Resilient Food Systems is one of the three Integrated Approach Pilots funded by the Global Environment Facility. Implementation is led by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, in collaboration with 12 African countries and several regional partners. The five-year programme is committed to fostering sustainability and resilience for food security in sub-Saharan Africa. As an integral part of this regional initiative, the Enhancing the Integrated Landscape Management Project in Nigeria is contributing to the collective impact of the Resilient Food Systems Programme.
Tag: Agroecology
National Agroecology Strategy for Food System Transformation in Ethiopia (2026–2040)
Agriculture is Ethiopia’s primary livelihood source, contributing one-third of GDP and employing over 80% of the population. Yet the sector faces climate change, pest outbreaks, soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and persistent food insecurity. Agroecology—an integrated approach optimizing interactions between plants, animals, humans, and the environment—offers a pathway to resilience and sustainability.
The National Agroecology Strategy (NAES) 2026–2040 provides a coherent framework to scale agroecological practices nationwide. Developed through inclusive consultations led by the Ministry of Agriculture, NAES aligns with Ethiopia’s National Agroforestry Development Strategy, constitutional commitments to the Right to Development and Right to Adequate Food, and the paradigm shift outlined in the 2024 Agricultural and Rural Development Policy.
Strategic objectives include advancing sustainable farming technologies, integrated pest management, soil health, climate adaptation, strengthening seed systems, promoting local breeds, crop-livestock integration, and eco-friendly mechanization. NAES positions agroecology as central to food system transformation, ecosystem restoration, and climate resilience.
The five Gliessman levels of food system transformation and the related HLPE 13 principles of agroecology
The agroecology transition framework outlines a stepwise transformation of food systems from input efficiency (Level 1) to building a new global food system rooted in fairness and justice (Level 5). Supporting principles include recycling local nutrients, soil health management, animal welfare, economic diversification, social values and diets, connectivity, land and resource governance, participation, and fairness. Together, these actions scale from field to farm to food system, embedding agroecology into both production and governance.
Agroecology Transformative Partnership Platform (TPP) Community of Practice (CoP). Connecting people for agroecological transitions
The Agroecology TPP Community of Practice (AE-TPP CoP) is a dynamic digital platform that brings together people who are passionate about agroecology. It connects researchers, farmers, donors, policymakers, extension agents, students and practitioners in one collaborative space.
National Agroecology Strategy for Food System Transformation in Ethiopia, 2026 to 2040
Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood and employment in Ethiopia, as well as the country’s main generator of foreign currency. Smallholder farmers, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists are responsible for approximately 95 percent of the nation’s agricultural output. However, the sector faces numerous challenges, including climate change, limited access to modern technology, pests and disease outbreaks, soil degradation, land fragmentation, post-harvest loss, and inadequate institutional services and infrastructure.
Cognizant of Ethiopia’s dependence on agriculture and its vulnerability to food insecurity and climate-related risks, agroecology has emerged as a promising pathway to transform the country’s food system. It leverages ecological principles and local knowledge to promote sustainable farming, making it particularly relevant in contexts with diverse ecosystems and socioeconomic challenges. It has a multitude of benefits, including enhancing soil health and fertility, increasing biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, improving food security and nutrition, empowering smallholders and preserving traditional knowledge, minimizing reliance on external inputs, and improving rural livelihoods. Recognizing the potential of agroecology in transforming food systems, there is a growing interest among the government, NGOs and other development partners in Ethiopia. Despite its potential, the widespread adoption of agroecological practices was hindered by barriers such as limited political support, insufficient investment, low technological capacity, lack of community engagement, environmental pressures and gaps in legal and policy frameworks.
Floral resource strips enhance parasitoid abundance and diversity in apple orchards and promote agroecological advances in a South African biosphere reserve
Agricultural intensification drives insect declines, including that of parasitoids, through landscape simplification and extensive use of synthetic pesticides. Spatially heterogeneous agricultural landscapes are potentially important biodiversity reservoirs where non-crop habitats may support populations providing ecosystem services to farming. However, there is a need to find methods to support this transition to more sustainable farming and support the progressive concept of biosphere reserves. We focus here on the relationship between apple orchards and sclerophyllous natural fynbos vegetation in the megadiverse Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve, Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. We established patches of floral resources within apple orchards, which are embedded in landscapes, equivalent to the transition zone of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve (KBR), with varying proportions of natural habitat in a 500-m radius around orchards. We assessed the role of these enhanced floral resources for supporting parasitoid abundance, species richness and diversity inside orchards and compare these metrics to those in ruderal vegetation around orchards and in nearby natural vegetation. Further, we assessed the effect of semi-natural vegetation in the surrounding landscape mosaic on parasitoids in orchards. Floral enhancement improved parasitoid abundance and influenced assemblage composition within apple orchards. However, non-crop ruderal habitat immediately adjacent to orchards supported greater abundance and richness of parasitoid species, while natural fynbos supported even richer parasitoid assemblages. Vegetation within orchards and landscape complexity enhanced parasitoid assemblages inside and surrounding the orchards. Our study shows that increasing floral resources within orchards improves local diversity of parasitoids within agroecosystems in the Biosphere Reserve. In doing so, this improves levels of biodiversity and increases parasitoid richness within the biosphere transition zone, supporting a shift from conventional production to a more biodiversity-friendly agroecological approach.
