Working group during the training

On 19-22 November, FAO conducted the first applied in-country training on Tracking Adaptation in Agriculture Sectors (TAAS) methodology for the government of Mozambique with the aim supporting the country´s efforts to track its progress towards adaptation and constructively report on its adaptation achievements, challenges and objectives.

The training was carried out in response to a specific request for capacity building on tracking adaptation in agricultural sectors from the International Planning and Cooperation Directorate of Mozambique's Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA).
The workshop was opened by Mr. Pedro Simpson Junior, the Chief Technical Adviser of the FAO GEF project – Strengthening capacities of agricultural producers to cope with climate change for increased food security through the famer-field-school approach. Mr. Simpson highlighted importance to track adaptation in agricultural sectors for the country, considering its planning and reporting commitments.

Mozambique has an obligation to report to the national, regional and international commitments on the status of the country with regard to adaptation. One such commitment is Malabo Declaration under African Union Programme – Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme. The Malabo declaration requires countries to monitor and report on their progress on environmental governance and climate change. Report progress on adaptation has been challenging because of the limited information and consensus on how to best track some of the indicators particularly linked to adaption, within agricultural sectors. The training well complemented the comprehensive capacity-building programme that FAO Mozambique is currently providing to the newly established Climate Change Coordination Unit of MASA.

Apart from that, the workshop was aimed at validating the results of case study applying the TAAS methodology that was carried out on tracking adaption in Mozambique using the data obtained from global database. The case study was presented as an example to be adapted and anchored within the national context, taking into consideration national priorities, strategies and goals.

National government officials from various institutions, including from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MASA), particularly also from the Climate Change Unit, the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER), National Institute of Statistics, who form an inter-disciplinary Climate participated in the training. The participants were able to apply the TAAS methodology to estimate preliminary adaptation levels in the agriculture sectors in Mozambique for the four main categories of indicators.

The TAAS methodology adopts a food systems approach in tracking the progress towards adaptation in agricultural sectors. It is an indicator-based methodology with four main categories of indicators; Natural Resources and Ecosystems, Agricultural Production Systems, Socio economics and Institutions and Policy –making. Each main category is further sub-divided into sub-categories that consists of a list of indicators. The main categories of this methodology are to help the country to strategically plan, mobilize and allocate resources to improve the adaptation efforts in agriculture sectors.

Participating remotely, the FAO Natural Resources Officer, Muratbek Koshoev, considers that "the training was innovative and that, the learning process took place through introduction of the case study results generated from global datasets and then updating the results based on knowledge of by the national experts".

The training participants considered the TAAS methodology as highly relevant to support their reporting on international commitments, as well as planning of the national strategies, polices, particularly the National Agriculture Investment Plan and the overall National Development Strategy which are currently being developed.

Overall, the participants acknowledged the applicability of the methodology to their daily activities within the MASA and the Climate Change Unit in particular.

The completion of the workshop marked the first successful of the application of the TAAS methodology. The workshop was followed by a joint agreement amongst participants to build up on the work completed during training in Mozambique and to support the Climate Change Unit from MASA as well as other government Ministries and institutions to integrate the TAAS methodology in national monitoring, reporting and adaptation tracking processes in agricultural sectors at national level.