Extensive livestock grazing is one of the most common and widespread forms of land uses in sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Studies assessing the effects of extensive livestock grazing on vegetation and soils in SSA are inconsistent in the direction and magnitude of study outcomes.

Relying entirely on survey information and personal exchanges with over 70 scientists from within the CGIAR network, this working paper attempts to achieve a better understanding of the scope of social learning related efforts undertaken in CGIAR and main issues of relevance to more current efforts, such as that planned by the CGIAR program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). A wide range of methods was identified, where groups of people learn in order to jointly arrive at solutions to pressing food security problems.

This reports summarizes and synthesizes activities and achievements of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) through the end of 2007. The CPWF is an intiative of the CGIAR designed to take on the global challenge of water scarcity and food security.

The paper is divided into four chapters. The frist chapter is the introduction. Chapter two discusses the conceptualisation of the farming system with reference to the livestock component and reviews some alternative typologies that have been employed or proposed. A typological framework that is consistent with ILCA's objectives is then outlined. Chapter 3 develops a regionalisation of the semi arid zones of sub-Saharan Africa in four orders of increasing scale. The first order sub-division is between "West and North" and "East and South" geographical regions.

This working paper synthesizes knowledge within CGIAR on adaptation measures in agricultural systems, for the benefit of parties and observers preparing submissions to the UNFCCC SBSTA. Experience from CGIAR and partners indicate that adaptation measures covering policy, technological, financial, institutional, and research interventions are being tested and applied in agricultural systems in low-income and middle-income countries.

Because vulnerability is a conceptual construct rather than a directly observable phenomenon,

most vulnerability assessments measure a set of “vulnerability indicators”. In order to identify

the core approaches and range of variation in the field, we conducted a systematic literature

review on local vulnerability to climate change. The systematic review entailed an

identification of frameworks, concepts, and operationalizations and a transparency assessment

of their reporting. Three fully defined relevant frameworks of vulnerability were identified: