Policy Information and Response Platform on Climate
Change and Rice in ASEAN and its Member
Countries Project (PIRRCA)
Dr Valerien Pede
Senior Scientist, IRRI

Background
 Project under FP1 CCAFS
 2014 – 2017
 Countries: Vietnam and Myanmar
 The project aims to bridge the gap between science and
policy
 Enable policy makers to make informed decisions
 Food security policies
 Climate change adaptation policies
 Gender action plans

Food Security: providing the means to improve the capacity
for more effective response to climate induced food shocks.
Adaptive Capacity: providing institutions and decision
makers access to data and facilitate identification and
mapping of climate change vulnerable geographic areas
and population groups, and relevant climate smart
technologies to address the challenges.
Gender: evaluating policies, practices and
technological options in terms of their
potential contribution to addressing gender
disparities and social differentiation.

Rationale
 Outstanding role of rice for food security in
the ASEAN
 specific vulnerabilities of rice production to
climate change
 increased interest in climate change, especially
mitigation and adaptation; and promoting CSA

Climate change effects relevant
for rice production

Bottlenecks for effective CC policies
 “disconnect” between science and policies
 relevant data, evidence, scenarios that can help to
decide on approaches, interventions or methods
 non-existing
 exist but not accessible to policy makers
 outside of national priorities
 political complexities

Key questions
 Connecting science and policy
 How can science better support decisions making on
climate change policies in rice production?
 How can recommendations from rice science be better
targeted towards the needs of policy makers?
 What are the channels and engagement strategies for
influencing current climate policies in rice production?

Main partners
 Institute of Policy and
Strategy for Agriculture and
Rural Development
(IPSARD)
 Can Tho University (CTU)
 Vietnam National
University of Agriculture
(VNUA)
 Yezin Agricultural University
Vietnam Myanmar

Activity 1: Setting the stage
 Major activities
 Review existing climate change policies and knowledge gaps
 Review policy formulation mechanism
 Stakeholder influence mapping
 Surveys among stakeholders
 Identification of relevant case studies

Activity 2: Knowledge generation
 Major activities
 Collection & analysis of primary and secondary data
 generate knowledge for implications to climate policies
 Capacity building
 training activities among NARES and policy makers
 Information profiling
 tailoring information toward the need of specific stakeholder

Activity 3: Strategic alliances for
paradigm adjustments in policy
 Major activities
 Identify opportunities for delivery of communication to policy makers
and facilitate alliance to impact policy making
 Facilitate dissemination of policy documents, research publications,
activity reports, and results of policy analysis
 Identify and participate in technical advisory groups on food security
and climate change

Policy information and response
platform
 Online interface that brings
together stakeholders at
different levels linked to
their specific information
need
 Face-to-face interactions

Information profiling

Technical adaptation: Rice Knowledge
Bank

Example on economic modeling
 Decision tools for assessing choices and trade-offs
between response measures and options
 Economic tool to inform decision makers on
options for reducing GHG emission
 Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC).
 The MACC shows the marginal cost of abating an
additional unit of carbon emission

Policy engagement strategy
 Preliminary activities
 Identify key partners
 reputable national institutions in policy area
 International organizations/projects with similar goal
 CC policy review
 knowledge gaps, national priorities,
 case studies to inform policies

Policy formulation – Local level
Provincial People Committee (PPC)
District People Committee (DPC)
Commune People Committee (CPC)

A demand-driven approach
 Entry points identified by national partners
 Identified knowledge gaps are formulated in case
studies
 implemented jointly by the national partner
 data collection and analysis
 Report and policy brief
 Series of workshops for dissemination

Entry points for engagement
 Vietnam Rice Sector Restructuring: Towards 2020 and
Vision to 2030
 IRRI was invited to join MARD for the proposal
development
 Several missions of IRRI scientists from various disciplines
 Proposal was approved by the Minister of Agriculture
and rural development in Decision 1889/QĐ-BNN-TT
dated 23 May 2016 by MARD Minister
 includes a whole section on CC adaptation and mitigation

Entry points for engagement
 “VNSAT”: Vietnam Sustainable Agriculture
Transformation
 Funded by World Bank
 IRRI and IPSARD/MARD participate
 improve farming practices and value chains
 promote institutional strengthening of relevant public
agencies to effectively support the RRP
 support sustainable rice-based systems

A case study to inform policy
 “Small Farmers Large Fields” (SFLF) model
 With the ambition to accelerate the Agricultural
Restructuring Program
 Gov is eager to better understand the effectiveness and
potential of land accumulation systems
 However, there is no comprehensive and in-depth evaluation of
economic, social, environmental impacts and potentials of SFLF
 To what extent climate smart and sustainable practices in rice
production could be promoted through the SFLF model?

CCAFS working paper
 Series of workshops
with relevant
stakeholders

What works?
 IRRI reputation as prime institution for rice
science and its successful engagement in the
region
 Targeting major entry points: RRP, VNSAT, etc…
 Working with dynamic partners who always alert
us on opportunities where the project could
engage with stakeholders to inform policy

What works?
 Conducting case study jointly with partners
 Policy workshops
 Capacity building
 Training of national research scientists: decision tools
 Providing information through GIS map
 Suitability maps for climate smart technologies

Lessons learnt
 Bridging the gap between science and policy is important
 informing policy is one thing…but making sure recommendations will be taken
further
 For effective policy engagement
 working with reputable national institutions
 knowing national priorities and getting the interest of policy makers
 demand rather than supply-driven approach
 Producing scientific reports and publications will NOT be sufficient to
influence policy
 … BUT…
 recommendations should be translated into clear spatial and temporal priorities
at different scales