of Africa.” The AAA initiative aimed to place the question of Adapting African Agriculture at the forefront of COP22’s priorities and discussions. The AAA platform offered COP22 participants an immersive experience both to facilitate the sharing of crucial issues related to Adapting African Agriculture to Climate Change, and to help discover a collection of innovative solutions in line with AAA.