CCARDESA Content

This  report  analyses  the  status  of  incorporation  of  climate  change  adaptation  and  climate-smart agriculture (CSA) measures in the SADC Member States’ agriculture and food security frameworks and policies. It  details the current situation in the SADC member states  with respect to  the existence of policies, strategies and programmes that were primarily designed to build resilience to climate change among famers.

CCARDESA developed its 5-yearMedium Term Operational Plan (MTOP) in 2013, which was approved by the General Assembly in May 2014. The Development of the MTOP involved a number of stakeholders who were consulted and made input towards the content of the plan. The consultation process involved the National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES), development partners, international agricultural research centres, farmer organizations and others. 

The MTOP outlined CCARDESA’s priorities and general approaches to programme implementation between 2014 and 2018. It also contained an elaborate list of activities under 5 thematic areas, expected outputs and a results framework. Within the results framework, indicators were identified, supported by specific annual cumulative targets during the 5 year period. This MTOP will end in December 2018. 

The Operational Plan of an organisation is always anchored on the corporate strategic plan and is designed to translate the plan into actionable components within a given time frame. Unfortunately, the CCARDESA MTOP for the period 2014-2018 did not stem from a documented corporate strategy. This was a major weakness of the first five years of operation, notwithstanding the fact that the MTOP still gave a valuable basis for annual activity planning and guidance to the organisation between 2014 and 2018. 

Since the current MTOP will expire in December 2018, CCARDESA is in need of a long term Strategic Plan which will provide a corporate definition of the visionary road that the institution should travel in the next 10 years. On the basis of the Strategic Plan, a concise and clear medium term operational plan shall be developed, to provide the implementation details of the Strategic Plan in the initial 5 years. 

In order for CCARDESA to adequately serve its clients and deliver on its mandate, the Strategic Plan would need to respond to the needs of the SADC region in relation to the development and deployment of agricultural innovations and management practices. Along with this, the supportive environment such as gender, youth empowerment, sustainable use of natural resources, climate change and adaptation of agricultural practices within agricultural value chains to the envisaged changes, enabling policy frameworks and social/environmental responsibility have to be favourable and clear within the Strategic Plan. Furthermore, the Strategic Plan will need to be ‘forward looking’ by recognising the current situation in the SADC region and clearly showing that CCARDESA, through the implementation of the strategy, will be an indispensable relevant factor in contributing to the objectives set forth in the key policies of SADC Member States as well as the continental and global commitments they have signed for. 

As a subsidiary organization of SADC, CCARDESA has to fulfil its role of contributing to the improvement of food security and livelihoods of the people, especially the small scale farmers and rural communities in general. Some of the key regional policy and strategic issues the CCARDESA Strategy will have to address are the regional needs expressed in the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy (SADC–RAP) and its investment plan, the revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), the SADC Food and Nutrition Strategy (2015-2025), the SADC Industrialization Strategy and Road Map (2015-2063), the Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (2015), and others. 

At continental and global level, the Strategy will have to address the needs contained in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), together with the Malabo Declaration and the Sustainable Development Goals. In this regard, SDGs 1, 2 and 12 are the most critical to which CCARDESA is required to contribute directly. 

CCARDESA therefore seeks the services of two consultants to develop its strategic and operational plans, both of which should be responsive to the needs of the region and set the organization on a trajectory that will bring impact to the food security and livelihoods of the communities in Southern Africa. 

Objectives

The overall objective of this assignment, therefore, is to develop a detailed 10-year CCARDESA Strategic Plan and a 5-year medium term operational plan, based on the needs of CCARDESA and its stakeholders. 

Background

The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) is a Subsidiary organisation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It was established in 2010 by Member States of SADC, and tasked with the mandate of coordinating agricultural research and development in the region. CCARDESA’s mandate is aligned to the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy and its investment plans, the CAADP/Malabo Declaration Commitment as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). CCARDESA works closely with regional and international partners to facilitate generation and use of essential agricultural technologies and management practices. It also supports the exchange ofinformation and technology among Member states. 

Assignment

The operations of CCARDESA are guided by its strategy and an operational plan. The current Medium Term Operational Plan (MTOP), which provides details of the technical focus of the organisation for a period of 5 years, will elapse on 31^stDecember 2018. The organisation therefore needs to develop a new Strategic Plan which will provide the priority boundaries of operation of CCARDESA for the next 10 years. The content and orientation of the CCARDESA strategy will be based on the available regional strategic priorities, current topical issues and envisaged trends of interest to the agricultural sector. The Strategy will be accompanied by an MTOP, which will articulate the operational details for the next 5 years. The MTOP is therefore the action guiding tool for achieving the objectives and targets of the Strategy. 

CCARDESA is therefore inviting applications from qualified and experienced individuals to carry out the task of developing its 10 year Strategy and a Medium Term Operational Plan for 5 years. This is one assignmet but requires the services of two experts. Therefore it is applicants are required to submit their bid as a pair of two experts with profiles indicated in the Terms of Reference.

Details of the assignment are contained in the attached TORs. 

Falling prices of cotton, normally referred to as ‘‘white gold’’ is not good news for small- scale farmers in Eastern province, as the crop has been a source of livelihoods to them for many years. A significant decrease in the number of small-scale farmers currently growing cotton in the province has resulted in an increase in poverty levels. This has exposed small-scale farmers whose livelihood is derived from farming to much more challenging survival mechanisms.

Fleming Chookole, 49, of Mwiinga village in Chinkankata district in Zambia has returned to farming after abandoning it for blacksmithing for several years. Today, he is a lead farmer and inspirational Conservation Farming Unit (CFU) farmer among villagers- thanks to the Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) which introduced the crop and soil improvement programme to Fleming and his community.

The Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) embarked on an effort to promote sustainable value-addition to commonly grown food legumes and increase incomes among smallholder farmers in Zambézia and Niassa Provinces (Guruè, Lichinga, Cuamba, Muembe and Chimbonila Districts). About 913 small-scale farmers (610 females) were trained in legume grain selection, packaging, sealing and labelling. Forty (40) Extension staff were also trained so that they could train other farmers not reached by the project. APPSA introduced new agro- processing technologies of legumes in the same five districts, where the farmers were trained in processing of the legumes into different legume products. Farmers applied the agro-processing skills they learnt to improve food security and generate income through sales of their products.

Agricultural productivity in the region is far below potential. Although productivity has increased in recent years within Southern Africa, most of the growth has come from bringing previously unculti- vated land into production, rather than from inten- sification made possible by technical change. Southern Africa offers attractive opportunities for regional research. Groups of countries within Southern Africa share similar agro-ecological zones and farming systems, suggesting that there is potential for finding shared solutions to common problems. Although technology spillover is already occurring within the sub-region, significant poten- tial remains for expanding spillovers.

The Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) is a six year (2013 –2018) initiative to improve technology generation and dissemination within and among participating countries in southern Africa. The Programme is funded by the World Bank loan facility to the tune of US$ 30 million for each participating country. APPSA has been launched with the participation of three countries—Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. Other countries in the SADC region are expected to join as the project evolves.

This progress report describes key achievements during the project implementation period from 1 January to 31 December 2017. The project was in its 4th year of implementation.

In 2016, the Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA) was in its third year of implementation in the three countries (Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia). CCARDESA provided the regional coordination role. The aim of APPSA is to strengthen and scale up regional cooperation in generation of technologies, capacity building, and knowledge sharing in food legumes, rice and maize. The project has three key components: (1) Technology Generation and Dissemination; (2) Strengthening Regional centres of Leadership; and (3) Coordination and Facilitation.