Building on the previous Output?s assessments and reviews communications products will be developed to address specific knowledge management needs of the project. This includes documenting and disseminating lessons, improved media attention on the adaptation agenda with focus on the project area and influencing policy through project learning. This project, as stated earlier, provides BITRI an opportunity to field test strategies and actions/recommendations for climate change adaptation. This output would therefore serve as a necessary feedback mechanism through which successful practices and strategies are endorsed and up-scaled in future action plans. Media attention on project impacts and results is an essential means of broadcasting replicable models to other districts with similar issues. Media publicity will not only inform general public but also provide a channel to other government agencies, especially LEA, Department of Gender Affairs, Community and Social Development, Government Poverty Alleviation Programs and other development sector stakeholders. This output will support organized visits to the project areas for invited officials of national planning, Ministry of Agriculture, Office of the president etc. Targeted exchange visits from adjacent districts and elsewhere in the country will support immediate replication of the model or some of its more successful elements in other vulnerable areas. Specific activities under this output include: ? Developing at least 2 case studies/ lessons learnt on project strategies, approaches and pilots ? Preparing at least 2 policy guidance papers in tandem with these case studies highlighting the important aspects of development policy influence ? A media campaign targeting both print and electronic media generating at least 5 media reports on the project ? One Workshop/seminar to inform policy development at national level ? Two exchange visits from adjacent communities to promote replication potential and bring the adaptation focus in to local development planning processes, especially village development plans.

Consultations with officials and farmers in the district confirm a well-recognized and amply articulated gap in awareness regarding climate change impacts and appropriate adaptation measures. This gap is most evident among the smallholder farmers, who are most at-risk from climate change and service providers immediately linked to them. The capacity of communities and field level service providers (especially in agriculture, and water management) to respond to climate change impacts is weak. Currently there is vague interpretation of the climate science at district level, and climate risk screening (or even environmental screening) is not a part of the normal development process. Extension services are fairly constrained to provide comprehensive service delivery in their technical area, much less advise farmers on how to tackle rainfall variability induced by climate change. Farmers Committee lack knowledge and awareness of climate-related risks, they lack technical knowledge of maintaining their farming projects and lack a plan or finances to implement a plan. In the absence of the project, these deficiencies will likely remain and seriously affect community capacity to initiate spontaneous or autonomous adaptation or to engage in risk-free development. Capacity will be built in the following areas; 1. Developing skills of local level extension workers to promote climate resilient agriculture (drought tolerant varieties) and; 2. To train technical officers, community organizations, in managing rainfall variability in rain fed farming areas as an adaptive element that is absent in local development.

Diligent monitoring and assessment of results and impacts is crucial in order to test effectiveness of the adaptation measures, especially in agriculture and water conservation. The results and best practices also need to be disseminated widely to politicians, policy makers, technocrats and public. The project will serve as a learning model that will allow national technical agencies to test out their own assumptions for community-based adaptation. This will provide the government with the opportunity to review context specific approaches establish best practices and scale up successful activities to achieve resilient communities and ecosystems to climate impacts in a wider environment. Activities under this output will also provide for independent evaluation of project results and analysis of impact on the field at mid-term and end of project (also see the monitoring and evaluation framework for the project). The project has a specific knowledge management output especially targeting the up-scaling of lessons and best practices; and generating opportunity for spontaneous and autonomous adaptation in communities with similar ecological and socio-economic conditions. This output will develop a coherent knowledge management and a range of knowledge products (case studies, policy papers, and technical briefs and media reports) that are widely (and publicly) disseminated. Information and communication is integral to technical outputs where farmer and official climate change risk awareness would be developed. The use of VRA in communities ensures household level risk dissemination and provides a means of measuring adaptation impacts and behavior change through project interventions.

Most youth in the project areas have benefitted from the Government Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development (LIMID) and Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agricultural Development (ISPAAD) programs and since the project hinges on these programs their participation is guaranteed. In addition, some youth are the ones running family farms, either through parent?s old age or inheritance and will be participating in the project activities as farmers on their own right. The youth are also involved in the project data collection and act as vehicles for information dissemination to the wider community through the use of portals and social networks. As farmers they will be engaged in the vulnerability and capacity assessments exercises.

The project intends to produce a policy impacts. NGOs, private sector, civil society and development agents use research evidence to inform programming and investment. Policy makers and investors will be able to use local and contextualized evidence to inform adaptation policy processes. Overall, the study outputs will be used to guide and inform policy makers and advocates in the assessment, adoption and implementation of economically sound climate adaptation strategies for the most vulnerable communities to cope with climate change.

The project is currently being replicated in an agricultural cluster in the North East District in a Cluster farming system, to out-scaling and up-scaling climate-smart agriculture technologies among smallholder farming systems at SAMA cluster in Masunga. The project will generate knowledge on how adoption, out-scaling and up-scaling of Climate-Smart Agricultural (CSA) can be facilitated through proof-of-concept on-farm evidence-based research established using participatory, farmer-centred and community-based tools and approaches. This project is designed to deepen the understanding of indigenous and research-derived knowledge in increasing the adaptive capacities and food security of smallholder farmers through climate-smart and gender-sensitive sustainable approaches.

The project strategy has taken to account the physical and economic vulnerability of small holder dryland farmers? and will deliver a number of substantive socio-economic benefits. For example, both outputs 1 and 2 will deliver specific household-level benefits such as seeds, tools, equipment, and information. Output 2 will deliver benefits at the broader community and local service delivery levels, resulting in stronger farmers committees, better informed extension officials, and timely risk information communication. The project will deliver social benefits such as: 1. Improved food, nutrition and water security at household level 2. Increased capacity to adapt to climate risks 3. Increased women?s participation and income generation 4. Community organization and social cohesion through strong Farmer Committees? 5. Effective and informed service delivery to small holder farmers? households 6. Community empowerment through information, participatory planning and risk mapping Participatory management will bring together earlier disconnected service delivery closer to the farmers and Farmer?s Committees (FC). Through collective implementation of activities the project will aim to dissipate current level of tension and dissatisfaction with agriculture service delivery. Social cohesion within the extension areas will result through collective decision-making on adaptive strategies and equitable support for livelihoods. Extension services are notably weak in some area resulting in farmers depending on the input trader as the main source of information. The project will support the revival of exiting service delivery in target areas by providing information, training, equipment, and monitoring support. This intervention will motivate Extension Officials and restore farmer faith in the government?s extension services. The main Economic benefits derived from the project are: 1. Increased incomes through project related activities such as alternate livelihoods, increased crop production for target community 3. Reduced post-harvest losses and better food storage in target households 4. Home garden-based agro produce (value added) developed in target households 5. Women in vulnerable households will be encouraged to undertake food-based cottage industry in target area 6. Reduction in economic vulnerability during drought season in households in target area There is national demand for diversified drought tolerant crops such as maize, sorghum, millet, beans and groundnut. The bulk of these fetch very good process in the market and local production is encouraged. Drought resistant livestock offers an opportunity for survival and resilience during dry season. Crop produce can be processed to a variety of high-value products through local cottage industry run by women. These products if marketed well will have a high demand in the local market. Both Districts are prone to multi risks and losses in crop, livestock, are common. Developing drought forecasting early warning systems (EWS) will be made sustainable in their implementation by involving community in risk assessment and risk communication through models. Working with existing hazards maps for drought would allow the project to look at more fine-grained vulnerability profiling within Districts, and target early warning and risk reduction better. Environmental benefits of the project include positive impacts on households. Project interventions will improve the ability of the ecosystems to be more robust to climatic variation and to provide the necessary provisioning services to people (and their livelihoods) and to nature. Community consultation workshops during project design demonstrated that farmers and local officials attribute climate change (or at least the localized manifestations of environmental stress such as lack of rain, crop loss and crop damage, reduced soil fertility, pests) to a number of environmentally unsound practices, such as: ? Pollution of land and water ? Pollution of air Consistent with these views, the project outcomes will deliver a number of specific environmental benefits that include: In the target locations project outcomes will deliver a number of specific environmental benefits that include: 1. Soil conservation and reduction of erosion, 2. Improved soil structure and increased biodiversity, 3. Preservation of biodiversity in crop fields to benefit target community 5. Improved water management,

There have been linkages with the GEF FSP implemented on the dryland of Kgalagadi and Ghanzi. As the project has a component on CSA, the project team parternerd with the programme during a dialogue session that was hosted in February 2019. The SGP and BITRI successfully shared on results on this project so that the Kgalagadi Ghanzi dryland can continue supporting some of the activities in the future.

