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Issues around bundling of climate smart agriculture (CSA) and climate information services (CIS) have been kept relatively distinct whereas in reality, they are more impactful when integrated. Using the case of the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Change Research in Africa (AICCRA) Project that emphasizes bundling as a critical component of research in development, six regions of Ghana were purposively selected based on the identified value chain crops for implementation. 120 respondents including practicing farmers and advisors as reference, rated contributions of 21 innovations to 25 climate smartness indicators. These include gender, youth and social inclusion (GSI), enabling environment (EE), ability to enhance soil, water, crop and animal health (One-Health Achievement) (OHA), end-user friendliness (EUF) and climate smart agriculture (CS) for prioritization, bundling and ultimately to construct a Climate Smart Readiness Index (CSRI). There was a high level of concordance between the ratings of farmers and advisors on the Climate Smartness; moderate concordance on OHA and a lower concordance on GSI. The CS and EUF had a significant and same agreement among farmers while EE had a substantial same agreement among advisors. These elements (CS, GSI, OHA, EUF, EE) formed an integral part of the CSRI construct confirmed by the Fornell-Larcker and the Heterotrait-Monotrait criteria. While OHA was the fundamental factor in determining CSRI for farmers, EE was considered more important by the advisors. CSRI informs policy makers and agricultural practitioners on appropriate bundling of CSA and CIS practices to generate evidence for farmer preparedness in the context of resilience, productivity, adaptation, and mitigation.

IntroductionWith the rapid increase in climate shocks and hazards, policies governing climate change have proliferated while the integration of gender considerations to address gender-differentiated needs and impacts has remained a challenge. Stakeholder engagement is touted as a critical ingredient in climate change decisions and governance at different levels to achieve equitable outcomes. However, effective methods and outcomes of gender-responsive stakeholder engagement processes for climate change policy development are rarely published.MethodsWe apply the framework of 10 principles for effective agricultural research for development programs to analyze the stakeholder engagement processes in the context of the CGIAR's Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security gender and climate change policy projects. We analyze both primary and secondary data to understand the categories of stakeholders engaged, methods of engagement, the outcomes and lessons learned across five regions.Results and discussionOur results show that analysis of the existing policies and programs is a very critical entry point for identifying the points of leverage, the types of stakeholders to engage and how to engage them in the processes that focus on integrating gender in climate policies. Co-learning and co-development of knowledge products cultivate interest and commitment among stakeholders to address gender dynamics, although systematic monitoring and evaluation remains a challenge. This has implications for effective stakeholder engagement in mainstreaming gender in climate policies and evidence-based policy formulation for sustainable agriculture and food systems. Working with influential stakeholders, with the capacity and interest to address gender considerations yields more positive results. Mechanisms to address power relations need to be in place for gender considerations to be voiced and integrated and include women in decision-making processes.

Assessing and responding to gender inequalities, and promoting women's empowerment, can be critical to achieving the goals of climate services, such as improved climate resilience, productivity, food security and livelihoods. To this end, our paper seeks to provide guidance to rural climate service researchers, implementing organizations, and funders on gender-responsive evaluation of climate services, including key questions to be asked and appropriate methodology. We draw on case studies of rural climate services in Mali, Rwanda and Southeast Asia to illustrate how gender-responsive evaluations have framed and attempted to answer questions about climate information needs, access to information and support through group processes, and contribution of climate services to empowerment. Evaluation of how group participatory processes can enable women's and men's demand for weather and climate information can help close knowledge gaps on gender equity in access to climate services. Quantitative methods can rigorously identify changes in demand associated with varying interventions, but qualitative approaches may be necessary to help assess the nuances of participatory communication processes. Furthermore, evaluation of how women's and men's information needs differ according to their roles and responsibilities in distinct climate-sensitive decisions can help assess gender inequities in climate services use. Evaluation that critically considers the local normative and institutional environment influencing empowerment can help identify pathways for climate services to contribute to women's empowerment. Qualitative and mixed method methodologies can be helpful for assessing the normative and institutional changes upon which empowerment depends. Although evaluations are often conducted too late to inform the design of time-bound projects, they can contribute to improvements to climate services if results are shared widely, if implementers and funders consistently factor evidence and insights from prior evaluations into the design of new initiatives, and if ongoing climate service initiatives conduct preliminary evaluations regularly to support mid-course adjustments.

Limiting global warming to the 2°C target that countries have committed to in the 2015 Paris Agreement, and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, will require large-scale expansion of climate-resilient approaches in agriculture and food systems. In order to achieve the scale of change required, coordinated action is needed from global to local levels, from research to policy and investment, and across private, public, and civil society sectors. But at the same time, differential approaches are needed to address gender equality and women's concerns in climate-resilient agriculture. This article sets out a conceptual framework for scaling up climate resilient agriculture (CRA) approaches that are gender and socially inclusive by taking into account these constraints and inequalities across wider areas and different aspects of CRA. It builds on gender and climate-resilient agriculture research and project experience to argue that the additional integration of women's empowerment approaches and dimensions into this scaling framework provides the opportunity to promote gender equality while scaling up. It also identifies gaps and areas for further analysis and research. The intention is to identify potential pathways for developing a gender- and socially-inclusive set of options and strategies, in four key dimensions: climate resilient technologies and practices; climate information services that reach under-reached groups; inclusive finance mechanisms; and promoting leadership in decision-making.

Increasing weather risks threaten agricultural production systems and food security across the world. Maintaining agricultural growth while minimizing climate shocks is crucial to building a resilient food production system and meeting developmental goals in vulnerable countries. Experts have proposed several technological, institutional, and policy interventions to help farmers adapt to current and future weather variability and to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper presents the climate-smart village (CSV) approach as a means of performing agricultural research for development that robustly tests technological and institutional options for dealing with climatic variability and climate change in agriculture using participatory methods. It aims to scale up and scale out the appropriate options and draw out lessons for policy makers from local to global levels. The approach incorporates evaluation of climate-smart technologies, practices, services, and processes relevant to local climatic risk management and identifies opportunities for maximizing adaptation gains from synergies across different interventions and recognizing potential maladaptation and trade-offs. It ensures that these are aligned with local knowledge and link into development plans. This paper describes early results in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to illustrate different examples of the CSV approach in diverse agroecological settings. Results from initial studies indicate that the CSV approach has a high potential for scaling out promising climate-smart agricultural technologies, practices, and services. Climate analog studies indicate that the lessons learned at the CSV sites would be relevant to adaptation planning in a large part of global agricultural land even under scenarios of climate change. Key barriers and opportunities for further work are also discussed.