Building Skills to Track Progress on Strengthening Climate Resilience across Africa

A regional workshop on measuring household resilience to climate and socioeconomic shocks has opened in Addis Ababa, bringing together statisticians and technical experts from 27 African countries.

The three-day event, jointly organised by the African Union Commission and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, aims to ensure consistent reporting on resilience for the final biennial review of the Malabo Declaration.

“This workshop is a milestone in our shared journey to strengthen resilience analysis across Africa,” said Koffi Amegbeto, FAO Senior Policy Officer. “By building the skills and systems needed to measure resilience, we are equipping countries with the tools to design better policies and track progress over time.”

Highlighting the importance of the next phase, Dr. Janet Edeme, Head of the Rural Economy Division in the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission, noted that “as we transition to the Kampala Declaration era and prepare for the implementation of the new Kampala CAADP Strategy, it is essential that we institutionalize the existing tools and methodologies developed, including the RIMA framework, so that countries are empowered to track resilience independently in the future.”

The training is focused on the calculation of indicator 6.1.i of the Malabo targets, which is the percentage of farmers, pastoralists and fisherfolk who improved their resilience to climate change and other shocks.

It forms part of Commitment 6 of the Malabo Declaration on enhancing resilience to climate variability. The workshop is combining technical sessions on data cleaning, validation, and indicator estimation with practical exercises using the Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) methodology developed by FAO.

RIMA helps track changes in resilience over time, adapt interventions, and improve programme design. Since its development in 2008, RIMA has been used in countries across Africa and around the world, and FAO has worked closely with governments, regional bodies and international organisations to build capacity on using the RIMA toolset.

FAO’s collaboration with the AUC and other partners has already led to significant progress. In 2017, no country reported on indicator 6.1.i due to capacity and data gaps. By 2023, 34 countries had reported, enabling the inclusion of the indicator in Commitment 6 scoring.

Following a targeted sub-regional workshop last year, 11 countries have successfully calculated and validated their indicator. This year’s event builds on that momentum, with a focus on expanding capacity to all participating countries ahead of the 2025 Biennial Review reporting of the Malabo Declaration.

Adopted by African Heads of State and Government in 2014, the Malabo Declaration set ambitious targets for agricultural transformation by 2025, including halving poverty, ending hunger, and enhancing resilience.

The Biennial Review process tracks progress against seven commitments. This Addis Ababa workshop marks a final push to ensure all countries can report on resilience for the fifth and last review, and to establish capacity that will serve future monitoring under the post-Malabo agenda.