This chapter analyzes how the interplay of agriculture and social protection programs and policies and their coordinated implementation can create positive synergies that accelerate progress in reducing rural poverty, eliminating hunger, and building resilience and improved well-being, especially for small family farmers.

The 2017–2018 Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR) takes an in-depth look at social protection in rural Africa. First, it summarizes the available evidence on successful implementation of social protection programs in rural Africa. Second, the report helps to fill knowledge gaps related to enhancing the role of social protection in reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience of rural households as Africa embarks on the implementation of the Malabo Declaration commitments and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

As part of IFPRI’s support to CAADP, the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) was established in 2006 to provide policy-relevant analysis, data, and tools necessary to support the formulation and implementation of evidence-based agricultural-sector policies and strategies, as well as to facilitate CAADP policy dialogue, peer review, benchmarking, and mutual learning processes.

This report is primarily for mutual review at the continental level, the process that culminates in the annual CAADP Partnership Platform meeting (CAADP PP) that brings together representatives of the leading Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as well as other regional organizations dealing with agriculture, major bilateral and multilateral development agencies, and private-sector and farmers’ organizations to review overall progress in the implementation of CAADP at the Africawide level.

Experts training on the Biennial Review Database and on the content of the Biennial Report on Malabo Declaration.

Fundamentals of the benchmarking methods used to design the Biennial Review Database.

In light of the growing intensity and frequency of climate change effects, the 2016 ATOR takes an in-depth look at the role of climate-smart agriculture in helping to meet Malabo Declaration goals, including enhancing the resilience of livelihoods and production systems to climate variability.

In the years leading up to 2050, African countries will continue to grow, and many will reach middle-income status. As the agricultural sector grows, it will need to become technologically more sophisticated to withstand the vagaries of climate and market conditions.

Widespread adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices has a positive effect on production and total agricultural output, with a consequent reduction in prices and decrease in the number of people at risk of hunger and the number of children younger than five at risk of malnutrition.

Mixed crop-livestock systems, in which crops and livestock are raised on the same farm, are the backbone of smallholder production in most of Africa south of the Sahara. They have considerable potential for increasing agricultural production for food security, helping farmers adapt to a changing climate, and providing mitigation benefits.

In three regional economic communities–the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)–agroclimatic changes will not only impact agriculture but also countries ability to fully benefit from regional and international trade, especially when rainfed-based agricultural commodities dominate trade flow.