Updates

From July 10^th to 13^th, the PACSMAC team participated in the EADI CEsA General Conference 2023: Towards New Rhythms of Development. Each work package presented a panel on its current research related to climate change and coffee value chain. It was an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas with other researchers and to bring part of the team together in Lisbon for a few days.

The members of Work Package 1 led a panel on climate change and the restructuring of agricultural value chains in the Global South. Dr. Janina Grabs presented the top-down approach, while Dr. Adugna Bekele and Daniel Mwalutolo developed the bottom-up approach from the perspective of each country.

The members of Work Package 2 held a panel on the implications of the Future Climate Scenarios on Arabica Coffee Production. Ng’winamila Kasongi and Melkamu Mamuye presented their analysis based on a landscape approach from the perspective of Tanzania and Ethiopia.

Here is the description of the seed panels (also available on this link):

Global environmental change threatens smallholder livelihoods across the Global South, especially for crops that are sensitive to temperature and precipitation change. Global warming may reduce yields, shrink optimal growing areas, and foment more frequent and widespread pest and disease outbreaks. Impoverished farmers have limited capacity to adapt to climate-related challenges, so these impacts are likely to further entrench them in poverty cycles. Downstream, global buyers for agricultural commodities worry that declining production volumes may threaten their present investments. Anticipating these risks, various actors along agricultural value chains, such as farmers, government agencies, processors, traders, and development-focused NGOs, are experimenting with adaptation and mitigation innovations. These include new cultivars, climate-smart farming techniques and new land-use strategies. These experiments’ success, side effects, and benefits, however, will depend on how the entire value chain responds. Historically, agricultural value chains in the global South have featured substantial power asymmetries, which facilitated extractivist business practices, with the lion’s share of economic benefits accruing in the Global North. These power asymmetries could cause climate adaptation and mitigation innovations to produce paradoxical results. On the one hand, climate-smart agriculture could facilitate upgrading – helping some farmers differentiate themselves and more added value or better market access. On the other, adaptation and mitigation programs could make smallholders even more dependent on lead firms for inputs, expertise and market connections. To date, little empirical work has been done that would help stakeholders anticipate and address such paradoxical outcomes. For this seed panel, we seek contributions that illustrate recent research and/or set future research agendas linking climate change to transformations in farming practices, business strategies, and stakeholder relationships along agricultural value chains.

In April 2023, the PACSMAC country teams in Tanzania and Ethiopia received visits from other team members to engage in joint fieldwork-related activities.

In the first week of April, Prof. Janina Grabs and Prof. Stefano Ponte joined the Tanzanian country team in Dar es Salam for a mid-fieldwork workshop focused on the takeaways of the fieldwork conducted to date. The workshop allowed the team to make adjustments for the rest of the fieldwork and develop ideas for future publications.

After the successful completion of the workshop in Tanzania, the Tanzania country team returned to the field with Prof. Stefano Ponte and Prof. Janina Grabs joined the Ethiopian country team.

The joint activities of the Ethiopian country team and Prof. Janina Grabs focused on conducting downstream interviews with value chain experts in Addis Abeba, and visit Jimma University as well as a selection of forest coffee farms in Jimma.

In addition to work activities, the teams also were able to celebrate local customs such as Easter and have fun together – always important!

From March 28^th to 29^th, three members of the PACSMAC team – Profs. Christine Noe, Gezahegn Berecha and Janina Grabs – had the opportunity to come to the MS-TCDC in Usa River, Tanzania, and participate in the Science Engagement Days workshop organized by the Danida Fellowship Centre. A gathering of over 50 academics from across the African continent and their Danish and international counterparts, the Science Engagement Days aimed to share knowledge and identify best practices on Equitable Partnerships in development research projects.

Besides listening and reacting to keynote talks in plenary sessions, the participants focused on intensive, collaborative work in four breakout sessions on setting the research agenda, mutual learning, equality in authorship, and financing and institutional set-up. They came up with a number of best practices and recommendations to ensure that Southern and Northern partners have equal opportunity in driving agendas, leading publications, and holding responsibility and agency in research partnerships.

These recommendations targeted both best practices within research teams – for instance, motivating junior team members from the Global South to be first and corresponding authors on manuscripts while providing them with continuous coaching along the process – as well as structural changes in universities and funding agencies – for instance, making funding calls topic-independent to give African academics greater agenda-setting power.

The workshop also gave the opportunity to connect with leading researchers from across the African continent, including Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, and South Africa.

The PACSMAC team members were highly present during the Science Engagement Days. For instance, Prof. Christine Noe was spotlighted in outreach videos such as the one above, while Prof. Janina Grabs was a facilitator of the group on equality in authorship.

In addition, the PACSMAC project was highlighted as a case study of best practices in equitable research partnerships by keynote speaker Sarah Ssali, Associate Professor and Dean of the School of Gender Studies at Makerere University, Uganda.

We look forward to taking additional impulses on board to ensure that our project is a truly equitable partnership! Thank you very much to the Danida Fellowship Council for their invitation!

After many months of preparation, the PACSMAC team’s main field work started in mid-January!

In the end of August 2022 we had our second project meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. During this one week project meeting we held workshops covering the themes of preliminary fieldwork, data management, and qualitative analysis in NVivo. Further, we finalized the project’s site selection and participated in the DHL run in Copenhagen, as shown in the picture on the right below. In the left picture you can see the team working collaboratively at Copenhagen Business School.