Agricultural production and soil use are at a high risk of being strongly affected by global climate change, having large repercussions on farmers’ food security and rural livelihoods. To ensure sustainable food production for a growing global population and farmers’ livelihoods, as well as to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, agroecological practices that improve and rehabilitate agricultural soils are urgently needed.

Under the umbrella of the BMZ-funded Global Programme Soil Protection and Rehabilitation for Food Security (ProSoil) , the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in 2021 launched an EU-co-funding called ProSilience to promote the agroecological transition towards sustainable agri-food systems in selected partner countries. ProSilience is part of the EU DeSIRA initiative (Development of Smart Innovations Through Research in Agriculture) and covers the ProSoil partner countries Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya and Madagascar. The ProSoil partner countries Burkina Faso, India and Tunisia are also subject of some ProSilience activities such as leadership development or a methodological guidance to conduct economic analyses.

To be successful, the promoted agroecological practices must be based on thorough scientific research and expert wisdom, including knowledge of the interlinkages between climate change and the physical, ecological, and socio-economical dimensions of agriculture. Since measurable good practices are still insufficient, further scientific investigation is needed on the costs and benefits of agroecological practices, their impact on rural livelihoods, economy, ecology and their adaptation and mitigation benefits. Although a lot of different methodologies exist to analyze the socioeconomic and environmental evidence, not all of them are applicable to interventions in Development Cooperation because they are very knowledge intensive and can be time-consuming.

In June 2022, HFFA Research was commissioned by GIZ to develop a methodological guidance for GIZ staff and their partners to accompany the preparation and implementation of such analyses and offer the frame for a common approach among the different country packages on how to conduct socio-economic analyses and valuation of ecosystem services at ProSoil (and similar DC programmes) in the future.

During the assignment, our team will elaborate a methodological guide for conducting socio-economic analyses in ProSoils’ partner countries to assess costs and benefits of agroecological practices for farming households as well as to assess the environmental and climatic effects at (agro)ecosystem and societal level. One important part of the assignment will be summarizing the results from already conducted analyses at ProSoil targeted to respective stakeholders from political institutions, donor agencies and GIZ staff. Throughout the assignment period, which ends in October 2023, we will further provide backstopping and advisory services to ProSoil’s steering unit and its country packages for the implementation of economic analyses which are already being prepared.

For more detailed information on this project, please contact us.