Regional NGOs on Advocacy

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.

Le Programme de productivité agricole de l'Afrique australe (APPSA) est une initiative conçue sur six ans (2013 à 2018) pour améliorer la production et la diffusion des technologies entre les pays participants en Afrique australe. Le programme est financé par le mécanisme de prêt de la Banque mondiale à hauteur de 30 millions de dollars US pour chaque pays participant. L'APPSA a été lancé avec la participation des trois pays suivants: Malawi, Mozambique et Zambie. D'autres pays de larégion de la SADC devraient s’y joindre au fur et à mesure de l'évolution du projet.

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.

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.

This Procurement Manual provides guidance to the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) Secretariat members of staff, CCARDESA sub-grantees and ultimately the CCARDESA’s Board of Directors in the conduct of their roles, responsibilities and duties regarding procurement under CCARDESA. It is also a reference document for all CCARDESA stakeholders who wish to know the procurement policy and procedures governing procurement of goods, works and services under CCARDESA. It assures development partners that CCARDESA observes internationally accepted best practice principles of transparency and competitiveness in allocating their resources.

There are few direct measurements of anthropogenic climate-forcing emissions in Africa, making it difficult to accurately assess current emissions and to anticipate changes in future emissions. Emissions databases suggest that sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), home to less than 15% of the world's population, is responsible for 11% of anthropogenic methane (CH4) and 18% of anthropogenic nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions globally, though this includes substantial emissions from biomass burning that would occur in the absence of contemporary anthropogenic activity, and which may be over-estimated. SSA is also an important source of precursors to the greenhouse gas tropospheric ozone, and of mineral dust, which has a range of impacts on climate. Eliminating food insecurity and poverty is likely to take priority over greenhouse gas mitigation in the region, so innovations in mitigation must focus on ways to reduce emissions as an ancillary benefit of improving livelihoods.

Climate change is one of the major challenges that are confronting developing countries. Rural women in Zimbabwe are one of the most hard hit populace groups. The study sought to investigate how rural women are affected by climate change in relation to their livelihoods. It also explores women’s perception of climate change and the effects of those perceptions on adapting to climate change. Emphasis is made on the effects of climate change on crop production, livestock production and water sources focusing on Tsholotsho District in Zimbabwe. The study used a qualitative approach to obtain data on the effects of climate change. One of the major findings of the study was that the impact of climate change undermines women’s livelihoods which are rain-fed thus leading to accelerated food insecurity problems and heightened impoverishment. The paper concludes that women in rural areas must be prioritized in development programming especially in agriculture to ameliorate impending and inevitable climate change induced food insecurity. 

Wetlands are unique for storing water from storms; recharging ground water and serving as the habitat for a variety of aquatic organisms, wildlife and plants, including rare, threatened, endangered and endemic species. However, climate variability has led to the shrinking and drying up of most wetlands in Zimbabwe. This study looked at the public perceptions of climatic experiences in their environment, level of knowledge about wetland management and attitudes towards implementing these strategies. Data collection and analysis was based on field surveys in two villages around Intunjambili wetland, including five focus groups, questionnaires (five point Likert-scaled) given to 27 households, structured interviews and observations. The results indicate that a significant proportion of the locals are aware of the dynamics of the local climate; the majority of the participants have heard of climate variability but very few know the causes. The majorities of the participants use indigenous knowledge systems to conserve their wetlands and are reluctant to implement scientific methods as they are perceived as expensive. The study points to the need to encourage residents to merge scientific methods and indigenous knowledge systems in wetland management and to increase outreach about the climate variability risk, for sustainable environmental management.