There is real momentum in Eastern and Southern Africa to develop National Agroecology Strategies (NAS) and policies to support agroecological transitions in these regions. These strategies have the potential to bring agroecology to scale at the national level by steering coordinated government and civil society action, through the identification of clear policy interventions. They notably aid countries in achieving climate resilience, food security, biodiversity and water use objectives, to name a few. 

But what does this mean in practice? This article tells the story of Zambia, where the ongoing consequences of climate change have led to an alliance between agroecology advocates and the national climate movement. They have joined forces to steer government action against climate change and its consequences through the development of a NAS for Zambia. 

Supporting the agroecological transition of food systems 

National Agroecology Strategies are overarching frameworks that strengthen a country’s food system policies and put agroecology on the policy agenda. Recognizing the multidimensional nature of food systems, they aim to steer away from unhealthy and unsustainable practices, and towards the multiple co-benefits that agroecology offers across many  parts of the food system. Typically, NAS contain policies related to  agricultural production, natural resource management and governance, education, research and extension, value chain development, markets, public procurement, consumption and food safety. In other words, where individual Ministries or policy may only cover part of the food system (such as agricultural production), an agroecology strategy extends beyond the farm to the consumer’s plate.  

In the Eastern and Southern African context, notably in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, the NAS processes and  strategic documents have been characterized by strong  participation: initiated by CSOs through bottom-up processes and drafted through dialogue with relevant food system actors. This builds legitimacy and increases the chances of meaningful engagement and impact from interventions during the implementation phase. 

Zambia: Facing severe challenges due to climate change

The increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme climate related shocks and disasters in Zambia have significantly impacted the agriculture sector, and beyond. Droughts and floods have become frequent, growing seasons are now increasingly short, the soils’ capacity to support plant life and retain water has decreased, and outbreaks of diseases such as fall army worms are more frequent. This is threatening food and nutrition security, which impacts people’s livelihoods, as well as their capacity to adapt and mitigate the impacts of climate change.  While Zambians, especially in the rural areas, are forced to withstand climate shocks, the agriculture sector needs to increase its resilience and adaptation capacity through the adoption of sustainable practices. This is particularly important, as small-scale farmers represent about 90% of the agriculture producers.

The vulnerability of the agricultural sector in Zambia against climate change is linked to unsustainable practices that have left the soils degraded. Agriculture production in Zambia is maize-centred, rainfed and relies on a high amount of external inputs. High value export crops are grown by commercial farmers, while biodiverse, nutrient rich foods are given less priority. The sector is based on industrial agriculture mode and gives less attention to best practices and technologies that work with nature and promote diversity. Zambia’s national food system-related policies and programmes have supported the production of maize as a staple food, neglecting other crops, which has exposed the sector to the effects of climate change. The 2023/24 season has been declared a national disaster by the Zambian government due to poor rains that have left over 1 million hectares of crop damaged. Agroecology is gaining recognition in the country as an alternative model helping to mitigate such shocks and build resilience for improved food and nutrition security, and livelihoods.

A National Agroecology Strategy: unifying agroecology and climate movements

In January 2023, civil society organizations (CSOs) from the agroecological and climate movements formed a consortium to advocate jointly for a NAS. Such a strategy proposes to address the issues of production and productivity in the sector, while contributing to other crucial objectives notably supporting the development of agroecological value chains, markets and the consumption of agroecological products, and more inclusive processes within the food system. Driving organizations of this consortium are notably PELUM Zambia and the Zambia Climate Change Network, with participation from Caritas Zambia, FIAN, Zambia Alliance for Agroecology and Biodiversity, and the Kasisi Agriculture Training Centre. The Consortium engaged closely with Zambia's government, and secured in July 2023 an official commitment to developing the NAS through the appointment of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture. It was agreed that the government would lead the process with the consortium playing roles in advocacy, awareness-creation, technical support, and resource mobilisation. The NASs thus offer tremendous cross-sectoral opportunities for all food system actors (and beyond), to join forces.

Zambia's NAS is seen as a comprehensive overarching framework that goes beyond production aspects and looks at wider issues in the food system from farm to plate, including resource allocation, governance and decision-making. The agroecological practices it champions, address the needs of  small-scale farmers, who are the most vulnerable producers in the sector. Key areas expected to be at the core of this policy are research and development, extension services, value addition and consumer's needs. The NAS will also facilitate the coordination of the production system, promoting dialogue and linkages among stakeholders, and best use of natural resources, and is expected  to contribute to the harmonisation across different ministries’ agendas. Thus, NAS can assist Zambia in the achievement of its Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP), SDG targets, vision 2030 goals among other commitments.

Similar areas of intervention have been identified in other national agroecological frameworks. 

In a recent peer-to-peer exchange among policy makers working on national agroecology strategies, where representatives from the consortium in Zambia participated,  a framework of strategic objectives for agroecological transformation emerged from the experiences in the Eastern and Southern Africa regions. It comprises 4 key objectives covering the food value chain and 4 key objectives that are cross-cutting. This framework (below), is useful not only for Zambia but also for other countries who are interested in developing similar national strategies.

Zambia’s NAS development process includes country-wide consultations to ensure that all key food system actors and stakeholders can contribute to its development. Regional and national consultations will be held under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture and supported by other ministries and non-state actors. The agreed road map foresees the finalization of the strategy in the last quarter of 2024. 

Prioritization and actionability of interventions: key approaches to successful implementation

Beyond the Zambian case, regional experiences from other countries developing NASs show that the impact of NASs depends on the “actionability” of interventions and how well these are prioritized. Swift and effective implementation is often hindered by resource scarcity and the political constraints that policymakers and food system actors face. As such, drafting an effective NAS requires interventions to be well defined (e.g. what, who, when and how much) and actors to consider how to identify where to put resources and effort. In addition, the impact of a NAS requires hard choices, given that time and resources are limited. This requires a prioritization process that is inclusive, transparent and well facilitated. This process should be initiated with an agreement among lead actors on how to coordinate the prioritization, how it will be conducted and based on what criteria. These strategic approaches will be important to secure financial support.

Promising strategies which need financial support to materialize

Zambia’s example shows that NASs offer tremendous potential to guide countries through effective and targeted yet comprehensive policy action. It is crucial that funding is made available both for their development and their implementation. Adequate government resource allocation helps in resource mobilization, which can be further enhanced by strategies such as bringing donors on board early in the process and mobilizing funding from other policy areas such as NDCs or the Climate Fund for policy interventions related to climate change mitigation and adaptation for instance.

Zambia’s NAS is not an isolated case. Development of NAS has taken root in many other countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. Tanzania, for instance has developed it’s NAS called National Ecological Organic Agriculture Strategy in 2023, while Kenya and Uganda are planning to finalize their respective NAS in 2024. An overview and learnings of these processes can be found in the brief “National Agroecology Strategies in Eastern and Southern Africa: Lighthouses for food system transformation”.