Over the last years, different multi-stakeholder alliances and platforms have been established at the national, regional and global levels to support the dissemination and implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA).

They have been established based on bottom-up, inclusive, independent and voluntary processes, with specific objectives, functioning and institutional setting. The emergence of CSA alliances and platforms worldwide is a positive and strong signal to the international community on the willingness of all stakeholders, at various levels of action, to tackle the climate challenges in the agricultural sectors, based on joint efforts and context-specific approaches.

The representatives of the regional CSA alliances and platforms have welcomed the suggestion from the GACSA Facilitation Unit to gather during the GACSA Annual Forum, to start an open and respectful dialogue amongst alliances and platforms, to share experiences, challenges and concerns, and to discuss about potential way forward in building cooperation amongst CSA alliances/platforms.

Participants to the meeting were the representatives from:

The North America CSA Alliance (NACSAA):

• Mr. Fred Yoder, NACSAA Chair;
• Mr. Ernie Shea, NACSAA Coordinator;

The Africa CSA Alliance (ACSAA) and the associated NEPAD-iNGO Alliance on CSA:

• Mr. Martin Bwalya, Head, Programme Development; Programme Implementation and Coordinating Directorate (PICD), NEPAD Agency;
• Mr. Douglas Brown, World Vision, i-NGO NEPAD Alliance for CSA;
• Mr. Christopher Armitage, i-NGO NEPAD Alliance for CSA;

 The Eastern Africa CSA Platform:

• Mr. Mathew Abang, Crop Production Officer, FAO Sub-Regional Office for Eastern Africa, Secretariat of the Eastern Africa CSA Platform; on behalf of Mr. Philip Kiriro, Chair of East Africa Farmers Federation (EEAF) and Chair of the Eastern Africa CSA Platform;

The West Africa CSA Alliance (WACSAA):

• Mr. Ablassé Bilgo, Head of Technical Division, ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) / Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF);
• Mr. Pierre Haas, Technical Advisor for Food Security, ECOWAS Commission / Department of Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources (DAEWR);

The Southeast Asia network for CSA (ASEAN-CRN):

• Ms. Margaret Yoovatana, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand / Department of Agriculture, on behalf of the ASEAN-CRN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations - Climate Resilience Network);
• Ms. Imelda Bacudo, Senior Advisor and Deputy Head of Project Forest and Climate Change (FOR-CC) under the ASEAN-German (GIZ) Programme on Response to Climate Change, GAP-CC;

The Central Asia regional process for a CSA Alliance:

• Mr. Reuben Sessa, FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, Climate Change and Energy Coordinator;

The Central America regional process for a CSA Alliance:

• Mr. Roberto Azofeifa, Chief of Sustainable Production Department / Agricultural Extension Program, Ministry of Agriculture and LivestockMinistry of Agriculture and Livestock of Costa Rica;
• Mr. Raffaele Vignola, Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Costa Rica;
• Ms. Kelly Witkowski, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA);

The Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA):

• Mr. Achuo Enow, Coordinator of the GACSA Facilitation Unit.

The meeting was facilitated by Ms. Mi Nguyen, deputy Permanent representative of Canada to the UN Agencies in Rome and newly appointed as GACSA co-chair, with support from Mr. Marwan Ladki, GACSA Facilitation Unit / Focal Point for liaising with regional CSA alliances and platforms.

For any additional information, please contact the GACSA Facilitation Unit / Officer in charge of liaising with regional CSA alliances/platforms: [email protected]