National Adaptation Plans: Building Climate Resilience in Agriculture MOOC

There is a crucial connection between climate change adaptation, agriculture and sustainable development. This massive open online course (MOOC) presents key elements for this nexus, such as gender, NAPs, traditional knowledge, and links to other sectors, such as forestry.

Madeleine Guyer

23rd May 2022
2 min read

Level: Introductory
Time commitment: 18 hours
Learning product: online MOOC syllabus
Sector: agriculture
Language: English
Certificate available: no

This course is hosted on UN CC:e-Learnfunded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation – see the SDC Climate Change and Environment Network on weADAPT for more information. Please find the National Adaptation Plans: Building Climate Resilience in Agriculture course, where you must register with UN CC:eLean, log in and then enrol to get full access to course materials.

Introduction

*This article provides an overview of the course. The full course with all quizzes, videos plus learning material can be accessed through a free registration on the UNCC:e-Learn website.

Institutional background and trainer

The MOOC course is developed as part of the “Integrating Agriculture into National Adaptation Plans initiative”. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Development programme (UNDP) have joined together in this programme to support countries as they integrate their agriculture sectors in the national adaptation planning processes. Over 50 instructors have brought the course together from FAO, UNDP, GCF, IFAD which was delivered over 6 weeks in 2017. Material from course is present here.

Who would find this useful?

The MOOC is designed for a broad audience. If you are a decision maker, development practitioner, government official, student or anyone who is interested in climate change adaptation, agriculture and sustainable development, this MOOC is designed for you. Prior knowledge on the topic will be a plus but is not required.

Training material

This is an in-depth course but once enrolled you can access material for the full six weeks course including, videos, lecture notes, quizzes and polls. The titles for the courses each week are: Climate Change Adaptation, Agriculture and Food Security: Introduction International Frameworks and National Adaptation Planning Identifying and Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Risks Identifying and Prioritizing Adaptation Actions in Agriculture Governance, Coordination and Finance Communication, Monitoring and Evaluation

Learning outcomes

Overall, the MOOC aims to equip participants with a better understanding of the interlinkages between climate change, agriculture and food security and the role of National Adaptation Plans. By the end of this course, participants will be able to discuss:

The links between climate change, agriculture and food security;
The role of international agreements, including the 2030 Agenda, Sendai Framework and the Paris Agreement and the National Adaptation Planning process;
Processes and tools for identifying and prioritizing adaptation options in agriculture sectors;
Coordination and governance aspects of implementing adaptation actions in agriculture;
Mechanisms for funding and safeguarding livelihoods in climate change adaptation in agriculture