Local Indicator Selection Process (LISP): For designing context-specific agroecological performance assessments
How can agroecological performance be assessed in ways that are both locally meaningful and globally credible? The Local Indicator Selection Process (LISP) offers a practical, participatory answer. Developed and tested across diverse contexts, this guide supports teams in co-designing indicators that reflect local priorities while remaining aligned with broader agroecological assessment frameworks.
Grounded in the Holistic Localized Performance Assessment (HOLPA) Framework, LISP provides step-by-step guidance for facilitators and project managers to convene stakeholders, articulate shared visions, and translate them into robust, measurable indicators across agricultural, environmental, social, and economic dimensions. The process balances scientific rigor with inclusivity, ensuring indicators are meaningful, feasible, and responsive to real-world change.
Designed for use within Agroecology Living Landscapes (ALLs) but adaptable far beyond them, this publication is a hands-on resource for anyone seeking to generate credible evidence of agroecological transitions, whether for community monitoring, project evaluation, or investment decision-making. LISP puts local knowledge at the center of performance assessment, where it belongs.
Resilient Food Systems 2022 Workshop Report [20-23 September 2022, Blantyre, Malawi]
Opening remarks at the RFS Malawi workshop were delivered by Jean‑Marc Sinnassamy, Senior Environmental Specialist at the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and Geoffrey Mamba, Principal Secretary for Irrigation Services, Ministry of Agriculture, Malawi. The guest of honor, Hon. Lobin C. Lowe, MP and Minister of Agriculture, welcomed participants to Blantyre, the “Warm Heart of Africa.” He expressed strong support for the RFS Malawi project, citing visible improvements in food security within project areas. The minister emphasized that government ministries in Malawi have long collaborated with organizations to restore degraded landscapes and improve smallholder livelihoods, while continuing to invest in resilience against droughts, floods, and other climate‑related disasters. He highlighted the uniqueness of the Enhancing the Resilience of Agro‑ecological Systems Project (ERASP), noting its integration with other programmes such as PRIDE to support irrigation education and incentivize upstream benefits through beekeeping and livestock pass‑on initiatives.
Resilient Food Systems: Programme Highlights 2022
2022 marked the fifth year of the Resilient Food Systems (RFS) programme. As in previous years, milestones were celebrated on the path toward sustainable food security in sub‑Saharan Africa, yet the year was unique in its outcomes. Originally scheduled to close at the end of 2022, the programme received a six‑month, no‑cost extension until 30 June 2023 (with some projects continuing beyond) to strengthen sustainability of activities. Results validated the integrated approach piloted since 2017, with indicators showing strong progress. Cross‑country dialogue facilitated through the programme further supported implementation of resilience mechanisms in national projects. The 2022 reporting period was marked not only by quantitative achievements but also by clear connections between agroecological approaches and smallholder livelihoods. By integrating these themes, RFS projects are positioned to scale up and out beyond the programme’s lifetime, transforming the lives of millions in project areas through collective action.
Developing a conceptual framework for a citizen science-based agroecology self-assessment tool
Introduction: Agroecology offers a promising approach to strengthen, and revolutionise, smallholder food and agricultural systems. Unfortunately, the assessment of agroecology impact at different scales and contexts is hindered by a lack of data and a lack of awareness of the potential of agroecology. Citizen science approaches are, however, demonstrating a knowledge revolution where learning is vested in the hands and tools of the farmers. The self-correcting mechanisms, that citizen science offers, enable the farmers to learn about and change their practices through the evidence they discover. In this way, the ability to change comes from within farmers’ experience and practices rather than farmers receiving information and knowledge from the outside. The purpose of this research work was to develop an accessible citizen science-based Agroecology Self-Assessment (ASA) tool framework. Methods: This proposed ASA framework is purely conceptual, at this stage, and encompasses both physical and digital tools that can be used to assess agroecological practices and has the potential to address gaps related to agroecology performance assessments, data generation and knowledge-sharing. Furthermore, the proposed tool could lead to the development of a citizen science community of practice to empower smallholder farmers to collaborate and share both new and indigenous knowledge practices. Through fieldwork, the feasibility of using a mobile application to both collect data on various agroecological indicators, such as soil health, biodiversity, and water management, as well as socioeconomic factors related to agroecology was investigated. Results and discussion: The findings from the fieldwork showed that there is interest by smallholder farmers and agricultural extension officers in the use of citizen-science tools to complement and enhance agroecological practices. The conceptual design and framework for the ASA tool was developed using the information from a desktop-based literature review and findings from discussions with smallholder farmers, researchers and agricultural extension officers. It is envisaged that the ASA tool, once in operation, will provide smallholder farmers with personalised feedback based on household and field assessments, foster knowledge sharing and self-correcting mechanisms. Such applied practices enable, and strengthen, evidence-based decision-making. The study concludes that the ASA tool is undoubtably needed and should include relevant practical assessment tools.