MP7overview

= **MP7: Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security: Overview** =



Achieving sustainable food security in a world of growing population and changing diets is a major challenge under climate change. Successful mitigation and adaptation will entail changes in individual behavior, technology, institutions and food production systems. These changes cannot be achieved without improving interactions among scientists, policy makers and civil society in the research process. This Mega Program (MP7) will build on the new strategic collaboration between the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP).

By 2020, MP7 will help increase the incomes and well‐being of millions of poor people dependent on rural livelihoods, contribute to a reduction in hunger, and contribute to climate change mitigation by enhancing carbon storage or reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 1000 Mt CO2‐eq2 below the “business‐as‐usual” scenario. The vision of success for MP7 includes being recognized, together with the partners, as the foremost global source of relevant research that leads to options and strategies for tackling food insecurity in the face of climate change. MP7 seeks to become a hub that facilitates collective action across multiple Centers and multiple CGIAR MPs. The outcomes planned include (among others): systematic technical and policy support for agricultural risk management strategies that buffer against climate shocks and enhance livelihood resilience in at least 20 countries; and key agencies dealing with mitigation in at least 20 countries promoting new institutional arrangements and incentive systems that favor resource‐poor farmers, particularly vulnerable groups and women.

The over‐arching objectives of MP7 are: (1) To identify and develop pro‐poor adaptation and mitigation practices, technologies and policies for food systems, adaptive capacity and rural livelihoods; and (2) To provide diagnosis and analysis that will ensure the inclusion of agriculture in climate change policies, and the inclusion of climate issues in agricultural policies, from the sub‐national to the global level in a way that brings benefits to the rural poor.

There are four Themes. Three “place‐based” Themes will identify and develop technologies, practices, partnerships and policies to decrease the vulnerability of rural communities to a variable and changing climate: Theme 1 – Adaptation to Progressive Climate Change; Theme 2 – Adaptation Pathways for Current Climate Risk; and Theme 3 – Pro‐poor Climate Change Mitigation. Theme 4 – Integration for Decision Making – provides a framework for the whole of MP7, ensures effective engagement of rural communities and institutional and policy stakeholders, and grounds MP7 in the policy context. Much of the place‐based work will be integrated within targeted regions, with activities starting in West Africa, East Africa and the Indo‐Gangetic Plains in 2010 and extending to eight regions in total by 2012.

MP7 will make a lasting difference through adopting a strategic, fully embedded focus on capacity building.

MP7 research will improve understanding of the underlying drivers of gender disparities as influenced by climate change, then formulating strategies to tackle these and provide inclusive access to emerging investments, tools and policies that deal with climate change.

Specific activities and procedures are planned to ensure coherence among Themes, to produce syntheses across regions and themes, and to build links across all CGIAR MPs. Early “wins” include a planned major role for agriculture in the post‐2012 international climate change regime, and a global network of sites collecting comparative data to identify plausible options for adapting to climate change.

The MP7 Secretariat and Independent Science Panel will be primarily responsible for management. The Secretariat will be very small with most activities conducted by Centers.