6 lessons learned from a decade of climate adaptation

This explainer from IFAD highlights six critical lessons learned over a decade of implementing climate-adaptation efforts through its Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP), which has supported nearly seven million small-scale farmers across 40+ countries. Key takeaways include leveraging existing financing to scale adaptation, improving access to reliable weather forecasts, centering gender equality, engaging the private sector, and using the deep traditional knowledge of Indigenous Peoples. Importantly, ASAP shows that rural communities must lead the adaptation process: by placing smallholder farmers at the heart of decision-making, building local capacity, and co-creating climate-resilient methods, adaptation efforts become more inclusive, sustainable, and effective.