Carolina Sarzana

Carolina Sarzana is a climate adaptation and rural development specialist working at the intersection of climate security, agroecological systems, and risk-informed programming. At the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, she coordinates climate security engagement in West and Central Africa, representing the team in building partnerships and supporting regional initiatives. She oversees field missions, facilitates workshops, and delivers training sessions, webinars, and technical panels to enhance capacity on climate security and risk-informed climate programming. Her efforts have supported major policy processes in West Africa, including contributing to the advancement of national climate security strategies in Burkina Faso and Mali, ensuring they are informed by evidence and grounded in local priorities.

Her work focuses on ensuring that climate adaptation and agricultural development programs are safeguard-compliant, conflict-sensitive, and designed to avoid maladaptation. She develops empirical frameworks and safeguard tools, including the Climate Security Sensitivity Tool (CSST), which help partners identify social, environmental, and climate-related risks early in the project cycle and improve the quality and coherence of rural development interventions.

She holds an MSc in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems from Wageningen University and is passionate about mixed-methods research, socio-ecological systems, and developing climate adaptation approaches that are context-sensitive, socially inclusive, and environmentally sustainable.