The Two Degree Initiative Listening Sessions: Conference Proceedings

These conference proceedings summarize findings from over 50 listening sessions conducted between March and October 2020 to inform the Two Degree Initiative, a CGIAR flagship effort aimed at helping 200 million small-scale agricultural producers globally adapt to climate change.

• The Two Degree Initiative aims to transform the global food system for a climate-smart future, specifically targeting support for 200 million small-scale agricultural producers worldwide to adapt to climate change.
• The listening sessions, which involved over 1,000 stakeholders from more than 60 countries, identified the need to reform research-development-deployment pathways. This involves strengthening co-creation and adopting faster, more inclusive, and risk-tolerant innovation systems to ensure a wider range of stakeholders benefit from solutions.
• Building climate resilience requires an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach to food, land, and water systems. This involves working across silos from local to national levels to address systemic bottlenecks and vulnerabilities across value chains and institutional frameworks.
• There is a need to improve data tools and communication with policymakers and civil society to ensure they are incentivized and held accountable for enacting change. This requires collaborating with decision-makers to understand their specific information needs.
• The proceedings emphasize strengthening innovative partnerships to unlock public and private finance for sustainable investments. Such collaborations are intended to accelerate the equitable deployment of solutions and increase the scale of climate resilience.
• The initiative should leverage climate-informed digital technologies to offer real-time, context-specific advisories and market services to small-scale producers, supporting food security, job creation, and agrobiodiversity conservation.
• Transformative approaches—including shifting value chains and transitioning livelihoods—must be prioritized in areas where climate impacts are most severe. This includes promoting gender equality and opportunities for youth through innovation among investors, researchers, and policymakers.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). The Two Degree Initiative Listening Sessions: Conference Proceedings. https://www.wri.org/research/two-degree-initiative-listening-sessions-conference-proceedings

Chicago

World Resources Institute. The Two Degree Initiative Listening Sessions: Conference Proceedings. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/two-degree-initiative-listening-sessions-conference-proceedings.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=The Two Degree Initiative Listening Sessions: Conference Proceedings |url=https://www.wri.org/research/two-degree-initiative-listening-sessions-conference-proceedings |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendtwo, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{The Two Degree Initiative Listening Sessions: Conference Proceedings}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/two-degree-initiative-listening-sessions-conference-proceedings}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }