English

Success in fighting poverty in Africa will largely depend on the extent to which rural poverty is reduced as it is largely a rural phenomenon. By examining the rural development strategies of the East African Community, Economic Community of West African States and the Association of South East Asian Nations, the purpose of this study was to determine their relationship to rural poverty reduction. The Rural Development Strategy Soundness Model and Rural Web Model tools were used to examine the soundness and cohesiveness of implementation, respectively. The results showed that rural poverty declined where a rural development strategy had both been sound and cohesively implemented. We concluded that a positive correlation exists between a sound and cohesively implemented rural development strategy and rural poverty reduction. We deduced from this that the former is a missing link in Africa’s fight against rural poverty

Sustainability planning with the community and local stakeholders is important to ensure that promoted land restoration practices continue being implemented after the Regreening Africa Programme transitions at the end of 2022. Sustainability planning should be part of the programme’s exit planning.

The Better Life Book will bring hope by giving answers to our food and income needs. The book will help us as a community and as families to: Ÿ increase crop harvests without expensive inputs (like fertilizers and other chemicals), Ÿ protect and benefit from the natural resources such as wildlife, Ÿ build a foundation for community leaders to solve problems, Ÿ secure a better future for our families, and Ÿ leave fertile, productive land for our children's future.

Climate change is an on-going phenomenon. The climatic patterns have shifted in Lesotho from earlier well-known short summer season charac-terised by erratic rains and some drought spells during the growing sea-son, to unusual floods, low temperatures and limited sunlight. The onset of the planting season is now delayed by either no rainfall or flooding con-ditions that interfere with both sowing of the grain crops and also proper growth and development of those that are already planted. Moreover the heavy rains that unpredictably dominate the summer season associated with cloudy conditions with low temperatures have brought a new chal-lenge of sunlight availability and heat units for optimum photosynthetic ability of the crops.

CCARDESA has a good track record of successfully supporting the implementation of phased, multi-country programs, and will continue to play this role in the context of the MPA. Since Phase 1 of the MPA will include just one country in Southern Africa, Madagascar, one early role of CCARDESA will be to bring visibility to the Program, its merits, and learnings among SADC’s other member countries. In that way, CCARDESA will enable the Program to grow organically and in a way that is responsive to SADC country priorities and needs. CCARDESA has played this role before, one recent example being in the context of APPSA, a program that started out in three countries—Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia—and later moved on to include two more, Lesotho, and Angola.

Environmental and Social Commitment Plan

1. The Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) (the Recipient) will implement the CCARDESA regional components of the Food Systems Resilience Program for Eastern and Southern Africa, (P178566) (the Project) as set out in the Financing Agreement. The International Development Association (the Association) has agreed to provide financing for the Project.
2. The Recipient shall ensure that the Project is carried out in accordance with the Environmental and Social Standards (ESSs) and this Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ESCP), in a manner acceptable to the Association. The ESCP is a part of the Financing Agreement. Unless otherwise defined in this ESCP, capitalized terms used in this ESCP have the meanings ascribed to them in the referred agreement.
3. Without limitation to the foregoing, this ESCP sets out material measures and actions that the Recipient shall carry out or cause to be carried out, including, as applicable, the timeframes of the actions and measures, institutional, staffing, training, monitoring and reporting arrangements, and grievance management. The ESCP also sets out the environmental and social (E&S) instruments that shall be adopted and implemented under the Project, all of which shall be subject to prior consultation and disclosure, consistent with the ESS, and in form and substance, and in a manner acceptable to the Association. Once adopted, said E&S instruments may be revised from time to time with prior written agreement by the Association.
4. As agreed by the Association and the Recipient, this ESCP will be revised from time to time if necessary, during Project implementation, to reflect adaptive management of Project changes and unforeseen circumstances or in response to Project performance. In such circumstances, the Recipient and the Association agree to update the ESCP to reflect these changes through an exchange of letters signed between

The overall objective of the consultancy is to conduct an assessment of the current status of domestication of the SADC and COMESA HSRS among the current APPSA countries (Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia) in order to enhance their capacity to effectively integrate seed policy harmonisation issues into national planning and implementation.

APPSA-LESOTHO HOLDS A FIELD DAY ON VARIOUS CROPS IN MOHALE’S HOEK DISTRICT AT SILIOE

This brief explains how CSA practices have mitigation co-benefits, how mitigation co-benefits relate to other policy objectives, and the challenges and opportunities for climate change mitigation through CSA in Southern Africa.

This brief explains: links between agriculture and GHG emissions from other land uses, landscape approach to achieve synergies between agriculture and other land uses, and between adaptation and mitigation, and examples of initiatives that illustrate how landscape approaches can be implemented at scale in Southern Africa.