Vietnam: CCAFS-SEA holds workshop on communicating with greater impact

Written by Bernadette Joven

The Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Regional Program for Southeast Asia (CCAFS-SEA) recently concluded a collective engagement and communication program workshop at the Agricultural Genetics Institute in Hanoi, Vietnam on 29-30 May.

The workshop participants drew insights from best practices of CGIAR member-centers, developed a roadmap to actively engage partners, and draw an overall communication plan to support the implementation of CCAFS research agenda and priorities.

“Results of this communication workshop will feed into the overall CCAFS regional impact pathway, which will be finalized in a workshop to be held on October 2014,”said Dr. Leo Sebastian, CCAFS-SEA’s regional program leader. The workshop output will also serve as the platform for information sharing and communication engagement on climate change issues among the centers.

Participants included heads and senior communication staff from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Center for International Forestry Research, International Potato Center, World Agroforestry Centre, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, International Water Management Institute, International Rice Research Institute, CCAFS staff, and selected media partners in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and the Philippines.

To come up with substantive inputs for the CCAFS impact pathway, experiences and learning in the current communication and knowledge sharing initiatives among participating CGIAR centers were harnessed. Highlighted in the brainstorming and workshop sessions were potential engagement strategies and identification of communication needs and complementary tools and platforms that could help catalyze behavior change among the ‘next-users’ (e.g. government, academe, civil society, development partners etc.) who directly work with ‘end-users’ (e.g. farmers, fishers etc.) in the climate change adaptation and mitigation continuum. Measures of collective performance were also outlined to gauge stakeholder impacts and outcomes.

CCAFS-SEA, the newest region of the CCAFS global network, provides a platform for credible and authoritative scientific information, and knowledge and tools on agriculture and food security in the context of climate change. The CCAFS communication network could help amplify CGIAR centers’ initiatives to help farmers adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

A huge part of IRRI’s research contributes toward making rice production sustainable and environment-friendly through the development of climate-smart rice varieties that can tolerate effects of climate change like flood, drought, and salinity.  IRRI also developed “alternate wetting and drying” (AWD) that not only lessens the amount of water used in producing rice but also reduces the emission of the greenhouse gas methane from rice paddies.

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