Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crises (SPARC)

Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crisis (SPARC) is a six-year (2020-2026) £19.9 million research initiative funded by the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). It addresses knowledge gaps and generates evidence to help people cope with crises and meet their basic needs in the Horn of Africa, Sahel, and the Middle East. There are many drivers of crisis and poverty in this region. They include climate change, which has increasing impact on fragile, natural resource-based livelihoods. The target group for this programme are poor men and women, primarily in pastoralist areas of the Sahel and East Africa, who can benefit from improved agricultural support. SPARC’s work is intended to inform FCDO’s and other development agencies’ programmes to strengthen the resilience of agricultural and pastoralist livelihoods, in the context of climate change. SPARC will: 1) Undertake new research that builds the evidence base where there are clear gaps on how to effectively deliver programmes and adapt policies. 2) Develop and support innovation, including through the use of technology, in FCDO and partner programmes, and in response to emerging agendas. 3) Targeted technical support to country offices and programmes in the design, delivery and evaluation of existing programmes. 4) Develop and share lessons by curating knowledge, convening debates and undertaking broader communications and engagement initiatives to inform both the development of future policies and programmes, and technical support, ensuring that the research remains operationally relevant. 5) Research uptake and dissemination: to ensure that new analysis and tailored research is highly accessible to policy- and decision-makers, so that they can benefit from the programme’s innovation and learning and apply it to their work. The programme will engage closely with FCDO country offices to ensure that FCDO country programmes and policies build on the evidence generated from the research. The programme helps deliver the UK Humanitarian Reform Policy and World Humanitarian Summit commitments.