Enhancing Climate-Resilient Agriculture in Liberia
Introduction
The project, 'Enhancing Resilience to Climate Change by Mainstreaming Adaptation Concerns into Agricultural Sector Development', aims to to enhance the resilience of Liberia's agricultural sector. The focus is on enhancing resilience to increasing rainfall variability. The project is working to achieve this through the diversification of crop cultivation and small ruminants rearing; modifying the timing of crop cultivation in response to changing rainfall patterns; intercropping, irrigation and optimization of lowland/swamp farming practices; pest control, including fencing of farms against rodents, bird scare scrolls, regular weeding, and the use of echoing bells; and, maintaining fast growing nitrogen fixing tree species to improve soil fertility and using multiple-purpose tree species on farmlands to maintain forest cover.
This UNDP-GEF project is supporting the ongoing process to revitalize the agriculture sector, and ensure that adaptation to climate change is integrated into the revitalization process. Activities include integrating concerns into relevant policies and planning processes at the state and national levels, and capacity development for individuals in national agencies focusing on agriculture and in pilot counties, and farmers. Additional activities include demonstration of risk reduction strategies and measures at pilot sites and strengthening technical capacity to integrate climate change risk management into farmer level agricultural capacity.
Project details
This project fully reflects the priority measures identified by the Republic of Liberia’s NAPA, and will contribute to the country’s development and achievement of critical Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Agriculture, the main livelihood activity and one of the driving forces of Liberia's economy, is a leading priority for the government.
This is Liberia’s second LDCFs proposal and is identified as top NAPA priority. The profile of the priority was described as follows. Overall objectives: The primary objective of the project is to reduce vulnerability of farmers to climate change by diversifying crop farming through the cultivation of soybeans, lowland rice and small ruminant rearing. The major goals of the project include (1) to reduce to a considerable extent the impacts of extreme effects of weather on farm productivity; (2) to encourage and promote the diversification of sustainable agricultural productivity; (3) to increase the food production level of farm families. Expected results include (1) rural communities’ capacities strengthened; (2) increase in sustainable livestock and crop production; (3) poverty levels at both national and household levels reduced; (4) farmers’ income increased due to diversifying agricultural production; (5) malnutrition levels among rural communities reduced.
Signature programmes:
Thematic areas:
Level of intervention:
Key collaborators:
Primary beneficiaries:
Subsistence farmers in Liberia
Implementing agencies and partnering organizations:
Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Liberia
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Project status:
Completed
Location:
Rural
Financing amount:
$2,381,400
Co-financing total:
$6,345,122
Key results and outputs
The project objective is to increase resilience of poor, agriculturally-dependent communities and decrease vulnerability of agricultural sector to climate change in Liberia
Outcome 1 : Strengthened institutional and individual capacity to plan and manage climate change in the agriculture sector in Liberia
- Output 1.1: CRM and adaptation capacity in the agricultural sector developed of key technical stakeholders in the ministry technical departments, in parastatals, NGOs and in research institutes (especially those responsible for preparing policies and plans and for overseeing investments).
- Output 1.2: In county planners and extension workers have the technical capacity to support communities on climate change, by providing advice on climate change impacts on agriculture and on alternative approaches and measures.
- Output 1.3: Liberian tertiary education system adapted to produce technicians, engineers and scientists knowledgeable about adapting to climate change
- Output 1.4: Raised awareness of national leaders to the threat of climate change to agriculture (e.g. MOA leaders, related Ministries and agencies, the Climate Change Committee, Cabinet, Food Security and Nutrition Technical Committee [FSNTC], Agriculture Coordinator Committee [ACC]).
- Output 1.5: Climate change and adaptation mainstreamed into LASIP and other key agricultural policy initiatives (e.g. Land Policy Reform, Enhanced Land Husbandry drive under LASIP)
Outcome 2: Innovative, sustainable, socially appropriate adaptive measures piloted at the community level.
- Output 2.1: A baseline analysis of current livelihood and natural resource use strategies and their vulnerabilities to climate change undertaken at two ‘demonstration sites’ and community adaptation strategies and plans in place.
