The Government of Ghana in collaboration with the World Bank and other international and regional partners are holding a high level meeting to brainstorm and share best practices on better ways to manage risks from climate change and water scarcity in agriculture. About 50 participants and experts from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Madagascar, France, UK and USA will take part in the three day event, at Alisa Hotel from May 19-21, 2009. The participants represent governments, famers, development agencies, research and media organizations from a number of African countries. The meeting will highlight some of the changes in the climate in Africa, and its impacts on agriculture. Given the changes in the climate and the many challenges from land degradation, the need for effective responses to better manage the risks of climate change using local and international knowledge is critical. Thus, the meeting will share existing best practices, approaches and technologies that can be used by farmers to help reduce the risks climate change poses. The participants will gain a deeper understanding of some of complexities of the impacts of climate change on agriculture and some practices, technologies and tools that can be part of the process of reducing these risks, exploiting opportunities and improving livelihoods. The meeting will focus on building bridges between the knowledge, farmer actions, and in particular, policies that can facilitate famer organization and extension services to adopt such approaches. The importance of communicating these practical approaches and technologies to the people who can act on them, for example before, during and after droughts, will be emphasized. By the end of the meeting, the participants will agree on the best ways that farmer associations, extension services, agricultural education institutions and policy-makers can collaborate to better manage the risks and opportunities from climate change that will ultimately lead to:

• improved knowledge and skills using existing practices, approaches, tools, technologies
• better agricultural decisions and actions, and
• more sustainable natural resource use.

Source: World Bank Ghana Office