How can the World Bank improve the Côte d’Ivoire Climate Smart Agriculture Investment Plan?

The World Bank’s Côte d’Ivoire Climate Smart Agriculture Investment Plan (CSAIP) can be an important tool to help the country improve financial and food security while lowering greenhouse gas emissions and responding to climate change. BIC’s review of the CSAIP found it reflects national priorities that also advance the CSA goals of productivity, resilience, and mitigation, but the plan, among other things, needs to better integrate forest-smart policies, outline more specific guidelines on emissions reductions, and dedicate financing to support women’s access to assets and services. 

In January 2019, the World Bank released the Côte D’Ivoire Climate-Smart Agriculture Investment Plan (CSAIP), which aims to fulfill the three pillars of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA): productivity increases, climate resilience, and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The CSAIP was developed collaboratively between the Government of Côte d’Ivoire and the World Bank, with the support of the Adaptation of African Agriculture to Climate Change (AAA) Initiative and technical assistance from the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).  It is intended to align with Côte d’Ivoire’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) submitted to the UNFCCC and National Agricultural Investment Plan II (2017-2025). Considering agriculture is the largest sector of the country’s economy, the CSAIP’s 12 proposed investments have the potential to help Côte d’Ivoire improve food and financial security for more than 2.2 million smallholders while lowering agriculture-related GHG emissions.  

BIC evaluated the Côte d’Ivoire CSAIP to examine the extent to which the plan addresses the three pillars of CSA in an inclusive and sustainable manner. Our evaluation found the CSAIP offers a comprehensive analysis of the climate change risks and financial constraints inhibiting the agriculture sector’s success, and proposes investments that build on national priorities and advance the CSA goals of productivity, resilience, and mitigation. 

However, we find the plan could be improved through further elaboration on specific GHG emissions reduction plans, better integration of forest-smart policies, a more extensive irrigation plan, and dedicated financing to support women’s access to assets and services. To guide the implementation of the Côte d’Ivoire CSAIP, we offer the following recommendations:    

  1. Integrate forest-smart policies more robustly into the CSAIP for crops or livestock with forest impacts. A more explicit commitment to forest-smart policies, and “mainstreaming” consideration of forest benefits across the full range of plans, could further improve agricultural and other outcomes.
  2. Clarify the integration of World Bank efforts with other donors. The CSAIP’s Appendix F offers a detailed list of key actors for each investment project which is a helpful start, but the Bank in coordination with Côte d’Ivoire, should do a better job in "advertising" these investment opportunities to donors and other potential partners.  
  3. Provide a separate section on financing for programs supporting gender-sensitive supply chains. While analysis of women’s role in the agricultural sector is robust, little to no information is included that explicitly defines the flow of finance which will support programmatic solutions for women-led coalitions, cooperatives, and smallholder operations.
  4. Outline more specific guidance for GHG emissions reduction. Carbon sequestration elements could be better integrated into the livestock sector, for example. Incorporating regenerative livestock practices such as rotational grazing, rotation of cropland and livestock land, and silvo-pastoralism could simultaneously sequester carbon and improve farmer resilience.
  5. Implement a social marketing campaign to promote more climate conscious and nutritious staple crops. Increasing education on other varieties of staple crops to complement cassava could increase resiliency and improve nutrition. In promoting a greater variety of staple crops, climate goals and food security can be simultaneously achieved.
  6. Expand the soil fertility investment to recommend better-suited crops and regenerative agriculture practices. Expanding research and education on these crops could reduce fertilizer needs and costs for smallholders.
  7. Include a separate section on water irrigation infrastructure. The CSAIP recommends improved irrigation for crops for the Abidjan market and for climate-smart cocoa investment projects; however, there is opportunity for a more extensive irrigation plan. The World Bank could detail irrigation plans for improved crop performance and water access in a separate section

The Bank should also consider how these recommendations may apply to the implementation of other CSAIPs, since most of these issues– forests, water/irrigation, soil, GHG emissions, gender, donor coordination– are far from unique to Cote d’Ivoire.

For a more in-depth review of the Côte d’Ivoire CSAIP, read the full evaluation here

Note: To date, the Bank has publicly released nine CSAIPs and reported that four others are in preparation.