Developing a Climate-Smart Agriculture Strategy at the Country Level: Lessons from Recent Experience

This technical document aims to highlight recent experiences with country-level implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) to identify some key lessons to incorporate in ongoing efforts to expand the use of the approach in developing countries. Section 1 describes the evolution of the concept of CSA since the Hague conference. Section 2 introduces the building blocks for developing a CSA strategy and combines them into a coherent framework. In sections 3 to 6 the paper goes into more depth on the building blocks, the data needed and potential approaches for prioritizing action. Finally section 7 provides some guiding principles on CSA investments. This background document has been prepared for the Second Global Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change organized in Hanoi, Vietnam, from 3-7 September 2012.