Driving policy coherence and strengthening institutions to advance socio-ecological gains

Thriving Landscapes, Vibrant Futures Blog 3 of 4

Achieving socio-ecological gains at the landscape level requires coherent policies and robust institutions. Recognizing this, CGIAR’s Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program (MFL SP) collaborates with partners to align policies and strengthen institutions at sub-national, national and regional levels. The program builds on previous CGIAR and partner innovations in the policy arena, co-generating evidence and tools with policymakers at national and sub-national levels to inform more inclusive, effective policies, strategies, and investments. These coordinated efforts create an enabling environment for systemic policy and institutional change, aligning agriculture with biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development objectives.  This involves analyzing political economy and governance structures, facilitating science–policy dialogues, and designing institutional arrangements that encourage multifunctional land management at scale. In MFL SP’s Theory of Change, analytical work on policy and institutions is coupled with capacity sharing and stakeholder engagement to identify “what needs to change and how” to sustain innovations beyond pilot sites.

Importantly, the MFL SP focuses on breaking silos: aligning agricultural policies with environmental goals, ensuring local institutions (such as water user associations or forest committees) have the capacity to manage resources, and fostering cross-sector coordination. By addressing the “rules of the game”, from formal laws to informal norms, the program creates a policy landscape where sustainable practices can flourish rather than be stymied. The following examples illustrate how CGIAR’s Multifunctional Landscapes program and its partners are advancing policy coherence and institutional innovation alongside field projects.

Governance, Evidence-Based Policy Change and Integrated Frameworks

At the institutional level, MFL SP promotes polycentric and adaptive governance models for landscape management. This approach recognizes that no single entity can manage an entire landscape; instead, networks of institutions (community groups, local governments, private sector actors, etc.) must coordinate their efforts. In practice, the program joins, supports or creates arrangements like multi-stakeholder platforms that bring together diverse stakeholders to co-manage resources. Such polycentric governance ensures decisions are inclusive and grounded in local context, while aligning with broader environmental goals. By helping to establish and improve clear resource rights and collaborative management plans, MFL SP enables communities and authorities to jointly steward landscapes.

The Program uses an iterative process to identify, test, and validate bundles of solutions and innovations at the farm, common-pool resource, and protected areas levels, including climate-smart adaptation and mitigation strategies and recommendations, through targeted advisory support. This enables stakeholders to engage in agroecology, nature-positive, regenerative and nutrition-sensitive approaches optimizing landscape functionality from farms to protected areas.

A comprehensive set of tools and indicators, holistic as well as context-specific assessment frameworks capture diverse performance dimensions linked to the solutions and innovations fostered, and the piloting of digital twin landscapes, support Evidence-based decision-making.  For example, the core focus of MFL SP is developing impact indicators to track environmental health, biodiversity, and ecosystem services outcomes at landscape scale. By aligning these indicators with international frameworks like the Rio Conventions and Sustainable Development Goals, CGIAR provides data that countries and communities can use to monitor progress toward climate and biodiversity targets. This integrated approach supports global efforts calling for better environmental data and reporting, ensuring that policy decisions are informed by science-based metrics.

Scaling Innovations via Policy Uptake

In Kenya, the Nature Positive Initiative has significantly contributed to shaping biodiversity-friendly agricultural policies, particularly at the county level. In Vihiga County, the initiative supported the development of the Vihiga County Agroecology Policy, which incorporates biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, and community seed systems. Nature Positive was instrumental in reforming Kenya’s seed policies to recognize and support informal community seed banks, thereby ensuring that local seed varieties and farmer-managed systems are officially valued and integrated into national agricultural strategies. When innovative practices prove successful on the ground, translating them into wider impact often requires institutional adoption or policy uptake. MFL SP therefore engages with policy actors to incorporate proven innovations into programs, standards, or regulations. the resilient seed systems approach developed for climate-prone regions (. This approach outlines how to build robust local seed supply chains, through community seed banks, diversity catalogues, and farmer breeding networks – so that farmers have access to climate-resilient and locally adapted varieties. After demonstrating this model in several African countries, the researchers are now working with national seed services and ministries of agriculture to embed elements of it into national seed policies

The Agroecology Initiative has been central in strengthening policy environments and institutional coordination across multiple countries. In Kenya, the initiative in addition to Nature Positive Initiative supported the formulation and approval of the country’s comprehensive National Agroecology Strategy for Food System Transformation (2024–2033). This policy promotes sustainable agricultural practices, ensuring alignment with agroecological principles at the national level and establishing a framework for coordinated action across counties.

Driving Policy Change for Biodiversity and Agroecology

In addition to Kenya, the Agroecology Initiative facilitated multi-stakeholder coordination mechanisms and policy dialogues in countries like Lao PDR, Peru, Senegal, and Tunisia. These collaborative platforms enable governments, researchers, and local stakeholders to co-design and implement agroecological practices, ensuring policies and actions are harmonized for maximum effectiveness and sustainability. Moreover, the initiative actively engaged in shaping Viet Nam’s National Action Plan for Transparent, Responsible, and Sustainable Food Systems Transformation. This strategy marks a significant commitment by the Vietnamese government towards integrating nature-positive, climate-resilient agricultural practices into national policies, demonstrating high-level political buy-in for sustainable food systems.

Through the Nature Positive Initiative, CGIAR experts worked with Vietnamese partners to integrate nature-positive solutions into this country-wide food system strategy. The plan, now formally endorsed by the government demonstrates Viet Nam’s high-level commitment (post-UN Food Systems Summit) to shift toward sustainable, climate-resilient, and healthy diets. The participatory drafting process, involving multiple ministries and stakeholders, was facilitated by CGIAR’s contributions to technical working groups, ensuring alignment with agroecological and nutrition goals.

