The UNEP - CGIAR partnership

Mainstreaming adaptation and the development of successful policies are dependent on scientific knowledge. Effective partnerships between research centres and policy formulating institutions are therefore of crucial importance. This is particularly true for cross-sectoral issues such as climate change and poverty reduction. The complex dimensions in integrating food security, sustainable development, and environmental sustainability in view of climate change and climate variability require joint approaches across the agricultural and environmental sector and across science and policy.

For the past two years, UNEP and the CGIAR Inter-Centre Working Group on Climate Change have been collaborating to support policy makers and national negotiators in Africa, Latin America and South Asia on the link between climate and agriculture.

Main objectives of the partnerships include:

• To facilitate a dialogue across agriculture, forestry, and environment sectors and between scientists and policy-makers on the different dimensions of climate change;



• To articulate and synthesize results from current scientific research into a form directly useful to policy makers in developing countries to develop response options and required capacities for information management;



• To identify policy barriers and to support policy makers to increase adaptive management capacities with regard to climate change and its impacts, by focusing on no-regret options and the development of decision support tools;



• To facilitate integrated research for adaptation to climate change among national scientists in scientific organizations in developing countries that focus on agriculture, natural resources and development.