Developing a Methodology to Evaluate Climate Services for Farmers in Africa and South Asia Workshop Report

The roundtable was held in Kaffrine, Senegal, from May 18-25, 2013, in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Senegal National Agency for Meteorology (ANACIM), and several CGIAR centers. The M&E protocol was designed to have several key features, including being gender-responsive, quantitative, qualitative, community-based, context-specific, iterative, and scalable. The protocol aimed to tease out the differential outcomes of climate services usage for male and female farmers, recognizing that there are often significant differences within gender categories that influence the utility, impact, and uptake of climate services in farmer communities. The development of the M&E protocol was informed by two recent global initiatives to assess the value of climate information services. The first initiative was an expert workshop convened by the Climate Services Partnership (CSP) on March 11-12, 2013, which produced guidelines for the development of subsequent concrete and useable evaluation tools and methods for climate service evaluation. The second initiative was the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) expert meeting on Socio-Economic Benefits (SEB) of Weather and Climate services, held on April 8-11, 2013, under the aegis of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS). The M&E protocol was intended to be tested in the CCAFS benchmark site of Kaffrine, Senegal, as a laboratory to understand meaningful ways to assess value-addition for farmer communities and learn from communities about how climate services have impact. The protocol was designed to capture community feedback and innovation at various stages of the process, drawing on principles of Participatory Action Research (PAR). The roundtable brought together global experts in the area of gender-responsive impact assessment for farmers to develop a useable monitoring and evaluation (M&E) protocol to guide baseline data collection, identify the locally-specific function, benefits, and beneficiaries of climate services, and measure the added-value of climate services for farmers. The protocol links to and informs the climate service evaluation framework developed during the expert meetings on evaluation of the Climate Services Partnership (CSP) and the World Meteorological Organization Socio-Economic Benefits of Climate Services group. The development of the M&E protocol was made possible thanks to the support of several organizations, including the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Engility Corporation, the Climate Services Partnership (CSP), and the Senegal National Agency for Meteorology (ANACIM). The M&E protocol is intended to be applicable to a wide range of different contexts and across CCAFS benchmark sites where climate services work will be upscaled in years ahead. The protocol is expected to provide insights into the function, uptake, and outcomes/impacts of climate services, as well as put a dollar figure on the added-value of climate services for farmer communities. The roundtable was attended by several experts in the field of climate services and agriculture, including Arame Tall and Joyce-Lynn Njinga, who are the authors of the workshop report. The report provides a summary of the proceedings of the roundtable and outlines the key findings and recommendations for the development of the M&E protocol. The M&E protocol is expected to be a valuable tool for evaluating the impact of climate services on farmer communities and will provide insights into the effectiveness of climate services in improving agricultural productivity and food security. The protocol will also inform the development of climate services that are tailored to the needs of farmer communities and will help to identify the most effective ways to communicate climate information to farmers. The development of the M&E protocol is an important step towards improving the effectiveness of climate services and will contribute to the achievement of the goals of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The protocol will also inform the development of climate services that are tailored to the needs of farmer communities and will help to identify the most effective ways to communicate climate information to farmers. The M&E protocol is expected to be a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working in the field of climate services and agriculture. The protocol will provide a framework for evaluating the impact of climate services on farmer communities and will inform the development of climate services that are tailored to the needs of farmer communities. The development of the M&E protocol is an important step towards improving the effectiveness of climate services and will contribute to the achievement of the goals of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The protocol will also inform the development