This project focused on understanding the impact of climate change on Botswana?s agriculture sectors, especially on small scale farmers. Droughts, extreme events, increasing temperatures, vector-borne disease outbreaks and changes in water availability are some of the significant risks posed by climate change. This understanding is done through improving climate science and impact assessments, incorporating the views of local communities and decision makers on potential adaptation responses to climate impacts. The innovation is that through the following research areas, Climate proofing growth and development: Provide support to shift government plans through integration of climate change into development plans, policies and programmes to deliver sustainable economic growth, reduce poverty and build resilience to changing climate. Analyze the effects of climate change and potential responses in important crosscutting areas, such as economics and jobs, consumer choice, and environmental justice. Climate Projections: Incorporate emerging climate science into risk assessment using probabilistic climate change projections. Develop and adapt methods to downscale global climate projections to local scale. Monitoring: Develop and implement methods for monitoring climate to better inform policymakers and stakeholders about how Botswana?s climate is changing and the associated impacts. Division is developing an Adaptation Framework to integrate climate risks into development planning.

This study is addressing challenges and risks to agricultural production in the two areas identified through livelihoods and risk analysis aspect of this evidenced based research. Subsequently, communities are the drivers and beneficiaries of the co-created DSS. The dissemination of evidence based performance will be done through demonstration in farmers? fields during field days. Communities will also be involved in the implementation of DSS as role players in participatory scenario planning.

Through mapping the smallholder farmers? perceptions to climate, vulnerability and capacity assessment, they were capacitated to be aware of the long-term implications of climate change on their livelihoods. In this instance, the farmers were compelled to introspect and evaluate what resources are available to them that they can utilize to build resilience. Through the project activities, the farmers are more aware of their inherent capacities to engage each other in activities to reduce vulnerabilities. The smallholder farmers now seek out more the government, parastals, private sector and fellow farmers in their quest to build capacity for climate change adaptation, for example, assistance with building business continuity through interesting their youth into climate smart farming as an alternative to production under climate change. Also, through pooling labor to meet labor shortages due to ageing agric labor force. The technologies will as much as possible maximize the use of local materials to ensure efficiency and affordability. The project tapped these selected farmers? potential as agents for social change to promote climate-smart farming practices within their districts. Hence our vision to be the leading technology solutions provider that transforms lives. Through capacity building and participatory involvement in the research farmers have developed personal interest to an extent of manufacturing their own climate smart technology tools to augment were the government falls short. This picture above shows a ripper that was made from scrap materials collected by the farmer. He has used the ripper for two years in a row even borrowed it to his neighbor farms. This proves the level of commitment that has been born among the farmers because of this project. Public-Private partnerships for Agricultural Transformation The project took an initiative to examines the potential of public?private partnerships (PPPs) to contribute to the achievement of small-scale climate smart agriculture farming transformation objectives. It was mostly focused on building partnerships that aim to develop agricultural value chains through joint agricultural research, innovation and technology transfer as well as building and upgrading agricultural market infrastructures.

Women are usually the most affected because they are usually the head of households and have to multi task taking care of the family and sourcing livelihoods opportunities. An assessment of agricultural programs indicates that women play a dominant role in food production and food security across the country. For instance, women are in the majority in the ISPAAD program (BCA Consult, 2012). Therefore, in recognition of the participation of both men and women in agriculture it is necessary to understand both of their roles and responsibilities and how these may change in the context of current agricultural risks under a changing climate. Subsequently, the livelihoods analysis aspect of this study (BITRI funded component) has already confirmed gender balance by ensuring that 60% of the participants in baseline data collection are women; a very important inclusion at this inception stage. Therefore, their views and inputs have already been taken on board. The project design ensured that gender disaggregated data are collected and analysed separately on males and females. This approach involved asking the ?Who? questions in the agricultural household survey: ?Who provides labour? Who makes the decisions? Who owns and controls the land and other resources? and a description of their individual roles and responsibilities at farm level. When data that is collected, it is disaggregated by gender and this will assist in indicating where there are differences between women and men in terms of impact of risks, access to essential extension services, their vulnerabilities, capacities and perceptions to risk. The purpose of collecting sex-disaggregated data is to provide a more complete understanding of agricultural production and rural livelihoods in order to develop better policies and programs. Specific objectives and activities targeting women are; introduction of post-harvest technologies as an adaptive strategy that contributes to foster climate smart livelihoods for women and improved household incomes, and resultant increased adaptive capacity. The strategy employed will involve training and demonstrations on identified post-harvest technologies to farm women, organized in to self- help groups. There are a number of local micro-finance options that are available to women. Provision of Information on micro finance options and establish linkage with marketing/purchasing networks (through Department of Gender Affairs and Local Enterprise Authority). Post-harvest technologies introduced will be closely linked to the primary crop production of these districts and the alternative livelihoods introduced through the project. The other farmers will benefit from project seminars and demonstrations, as well as from the marketing links established through the project.