Annual Report 2021: Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA)

AICCRA. 2022. Annual Report 2021: Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA).

Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) is a project that’s administered by the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).

By the end of 2021, AICCRA was already playing a vital catalytic role in strengthening the agricultural research architecture in Africa. Activities financed under AICCRA are being implemented by a broad coalition of CGIAR partners who work at regional, sub-regional and national levels.

The need to put in place necessary conditions for effectiveness, staff hires, the creation of sub-contracts for partners and required social and environmental safeguards processes have together meant progress on AICCRA project development outcomes has been modest to date.

Nonetheless, project teams in all countries, regional levels and thematic groups have demonstrated important progress in reaching targets for Intermediate Performance Indicators. Moreover, indicator targets related to the following were surpassed:

• Climate-relevant knowledge products, decision-making tools and advisory services created or enhanced.

• Peer-reviewed research papers.

• Partnerships launched or strengthened between

AICCRA-funded scientists from CGIAR or national agricultural research systems (NARS), universities, public sector stakeholders, farmer organizations, NGOs and the private sector.

• People engaged in AICCRA-funded capacity development activities.

• Discussions in Africa-wide and regional events informed by AICCRA funded project outputs.

• Policy and investment decisions influenced by engagement and information dissemination by AICCRA funded partnerships.

These results anticipate rapid progress in 2022, given that much of the groundwork needed to achieve the project development outcomes and the indicator targets in relation to dissemination/accessibility and reach of climate information services and climate-smart agriculture technologies has been laid in 2021.

AICCRA'S gender and social inclusion (GSI) work has achieved important milestones in relation to the elaboration of appropriate frameworks. Nevertheless, the Intermediate Performance Indicator related to climate information services and climate-smart agriculture technologies reaching women has not advanced as expected. Even though, during 2021, AICCRA reported only one of these technologies, significant progress has been made in all the targets related to GSI and will be carried forward in 2022 and 2023. In Kenya, the GSI specialist is working with the team to ensure that technologies and promotion strategies are attentive of GSI considerations in outreach work during Q1 of 2022.

Out of 59 applications for the AICCRA Zambia Accelerator grants, a Best-in-Class GSI bundle partnership has been selected and will be onboarded in February 2022. A database of genderresponsive CSA practices, crops and technologies are being compiled, to be published in 2022 and updated in 2023. In the case of Ethiopia, delays related to safeguards have been resolved for progress in 2022.

AICCRA also welcomed very positive results from a Partnership Survey in its first year of implementation. This Survey was disseminated to partners to gather their feedback on three of the Intermediate Performance Indicators. These indicators captured progress on

(i) The satisfaction with the usefulness, accessibility and relevance - particularly in our responsiveness to gender and youth; (ii) Effectiveness of partnerships; and (iii) The use or adaptation of AICCRA-funded climate-relevant knowledge products, decision-making tools and services.

The results for satisfaction with knowledge products, decision-making tools and services received under AICCRA - as well as the satisfaction with partnerships - surpassed the target of 75%. AICCRA products and services listed in the survey were used by 61% of respondents- well above the target of 2.5% for the first year. This is due to the extensive capacity development and training events which gave the partners more ‘hands on’ experience of using them.