- Output 2.2: Local community-based adaptation strategies and plans implemented: At least four adaptation and locally adapted innovations enhancing resilience to climate change tested at demonstration sites.
- Output 2.3: County agriculture plans in Bong and Grand Gedeh account for potential climate risks and incorporate building of climate change resilience as a key component.
- Output 2.4: Agricultural policies and donor investments are guided by adaptation learning at demonstration sites and integrate a land-use and livelihood strategy that helps local farmers build critically needed climate change resilience
Reports and publications
Reports and Publications by country teams
News article
Quarterly Updates
ProDocs
PIFs
Monitoring and evaluation
Project M&E procedures will be designed and conducted by the project team and the UNDP-Country Office, in accordance with established UNDP-GEF procedures. The M&E process includes detailed ongoing monitoring and reporting procedures, external mid-term and final reviews. These reviews will be supplemented by the conventional annual Tripartite Reviews, Mid-term Review and the Terminal Tripartite Review required by UNDP procedures.
The Project Management Unit (PMU) in conjunction with the Project Board will develop a detailed schedule of project review meetings, which will be incorporated into the inception workshop report. This schedule will include time-frames for Tripartite Reviews, Project Steering Committee and Technical Support Mechanism Meetings and other relevant advisory and coordination mechanisms. Day-to-day monitoring of implementation progress will be the responsibility of the Project Manager (PM) based on the Annual Work Plan (AWP) and its indicators.
The PM and UNDP-CO will undertake the quarterly progress monitoring of the project implementation. This monitoring will be based on the project’s performance indicators which would have been fine-tuned in consultation with the stakeholders during the inception workshop. The targets and indicators may be revised annually as part of the internal evaluation process.
UNDP will conduct visits to the pilot sites based on the agreed schedule in the project's Inception Report/Annual Work Plan to assess first hand project progress. Other members of the Project Board may also join these visits. A Field Visit Report will be prepared by UNDP and will be circulated no less than one month after the visit to the project team and Project Board members.
Annual monitoring will occur through the tripartite review (TPR). This is the highest policy level meeting of the parties directly involved in the implementation of the project (i.e. MEPN and UNDP-CO). The project will be subjected to TPR at least once every year, the first one to be held within the first twelve months since the start of full implementation. With support from the PM, the MEPN will prepare an Annual Project Report (APR) and submit it to UNDP-CO at least two weeks prior to the TPR for review and comments. The APR will serve as the basis for assessing the performance of the project in terms of its contribution to the intended outcomes through outputs and partnership work. The APR will provide an accurate update on the project results, identify major constraints and propose future directions.
The Terminal Tripartite Review (TTR) will be held in the last month of operations. The TTR considers the implementation of the project as a whole, paying particular attention to whether the project achieved its objectives and contributed to the broader environmental objective. It decides whether any actions are still necessary, particularly in relation to sustainability of project results, and acts as a vehicle through which lessons learnt can be captured to feed into other projects.
The Project Management Team will be responsible for the preparation and submission of the following reports which will form part of the monitoring process: inception report, annual project report, project implemtation report, quartely progress reports, periodic thematic reports, technical reports, project publications and the project termination report
The project will be subjected to at least two independent external evaluations at the mid-point and at the end of the project. The final evaluation will look at impact and sustainability of results, including the contribution to capacity development.
The project will be audited annually, using the National Execution Modality by the Office of the Auditor General. Audit reports and follow up action plans will be endorsed and monitored by UNDP
Links
Contacts
- The project fostered a partnership with a local agriculture NGO called Community of Hope Agriculture Project (CHAP) for the introduction and up-scaling of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) the pilot counties of the project.
- The project also collaborated with CARE Liberia in awareness and sharing of adaptation lessons with county stakeholders including during training sessions for students in Bong County. CARE has been piloting conservation agriculture in one of the pilot sites in Bong County called Bellemu and the lessons from that intervention informed the CCAAP's approach to the testing of innovation concerned with using organic materials for soil nutrient replenishment.