Policy Brief | Adaptation, Resilience & Mitigation Through Agroecology

Africa’s Food Systems Are at a Crossroads

As the 64th session of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies (SB64) opens on 8 June 2026 at the World Conference Center Bonn (WCCB) in Bonn, Germany, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) releases a landmark policy brief that positions agroecology as an indispensable pathway for climate action across the African continent.

African food systems are grappling with a multi-layered crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, rising food prices, debt distress, widening inequalities, and volatile international supply chains — compounded by geopolitical tensions that are reshaping global food, energy, fertilizer, and finance systems. The majority of Africa’s food is produced by small-scale farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, and indigenous communities — the very people most exposed to climate shocks while contributing the least to global greenhouse gas emissions.

Current projections warn that yields of staple crops such as maize, millet, and sorghum could decline by as much as 30% in several African countries by 2050 if adaptation measures remain inadequate. The climate crisis is estimated to cost African economies up to 5% of GDP annually, deepening food insecurity for millions of smallholder farmers who depend on rain-fed agriculture.

“SB64 presents a critical opportunity for Parties to move beyond procedural dialogue toward implementation-oriented outcomes that advance sustainable food systems and agriculture within climate action.”

Three Pillars, One Transformative Framework

The policy brief addresses three interconnected thematic areas at the heart of SB64 negotiations.

1. The Sharm el-Sheikh Joint Work (SJWA) and the future of agriculture under the UNFCCC. As the four-year SJWA programme approaches its conclusion, AFSA calls for a strengthened, implementation-oriented framework that places agroecology at the centre of future climate action in agriculture and food systems. Agroecology featured prominently at the first in-session SJWA workshop at SB62 in Bonn in June 2025 — endorsed by the African Group of Negotiators, the European Union, the LDC Group, and civil society — and was included as a standalone paragraph in the draft decision at COP30.
2. Agriculture and food systems within the Just Transition Work Programme (JTWP). Global just transition discussions remain heavily centred on energy systems and industrial decarbonisation, while agriculture and food systems — the foundation of livelihoods for hundreds of millions of Africans — remain underrepresented. AFSA argues that agroecology offers one of the most comprehensive pathways to just transitions, simultaneously addressing environmental, social, economic, and cultural dimensions of transformation — placing people, not commodities, at the centre.
3. Adaptation, the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and the Belem–Addis Vision. As negotiations shift from framework-building to implementation, AFSA calls for greater recognition of agroecology as a key adaptation pathway for agriculture and food systems, with particular emphasis on locally led adaptation, community institutions, and equitable access to adaptation finance for small-scale food producers.

What AFSA Is Asking of Parties

AFSA urges Parties at SB64 to take the following actions:

1. Recognise Agroecology as a Central Pathway — not as a marginal alternative, but as a proven, science-backed approach for equitable adaptation, just transitions, biodiversity restoration, and sustainable food systems transformation.
2. Embed Food Systems in Implementation-Oriented Climate Processes — prioritising locally led adaptation, equitable climate finance, community rights, democratic governance, and the leadership of small-scale food producers, women, youth, pastoralists, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples.
3. Establish Accountability and Transparency in Climate Finance — ensuring resources reach frontline communities and deliver real impact on the ground, not locked in complex procedures or channelled only toward large-scale actors.
4. Strengthen Technology Development and Transfer — prioritising locally adapted, accessible, and non-dependent technologies that build on indigenous and traditional knowledge systems, rather than reinforcing external technological dependency.
5. Invest in Long-Term Capacity Building — supporting cross-learning, participatory action research, community-led extension services, territorial market development, and local institutions capable of sustaining locally led adaptation over the long term.

The brief also addresses the critical question of means of implementation and climate finance, noting that developing countries will need between USD 215–387 billion annually for adaptation by 2030 (UNEP, 2023), while existing finance flows fall far below that threshold — and too much of what is available arrives as loans rather than grants, compounding debt burdens for already vulnerable nations and communities.

“Delays in operationalizing implementation mechanisms directly translate into worsening vulnerability for millions of small-scale food producers already facing escalating climate shocks.”

The brief is grounded in scientific consensus from the HLPE, FAO, and IPCC, and draws on comprehensive field evidence from more than ten African countries and over 100 documented agroecology case studies — from Senegal to Zimbabwe, Malawi to Tanzania — demonstrating that agroecological approaches reduce production costs, restore soil fertility, strengthen biodiversity, and build the social cohesion that allows communities to recover from climate shocks.