IGAD Strengthens Regional Institutions to Scale Climate-Smart Agriculture Across Eastern Africa

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is laying the institutional foundation for scaling climate-smart agriculture, strengthening food security, and improving resilience across Eastern Africa.

The eight-member regional trade bloc convened a meeting of member states with research institutions, Centres of Excellence, and technical partners in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to validate the Assessment Report on the Regional Centres of Excellence (RCoEs) for Climate-Smart Agriculture.

The two-day meeting, held under the World Bank-backed Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP), was to specifically review the identified lessons learned, challenges, and proposed options for a sustainable regional architecture and business model that can effectively support Climate-Smart Agriculture in the region.

The IGAD Region

The IGAD is an Eastern African trade bloc headquartered in Djibouti that focuses on regional peace, food security, environmental protection, and economic integration.

The IGAD region spans 5.2 million square kilometres across Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda with about 6,960 km of coastline along the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Toudjoura, and the Red Sea.

Approximately 70 per cent of the IGAD region is arid or semi-arid land, making the region highly vulnerable to climate-related droughts and floods.

Across the rest of the region, climates and landscapes vary greatly, from cool highlands to swamp areas, tropical rain forests and other features typical of an equatorial region.

A Threat to Agriculture and Economic Growth

The IGAD region has limited agricultural land, with only 7 per cent of the region’s land area classified as farmland. Forests account for 19 per cent of the land area, permanent pastures 28 per cent, while the remaining 46 per cent is relatively unproductive or marginal land, according to IGAD.

In addition to limited agricultural land, the region faces land and environmental degradation, recurrent droughts and dry spells, and a high degree of variability in rainfall patterns, all of which pose a huge threat to the region’s agricultural production and economic growth.

Why Collective Action Matters for the Region

With the IGAD region’s limited agricultural land and its vulnerability to climatic variations, increasing productivity through climate-smart agriculture is not just the right move. It is imperative.

Moreover, that the member states are among the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and share similar economic growth rates and social ethnic groups across their borders, according to IGAD, further necessitates regional cooperation.

Dr. Sylvia Henga, Policy Officer and Food Security Expert, who opened the meeting on behalf of Daher Elmi, Director of Agriculture and Environment Division, IGAD, emphasised the need for collective action.  

“Let us take this opportunity to build consensus on a model that will not only serve today’s needs but also position the region to address future climate and food security challenges,” Dr. Henga said.

“By working together, we can establish stronger regional institutions capable of driving innovation, fostering partnerships, and accelerating the transformation of our food systems.”

Conclusion

The initiative by IGAD indicates a realisation, an acknowledgement that the issues the region faces know no national boundaries. And so, it is only by working together, strengthening regional institutions, that member states can solve shared agricultural challenges and collectively improve food security.

For the IGAD, this is not a one-off project. Through the Centres of Excellence, the regional body is developing a sustainable regional architecture and business model, investing in knowledge and innovation, and improving Eastern Africa’s capacity to cope with increasingly frequent droughts, erratic rainfall, land degradation, and other climate-related risks. This is long-term thinking.

The implications for sustainability are immense. From the environmental perspective, the initiative will promote climate-smart farming, sustainable land management, and climate resilience. Socially, it will improve food security, protect rural livelihoods, and strengthen farmers’ resilience. The governance impact will be felt in enhanced regional cooperation, institutional capacity, and evidence-based policymaking. The people of Eastern Africa will be the better for it.