The CGIAR Challenge Program "Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security" (CCAFS – www.ccafs.cgiar.org) is a major collaborative endeavour between the international agricultural (CGIAR) and global environmental change (ESSP) research communities, and their respective partners. Research will be aimed at overcoming the additional threats posed by a changing climate to achieving food security, enhancing livelihoods and improving environmental management in the developing world. The main objectives are to:

(i) overcome critical gaps in knowledge of how to enhance - and manage the tradeoffs between - food security, livelihood and environmental goals in the face of a changing climate;
(ii) develop and evaluate options for adapting to a changing climate to inform agricultural development, food security policy and donor investment strategies; and
(iii) assist farmers, policymakers, researchers and donors to continually monitor, assess and adjust their actions in response to a changing climate.

The Program was launched in 2009 for a period of 10 years. This new Program will have 6 research themes:

  1. Diagnosing vulnerability and analysing opportunities (Research leader: Philip Thornton – ILRI)
  2. Unlocking the potential of macro-level policies (Research leader: Jerry Nelson, IFPRI)
  3. Enhancing engagement and communication for decision-making (or linking knowledge with action) (Research leader: Patti Kristjanson, ICRAF)
  4. Adaptation pathways based on managing current climate risk (Research leader: Jim Hansen, IRI, Columbia Univ)
  5. Adaptation pathways under progressive climate change (Jointly led by Andy Jarvis, CIAT and Andy Challinor, Univ. of Leeds)
  6. Poverty alleviation through climate change mitigation (Research leader: Lini Wollenberg, Univ. of Vermont)

The CCAFS director is Bruce Campbell, who is based with the CCAFS secretariat in Denmark at the University of Copenhagen. In April, 2010 at the GCARD meeting in Montpellier, this Challenge Program was ‘fast tracked’ to become one of the first MegaPrograms of the new CGIAR. Each of the 15 centers has a climate change contact point scientist, and they will be working with the CCAFS team to develop the CCAFS MegaProgram over the coming months.