This consultation workshop aims to develop a unified and integrated agenda for collaborative research, capacity development, and knowledge management on climate change adaptation and mitigation particularly as it relates to agriculture and rural development (ARD) in Southeast Asia. The development of the Umbrella Program on CChAM will be more strategic and anchored on a regional multi-sectoral framework on climate change and reflective of areas where there is willingness to collaborate at the regional level among the participating institutions.
This Umbrella Program on CChAM is not an attempt to develop a new research agenda on climate change nor does it attempt to put all the existing research agenda of the partner institutions under one “umbrella program”. In as much as institutions already have their respective priorities, focus areas on the subject matter, and accomplishments, the expectation is to identify priority areas of convergence and collaboration at the regional and sub-regional levels, where institutions can work together, pool resources, and address gaps or move in directions where their joint efforts provide a strategic advantage for climate resiliency in SEA. It is hoped that the synergy created by the Umbrella Program can produce added value in terms of new knowledge, technologies, capacities, and processes to what is currently being generated by institutions working independently on their respective specific research agenda.
Participants include researchers and representatives of the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources, or the University Consortium (UC), selected partner universities in the Greater Mekong countries, relevant agencies of the ministries of agriculture in Southeast Asian countries, and representatives from research and development organizations/programs.
SEARCA is organizing this regional workshop with partners CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Southeast Asia (CCAFS-SEA) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) - Asia, and with the support of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, the University Consortium, and the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN).
SEARCA works to strengthen institutional capacities toward inclusive and sustainable agricultural and rural development (ISARD) in Southeast Asia through graduate education, research and development, and knowledge management. With the conclusion of its Ninth Five Year Plan (FYP) in which it developed the CChAM Framework 2009-2014, SEARCA sees a need to develop the next phase of CChAM in line with the overall thrust of SEARCA's 10th FYP, which is inclusive and sustainable ARD (ISARD).
CGIAR CCAFS is a collaboration among CGIAR research centers and with over 900 institutional partners around the world. Together, CCAFS partners examine the effects of climate change on agriculture and food security and test options for adaptation and mitigation in close consultation with farmers, policy-makers, donors, and other experts. The CCAFS Southeast Asia Program, which is a partnership of 10 CGIAR Centers operating in Southeast Asia together with national partners, is hosted by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in its Vietnam Office.
CIAT, with its mission to reduce hunger and poverty, and improve human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture, complements the efforts of others by focusing on selected crops and research areas. It develops technologies, methods, and knowledge that better enable farmers, mainly smallholders, to enhance eco-efficiency in agriculture. (Carmen Nyhria G. Rogel)
