1. Localisation: Close collaboration with local stakeholders cascaded the adoption of CSA practices amongst smallholder farmers 

The NURI team employed their version of a ‘bottom-up’ approach by closely and regularly consulting with participating smallholder farmers and involving key local partners such as the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the National Agriculture Research Organisation (NARO), District Local Governments (DLGs) and Lower Local Governments (LLGs) in planning and implementation.[4] This localisation strategy worked well; according to NURI programme reports, 93% of the participating smallholder farmer households adopted at least three new agronomic practices after their CSA training. 

Joseph Ebinu, NURI’s acting Programme Management Advisor, explained how the localisation component helped achieving success: “The bottom-up approach worked very well because it addressed the farmers’ needs exactly. By the time implementation started, it was what the stakeholders were expecting. Budget lines and stakeholder roles and responsibilities were very clear, so there was buy-in from the beginning. NURI held regular consultative meetings with OPM and other partners to address challenges. Extension staff and local government stakeholders were provided with capacity building using relevant locally-based knowledge partners. We also held annual stakeholder meetings at the national level, including relevant ministries, development partners, [Denmark] embassy, and DLGs, which served as accountability for the year.”

DLGs played a central role in cascading the use of CSA practices to smallholder farmers. Dr. Dratele Christopher, Moyo District Production Officer, shared that DLGs supervised the NURI team and provided technical backstopping. This ensured that CSA programming was effectively integrated into DLG agriculture extension services and could be continued even after the project timeline. As of 2024, smallholder farmer groups that participated in NURI’s CSA trainings are still getting agriculture extension services from their respective DLGs.

NURI also hired refugees and host community members as extension staff. Joel Bayo, a Climate Smart Agriculture Coordinator, highlighted the importance of hiring locally: “They [staff] understood the language, culture and community behaviour, so they knew how to manoeuvre. They played a crucial role in providing training, facilitating communication, and ensuring the programme’s relevance to the local context.”

Through its localised and collaborative approach, NURI fostered the widespread uptake of CSA practices, laying a foundation for long-term climate resilience and sustainability in Northern Uganda refugee-hosting communities.

 2. Resilient design: NURI set up their CSA programmes for success beyond the project scope.

NURI’s programmes, including CSA, were tactfully designed with the intention to have them succeed beyond the four-year project scope. Resilient design in NURI’s CSA programmes constituted four main components: i)the selection of viable crop species, ii)flexibility to support innovation, iii)linking CSA with other NURI pillars and iv)focusing on empowerment and knowledge transfer.

         a) Selecting viable crop species enabled continuous cultivation by smallholder farmers.

To choose the most suitable crop species, NURI, in collaboration with DLG agriculture extension staff, conducted a comprehensive assessment considering various factors, such as a crop’s potential to thrive in specific locations, market availability, participating farmers’ knowledge of the crop, and its suitability to the area’s agroecology. To ensure the viability of the selected crop species, the extension staff established learning and seed multiplication sites. These sites served as testing grounds where the growth and adaptability of the chosen crop species were closely monitored before distribution to farmers. Farmers made informed decisions on the types of crop species they wanted to cultivate based on the knowledge they obtained on crop yield quantities and average prices. The extension staff also trained farmers in intercropping, timely land preparation, the cultivation of drought tolerant, fast-maturing and pest/disease resistant varieties, soil and water conservation and post-harvest handling and marketing of selected strategic crops.

NURI’s meticulous selection process of viable crop species enabled smallholder farmers to grow crops well-suited to their local environment and, as such, promoted sustainable agriculture practices and technologies.

         b) NURI’s CSA programmes allowed for flexibility to support innovation.

According to Joel Bayo (CSA Coordinator) flexibility was one of the most outstanding features of NURI’s CSA programmes. Bayo shared that when CSA activities began, NURI had a well-established curriculum. But during implementation, some changes were made to align with contextual realities. An example of CSA curriculum adjustment was the adoption of the farmer-to-farmer extension. When the agriculture extension staff’s ability to reach every farmer proved difficult, a few members of each farmer group received hands-on mentorship in tree management practices and were tasked to cascade the skills to fellow farmers, with the extension staff only providing support in case of gaps. The approach resulted in increased outreach of extension services, uptake and the sustained survival of tree species.[5]