Moreover, the initiative actively engaged in shaping Viet Nam’s National Action Plan for Transparent, Responsible, and Sustainable Food Systems Transformation. This strategy marks a significant commitment by the Vietnamese government towards integrating nature-positive, climate-resilient agricultural practices into national policies, demonstrating high-level political buy-in for sustainable food systems. In Burkina Faso, Nature Positive addressed critical issues of agricultural biodiversity by promoting policies around neglected and underutilized species (NUS). These efforts support integrating NUS into mainstream food systems, creating opportunities for diversified livelihoods, improved nutrition, and resilience against climate shocks.

The Agroecology Initiative work package on policy along with partners engaged in Peru’s development of a Biotrade Strategy .Their collective efforts resulted in the co-creation of the first Regional Strategy for the Promotion of BioTrade with an agroecological approach, along with a corresponding Action Plan for 2028. The strategy aims to enhance the supply conditions for biodiversity products. The action plan focuses on increasing awareness of native Amazonian products, fortifying farmers’ organizations, and institutions, and providing support to local businesses. While in Laos the Initiative, in partnership with the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS) and the ASEAN-One CGIAR Innovate for Food project, is establishing multistakeholder platforms, supporting the development of a Policy Think Tank, and building coherence across national food, land, and water policies in Lao PDR.

CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes will continue to anchor on these initiatives to contribute to shaping policy and institutional landscapes, one where evidence-based, locally owned solutions drive the global transition toward food systems that are not only productive and inclusive, but also resilient, nature-positive, and equipped to thrive in the face of climate and biodiversity challenges.

Institutional Empowerment and Governance Reforms

Policy coherence alone is not enough; empowering institutions to implement and enforce those policies is equally vital. The MFL Science Program emphasizes strengthening governance arrangements and local capacities so that sustainable landscape management becomes the norm.

The Livestock and Climate Initiative significantly influenced land-use planning and governance reforms, particularly across pastoral areas in East Africa and Tunisia. Through participatory rangeland management (PRM), the initiative empowered communities in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania to manage and restore communal lands, covering approximately 2.3 million hectares. These governance reforms ensure secure land tenure and sustainable grazing practices, contributing to climate resilience and ecosystem restoration.

In Tunisia, collaborative governance approaches introduced by the initiative improved resource management, ensuring local pastoral communities actively participate in decision-making processes regarding land use. This empowered approach reinforces sustainable livelihoods and ecosystem integrity in dryland regions vulnerable to climate variability. The CGIAR Livestock and Climate initiative drove significant land-use planning and rangeland governance reforms in pastoral regions of East Africa and North Africa. Through participatory approaches, the initiative strengthened community land tenure and sustainable grazing management across roughly 180,000 hectares of rangelands. In East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania), participatory rangeland management (PRM) was implemented, empowering pastoral communities to govern and restore communal lands.

In Tunisia (southern region), the program introduced sustainable rangeland management practices in collaboration with local authorities. These innovations have improved land-use plans, secured resource rights for pastoralists, and rehabilitated degraded lands. By the end of 2024, the Livestock and Climate initiative had enhanced the governance and management of millions of hectares of agricultural lands globally, demonstrating how climate-adaptive livestock systems can go hand-in-hand with better land-use policy and planning

CGIAR’s pioneering work on True Cost Accounting (TCA) in Kenya and Viet Nam revealed the hidden environmental and social costs associated with food production. The study sparked significant regional and international interest, prompting policy dialogues aimed at integrating true cost considerations into decision-making frameworks. This innovative approach supports policymakers in adopting transparent, informed strategies that balance economic, environmental, and social sustainability.

Finally, CGIAR’s policy engagement extends to the global stage, where it helps shape enabling frameworks for sustainable landscapes. Through the Environmental Health & Biodiversity Impact Area Platform (EHBIAP), CGIAR contributes science-based inputs to international conventions and corporate sustainability efforts.

CGIAR’s Environmental Health and Biodiversity Impact Area Platform (EHBIAP) has effectively elevated CGIAR’s role in global policy discussions. By aligning environmental assessments and indicators with international frameworks such as the Rio Conventions and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), EHBIAP provides critical environmental metrics that guide sustainable business decisions and global policy dialogues. The platform leverages digital tools and knowledge-sharing mechanisms, enhancing global understanding and commitment to environmental sustainability in agrifood systems. By securing CGIAR’s accreditation to bodies like the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA), this program has strengthened the science–policy interface, ensuring that CGIAR research feeds into global environmental agendas and that lessons from the field (e.g. on ecosystem services, soil health, agro-biodiversity) are disseminated through digital platforms for wider impact.

Through these initiatives, CGIAR’s Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program demonstrates the power of integrated policy frameworks and robust institutional systems. By ensuring that policies across different sectors and governance levels are coherent and mutually reinforcing, the program facilitates the adoption and scaling of sustainable agricultural practices.

The resulting enabling environments empower communities, safeguard biodiversity, enhance climate resilience, and drive inclusive economic growth, ultimately contributing to achieving multiple SDGs. By aligning local actions with global sustainability frameworks, CGIAR initiatives reinforce the resilience of food systems, landscapes, and livelihoods for vibrant futures.

Stay tuned for the next blog in our series, where we will continue to explore transformative practices and partnerships fostering sustainable landscapes.

Author: Regina Edward-Uwadiale

CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes