The Southern Africa Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance (SACSAA) held its planning meeting on 26 February 2021. The virtual meeting was attended by twenty-four delegates, representing key stakeholder groups and civil society organisations operating in the agriculture sector. The Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture (GACSA) was represented by the Regional CSA Alliance Leader, Mr. Lufingo Mwamakamba. The common objective amongst the attendees was a desire to build the resilience of the region’s agriculture to climate change.

Officially launched in Maputo, Mozambique in November 2018, SACSAA, and spurred by the efforts and support of CARE International along with other like-minded organisations that included OXFAM, World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, and Concern Worldwide, the members felt the need to move a step towards ensuring alignment of their activities. Having been appointed to serve as the Secretariat of the newly launched alliance in Maputo, the Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), with support from CARE International, convened a multi-stakeholder webinar aimed at shaping the region’s Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) priorities.

As major achievements of the meeting, delegates agreed on a structure and methodology for electing a substantive regional committee, with some nominations being proposed. FANRPAN was elected to continue serving as the regional secretariat, and committed to establishing a SACSAA webpage with all members on their institutional website. Ahead of the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit, the members resolved to organise a regional conference with a view to consolidating a regional position to feed in the Food Systems Summit.

Whilst work continues to finalise the regional CSA priorities, the following issues seemed to be repeated by delegates from different countries:

• There is need for concerted CSA advocacy at different levels and targeting different stakeholders. This is because CSA is a relatively new innovation that stakeholders, especially governments, are yet to embed in their overall national policies.
• There is need to mobilize private sector participation because they are critical for adoption, implementation, and upscaling.
• There is need for investments to respond to farmers needs
• The Alliance needs to influence the SADC agriculture policy, as well as promoting the CAADP