The FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), funded Climate Economic Analysis for Development, Investment and Resilience (CEADIR) Activity, ASEAN Climate Resilience Network (ASEAN CRN), GIZ, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) organized a regional event on “Climate Action for Agriculture in Asia: Strengthening the role of scientific foresight and CSA in addressing NDC priorities.” on October 10-12, 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand. 

The event followed a regional workshop held in Bangkok in March 2017, on “Convening Private Sector Investment in Climate Smart Commodity Production in Southeast Asia,” which was organized by USAID with support from FAO and the Asia LEDS Partnership. 

Targeted countries included: Bangladesh, Lao, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. There were approximately 80 participants, including 20 resource persons from NGOs, CSO, and think tanks.

The workshop provided the following outcomes:

• Enhanced understanding of the valuable role that CSA could play in achieving the climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities highlighted in the NDCs of Asian countries;
• Improved capacity for sector-level engagement in national preparations for UNFCCC FD 2018 and COP23;
• Clearer vision and strategy to accelerate public and private investment to address NDC priorities for the agriculture and land-use sectors; and
• Identification of current gaps to strengthen foresight analysis for future policy and implementation needs under different scenarios, and preparation of preliminary plans to overcome them.

 The main outputs of the workshop were the development of:

• Country-specific pre-2020 Roadmap for sector-level engagement in addressing the NDC targets for agriculture and land-use sectors (including public and private actors);
• Country-specific strategies for private sector engagement, including recommended priority actions by key government entities and next steps for implementation;
• Country-specific findings on the role and importance of climate finance and stakeholder engagement in accelerating adoption of and investment in NDC action plans;

GACSA’s engagement as technical partner

GACSA has been engaged as a technical partner at three levels:

- As broker, liaising WBCSD with FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, which led WBCSD to be engaged in this event as technical and financial partner;

- As co-organizer, supporting the overall organization of the workshop, and being lead-organizer the whole session 2 on “The Role of CSA in Achieving the NDCs”, in collaboration with the regional CSA alliance for South-East Asia, namely the ASEAN Climate-Resilience Network (ASEAN-CRN). In that regard, GACSA organized the following sub-sessions:

• Briefing Session: Agriculture in the NDCs and the Role of CSA (speakers: FAO, Thailand, CIAT);
• Panel Discussion: Country Perspectives on Scaling up CSA (speakers: New Zealand, Viet Nam, Philippines, Indonesia, CSA Youth Network);
• Panel Discussion: Partners’ Perspectives on Support for Scaling up CSA (GIZ, APCC, IRRI, WBCSD, USAID, GACSA;
• Interactive Session: Knowledge and Strategy Gaps for a Pre-2020 NDC Roadmap for the Agriculture and Land Use Sectors (working groups to define Country-Specific CSA Roadmaps).

 -As knowledge provider, with representatives of each of the three GACSA Action Groups delivering content during the event:

• For the Knowledge Action Group: Mr Toshihiro Hasegawa from AgMIP (National Agricultural Research Organization - NARO) delivered a presentation on “Uncertainties and knowledge gap in predicting agricultural production and need for international collaboration” during Day 2 / session “Climate Change and Land Use and Implications of the Paris Agreement: Setting the Scene with Foresight Modelling”. 
• For the Enabling Environment Action Group: Dr. Chu Van Chuong, Deputy Director General, MARD, who was sponsored by GACSA, participated in the panel discussion “Country Perspectives on Scaling up CSA” to talk about the CSA Country Case Study developed with GACSA, and the perspectives of Viet Nam in scaling up CSA. He mentioned the fact that CSA Country Case Study developed with GACSA was a kick-start for Viet Nam in developing further their CSA activities, including a country website on CSA.

• For the Investment Action Group: Mr Tony Siantonas, Manager for Regional Programs at WBSCD, participated on Day 1 in the panel discussion “Partners’ Perspectives on Support for Scaling up CSA”, providing views on how the public sector should engage with the private sector. WBCSD also co-led the organization of the session 4 on “Accelerating Investment” during Day 3. This was a whole day session during which various members of WBCSD have delivered presentations and participated in panel discussion during the various sub-sessions:
• Briefing Session: Key Challenges and Priority Actions for Accelerating Private Sector Investment in CSA in Southeast Asia (USAID);
• Panel Discussion: Channeling Private Sector Investment Opportunities into CSA (USAID, Rabobank, Control Union, Olam);
• Panel Discussion: Public Sector Sources of Funding and Investment for Inclusive Growth in the Agriculture Sector (Mekong Strategic Partners, Central Bank, Bangladesh, Land Bank of Philippines, UN Environment, APRACA).

• For the Regional Engagement Task Team (RETT): Mr Marwan Ladki, Facilitator of the RETT, participated on Day 1 in the panel discussion “Partners’ Perspectives on Support for Scaling up CSA”, showcasing the work and collaboration achieved by the three GACSA Action Groups and by the RETT in various regions of the world, highlighting the value-added of collaboration between global, regional and national level, especially through CSA alliances.