Climate Change Adaptation in Agriculture Workshop

5-6 December , 2013. Lilongwe, Malawi. This workshop covered the SADC region about climate change adaptation in agriculture. The event was hosted by the National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) of Malawi, with support from RCN, MINEDUC and URC.

Participants included climate change and agricultural experts, as well as policymakers and other stakeholders from southern Africa and Europe.

The three main objectives were:

1. To take stock of research in progress on climate change adaptation in Malawi and elsewhere in the southern African region. 
2. To identify and document research gaps in agricultural climate change adaptation, with a view to stimulating and informing new bi-regional research co-operation in climate change adaptation in the agricultural sector, which is the mainstay of African economies;
3. To identify constraints to the uptake of existing technologies and how those constraints could be overcome. This will require an active role by policymakers and business sector stakeholders who would bring their perspectives to bear on the needs and opportunities for bridging information gaps and enhancing uptake, including national and international policies and funding.

The output is a policy paper that will feed into the AU-EC High Level Policy Dialogue (HLPD) on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) cooperation with a view to informing bi-regional research endeavours on climate change adaptation in agriculture.