Africa’s battle against climate change will not be won without data-informed decisions and empowered institutions. This belief guided the Innovation Lab for Policy Leadership in Agriculture and Food Security (PiLAF) as it convened a landmark User Testing Workshop on the Africa Agriculture Adaptation (AAA) Atlas on June 17, 2025, at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ibadan. The session brought together 43 key researchers and institutional stakeholders from across the country.
Represented at the workshop were experts from the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Federal College of Agriculture (Moor Plantation), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB), Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI), Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN), National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, Ibadan (FCAH&PT), Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan, and Ajayi Crowther University. Also in attendance were representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agricultural Husbandry, and several academic departments within the University of Ibadan (U.I.), including Agricultural Extension and Rural Development (AERD), Crop and Horticultural Sciences (CHS), Soil Resources Management (SRM), Social and Environmental Forestry (SEF), and Forest Production and Products (FPP).
The event opened with remarks by Dr. Benjamin Oyelami, PiLAF’s Policy Communications Manager, who welcomed participants and emphasized the significance of the AAA Atlas as a decision-support tool for climate adaptation in agriculture. Participants were also engaged in a brief pre-evaluation exercise to assess familiarity with climate adaptation data tools.
Mr. Oladele Osanyinlusi led the first technical session, introducing the AAA Atlas—an open-access, data-driven platform developed through a CGIAR-led initiative. He explained the Atlas’s structure, sources, and features, emphasizing its relevance to Sub-Saharan Africa. From real-time climate risk assessments to spatial visualizations of adaptation options, participants explored how the tool could support agricultural planning, policy formulation, and research.
In the session on “Evaluating Climate Risks,” Dr. Benjamin Oyelami demonstrated how the Atlas captures regional vulnerabilities, enabling users to assess hazards and adaptive capacities across different agroecological zones. This was followed by “View Projected Climate Impacts,” session, handled by Dr Ore Akano; It highlighted how future climate projections can inform yield forecasting and strategic investments to safeguard food systems by 2050.
Miss Peace Aburime presented two interconnected modules—”Understanding Heat Stress on Producers” and “Discovering Solutions.” She illustrated how rising temperatures are shortening safe working hours in agricultural communities and walked participants through how adaptation strategies featured on the platform were synthesized from over 1,000 peer-reviewed papers. These strategies, she noted, offer practical, location-specific responses to evolving climate threats.
On the area of gender and climate vulnerability, Dr. Nathaniel Siji led the final technical session titled “Analyzing Women’s Exposure to Climate Hazards.” Using real-time graphs and maps, he demonstrated how the atlas helps users understand women’s participation in agriculture and the unequal risks they face, especially in countries like Nigeria, Angola, and Malawi.
In a breakout activity, participants were divided into eight interdisciplinary groups and tasked with developing research ideas using the Atlas. The presentations that followed reflected a strong grasp of the platform and its potential for shaping responsive, data-driven research and policy decisions. Many participants expressed enthusiasm for organizing step-down trainings within their own institutions, describing the Atlas platform as a “timely innovation” and “a game-changer for agricultural research.”
The workshop ended with closing remarks from PiLAF’s Administrative Manager (Mr. Iredele Ogunbayo), who encouraged participants to integrate the platform into their professional work and collaborations, reinforcing PiLAF’s vision of a climate-resilient and food-secure Africa powered by data and innovation.
With strong institutional engagement and practical capacity-building, the AAA Atlas User Testing Workshop reaffirmed PiLAF’s commitment to enabling a new generation of researchers and policymakers with the tools to lead Africa’s adaptation efforts.