Objective:

Adaptation

Sectors:

Agriculture

Early warning and Environmental assessment

Cross-sectoral enabler:

Governance and planning

Innovation & RDD

Publication date:

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

The CTCN is seeking experts to participate in the upcoming solicitation to provide technical assistance to:

Enhance multi-scalar mapping and research of food security risk, due to the impacts of climate change on rural and urban environments in Jamaica

Deadline: 28 September 2023

According to Jamaica’s Food and Nutrition Security Policy, the island counts with low food production and high dependency on imported food, putting approximately 12.8% (400,000) of Jamaica’s population in food insecurity. As a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), Jamaica is also vulnerable to the negative impacts associated with climate change. This may result in the loss of agricultural lands due to direct erosion, temporal flooding and contamination of the agricultural soil via salination, hence impacting livelihoods, production and economic output. The situation has been further compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic.

While the agricultural producing parishes across the island are well known, significant knowledge and technology gaps still remain. Policy makers as well as sector stakeholders have so far been unable to identify the food insecure regions across the island in relation to climate change. Knowledge on the spatial distribution of current and future food security risks across the island that ranges from the community scale to the parish level is therefore pivotal.

CTCN Support 

Through the technical assistance, the CTCN will support Jamaica to increase its adaptive capacity and resiliency of the agriculture sector. Key questions of how changing climate conditions align with food scarcity and food prices shall be answered.

The purpose of this request is to identify and hire a suitable firm amongst the network members of CTCN to implement a technical assistance on developing a technology tool/software generating a visual representation of food security risk and the spatial vulnerability of food insecure areas across the island to provide decision-makers with a holistic assessment of vulnerability to food insecurity and clarify areas or hot spots that may need to be targeted for intervention strategies.

Expected outcome, outputs and activities include;

• Development of implementation planning and periodical reporting documents;
• Capacity building to a specialized group that will provide oversight on the monitoring and maintenance of the database, as well as the ability to perform the analysis regularly;
• An interactive map/software application to spatially visualize current and future food security risk rates among communities, vulnerable groups and gender by parish within the context of changing climatic conditions;
• Develop and implement a baseline survey administered to a sample of rural and urban areas, including those which have benefitted from climate-smart interventions;
• Improve the economic resilience of farming systems through increased market access and sustainable production;
• Training on sustainable land management and Crop/livestock management.

Please refer to the processes and documentation available at the UN Global Market Place (UNGM) https://www.ungm.org/Public/Notice/21311 and here.

CTCN Keyword Matches:

General social security solutions

Improvement of Agri-food processes