FAO.org

 Yet another groundbreaking partnership has taken place within the team of FAO’s Dryland Forestry. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have formally partnered with CARE International UK and the Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) to produce a joint technical working paper, which will focus on the intersections between dryland forests and agrosilvopastoral systems, climate change and conflict. This work is being produced alongside the Conflict and Peace Unit (CPU), sitting under the umbrella of the Agrifood Economics Division (ESA) and the Office of Emergencies and Resilience (OER).

This partnership and the consequent joint publishing is a direct result of the fundamental need to improve the understanding on the links between climate change and various kinds of conflict in accordance to FAO’s mandate, with particular attention to crisis contexts in dryland forests and agrosilvopastoral areas. More broadly, this will feed into the UN system-level discussion and processes related to the multidimensional nature of Climate Security.

The policy paper will unpack how combined climate shocks, environmental degradation, and conflicts exacerbate people’s vulnerability and reflect how responses should be adapted to tackle these compounding challenges and bolster resilience. The joint assessment will be based on the premise that humanitarian, development and peace efforts are complementary and mutually reinforcing and provide evidence that integrated responses offer the most effective way to tackle the root causes of people's vulnerability in crises contexts. It will target donors, policymakers, and practitioners from different disciplines. The joint policy paper will gather and analyze examples of strategies and interventions that help communities identify and mitigate combined climate, environmental and conflict related risks. Even more, the paper will draw lessons learned and provide recommendations for designing and implementing projects that support people in achieving long term food security and/or in building up their ability to cope with all of the above risks in drylands.

The partners involved in this publication meet on a monthly basis to discuss next steps and relevant and concrete actions that need to take place in order to broaden this conversation. For the moment, 27 national case studies are being considered for this assessment. The aim is to publish this technical paper in the context of the 2021 Food Systems Summit, so stay tuned for updates and other groundbreaking news that will come out of this flourishing partnership!