Agriculture sits at the centre of Africa's climate challenge. It is both highly exposed to erratic rainfall, heat and pests and a significant source of emissions, so investors and governments are channelling large programmes into practices that raise output while building resilience. With that funding comes a demand for credible results data, and many monitoring systems built for traditional farm extension cannot deliver it.

The Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems Training Course shows how to design and run evidence systems that fit these multi-objective programmes. Participants start with theories of change linking practices to productivity, adaptation and mitigation outcomes, then select indicators, set targets and plan baselines. The programme deals with seasonal data collection, household and plot surveys, remote sensing and weather inputs, and approaches to attributing change in the presence of rainfall variability.

Beyond the farm, the course considers nutrition, market access, gender equity and food system outcomes. Delivery uses worked examples from donor-funded projects, survey design practicals and a final exercise in which participants prepare an M&E plan for a programme of their own.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Build a theory of change and results framework for a climate-smart agriculture programme.
• Select indicators for productivity, resilience, adaptation and emissions outcomes.
• Design baseline, midline and endline studies with suitable household and plot sampling.
• Use mobile data collection tools to run field surveys across a growing season.
• Choose evaluation designs that deal with weather variability and attribution.
• Measure adoption of practices and disaggregate results by gender, age and farm type.
• Include nutrition, market and food system outcomes in monitoring plans.
• Report results to funders and use findings to improve programmes.

The course is aimed at professionals who plan, run or assess agriculture and food system programmes, including:

• Monitoring and evaluation officers and managers
• Agricultural programme and project managers
• Agronomists and extension service supervisors
• Climate adaptation and mitigation specialists
• Government planners in ministries of agriculture and environment
• Researchers in agricultural universities and institutes
• Donor and development partner programme officers
• Food security and nutrition advisers

Participants leave with practical products and skills:

• A results framework with indicators for the three climate-smart pillars.
• A sampling and survey plan for a baseline study.
• A mobile questionnaire built and tested in a data collection tool.
• A method statement for handling rainfall variability in impact analysis.
• A donor-style indicator reference sheet and reporting outline.
• An M&E plan for their own climate-smart agriculture programme.

The course emphasises design skills and field realism, using:

• Project case files from smallholder farming systems in East Africa
• Hands-on questionnaire building and testing on mobile devices
• Sampling and sample size practicals using spreadsheets
• Group work developing indicators and evaluation designs
• Facilitator review of each participant's draft M&E plan

Participants who attend the sessions and complete the practical assignments receive a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion from Vision Reach Global Consultancy.