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As in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Africa's food system is severely affected by climate change, resulting in low productivity. As governments, development players and civil society step up their efforts to increase food production to meet growing demand, many options are being considered.

One of the main options is the creation of a Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) alliance - a consortium of researchers, policy-makers, farmers' groups, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and the private sector.

On December 9, 2020, CORAF brought together key environmental and agricultural players from Central African countries, including the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), to consider the possibilities of establishing an AIC Alliance in Central Africa.

The AIC Alliance serves as a coordination platform through which stakeholders can have an open dialogue to better align initiatives and harmonize efforts to scale up climate-smart interventions.

"It is important to create a regional framework for dialogue between research and policymakers on the issue of climate change in agriculture," said the representative of CORAF's Executive Director, at the opening ceremony of the online event.

"Agricultural research and development will not only contribute to new technologies and good practices, but will also generate the scientific evidence needed to make appropriate decisions to guide policies on climate change in agriculture."

The West African region already has an AIC initiative. Established in 2015 in Bamako, Mali, the AIC initiative supports evidence-based decision-making in agriculture and climate change.

For the AIC initiative to work in Central Africa, the regional economic community must play a leadership role, say the experts.

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) is the African Heads of State's main policy framework for food production on the continent. In each African region, this policy framework is implemented through a regional agricultural plan. In Central Africa, it should be implemented by ECCAS within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Mr. Abakar Mohammed, Agro-Economist Engineer and Head of ECCAS's Agriculture and Rural Development Department, was present at the virtual event.

In his opening statement, he thanked CORAF for initiating such an approach to involve Central African food system stakeholders in resolving the challenges facing agriculture.

The ECCAS Senior Official welcomed the approach of establishing an AIC Alliance in Central Africa. He detailed the Common Agricultural Policy and the Nationally Determined Expected Contributions of Central African countries.

The meeting ended with an agreement to work towards the establishment of an AIC Alliance in Central Africa. Through the CAADP-XP4 project, CORAF seeks to strengthen collaboration between key players in the agricultural sector to achieve better food and nutrition outcomes in West and Central Africa. The creation of the AIC Alliance is a crucial activity funded by the CAADP-XP4 project. As the project moves towards mapping climate-smart projects in Central Africa, it would take further advantage of the opportunity to operationalize the alliance in Central Africa.