BIFAD 185th Public Meeting Minutes August 31 2022 a Consultative Workshop on Systemic Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Agriculture, Nutrition and Food Systems

A public meeting for the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD), A Consultative Workshop on Systemic Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Agriculture, Nutrition, and Food Systems, was held on August 31, 2022 from 10:30am-12:30pm EDT.  A public comment period took place. The meeting was livestreamed via Zoom. 

The meeting publicly introduced the BIFAD Subcommittee on Systemic Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Agriculture, Nutrition, and Food Systems, established by BIFAD and USAID to lead transdisciplinary evidence gathering to support USAID’s role in accelerating systems change and transformative climate change adaptation and mitigation approaches in agriculture, food systems and nutrition, and in targeting climate finance to benefit smallholder farmers. A list of subcommittee members may be found at this link. The objectives, questions, and proposed methodology of a planned BIFAD-commissioned climate change study, to be guided by the subcommittee, was shared and discussed. 

The meeting included a public question and answer period and facilitated small group discussions. Public input was sought to: 1) identify leverage points across agricultural, food, and nutrition systems (e.g., financial, production, innovation, market, nutrition, risk management, early warning, and humanitarian systems) for transformative change and scaling climate finance to achieve the targets and intermediate results of the USAID Climate Strategy, 2022–2030 and the U.S. Government’s Global Food Security Strategy, 2022–2026; 2) identify enabling systems and conditions that support transformational economic, social, governance, essential services, or humanitarian capacities; and 3) prioritize areas of USAID action areas to facilitate transformative systemic change that is inclusive of underrepresented populations and promotes gender equity and equality. The public was also invited to comment on the subcommittee’s work and to submit names of experts, case studies, evidence, and relevant publications to inform the study.