In partnering with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security of Lesotho (MAFS) and National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), FAO is helping educate and raise awareness on climate change and its effects on sustainable food security among the country’s schoolchildren, parents and broader communities.

One of Lesotho’s strategies aims to boost its agriculture and in particular encourage youth participation in agriculture, along with promoting Conservation Agriculture. In the prevailing context of climate change and declining food security in Lesotho, it is essential to further engage and increase awareness of  these issues, in particular those pertinent to Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) techonologies.

FAO launched the concept of CSA a few years ago, with the fundamental principle of integrating all three dimensions of sustainable development, mainly providing a dignified life for all, achieving inclusive prosperity within ecological capacities, and increasing investment to achieve future resilience and improve livelihoods. In this context, FAO, MAFS and NCDC mobilized to help train over 700 school principals and teachers in Lesotho on Conservation Agriculture and Improved Home Gardening and Nutritionin April of this year.

As such, FAO along with the two organisations promoted CSA in schools, calling upon schoolchildren to express their views and creativity to raise awareness. Schoolchildren from 300 primary and secondary schools across the country were invited to participate in an art competition on Conservation Agriculture. The schoolchildren were asked to make drawings to illustrate one of the competition’s three topics: Climate change in Lesotho and its impact on food security, Conservation Agriculture principles and Conservation Agriculture benefits.

A selection committee, integrated by representatives of FAO, MAFS and NCDC, identified the 12 best drawings, which will be used to produce a 2016 calendar and distributed nationwide. The official launch of the calendar and awards ceremony will take place towards the end of this month, leading up to the COP21 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris  next month.

”Education and sensitisation are the building blocks of lasting change [in Lesotho’s] agricultural practices, so that our children can have the benefits of sustainable impact, “said Yves Klompenhouwer, FAO Representative in Lesotho. “We must invest in the education of our children,” he added.

This initiative was further supported by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).