This discussion paper introduces a series of studies on the effects of climate change on agriculture in Central America and the Andean region. It presents a coherent logic as to why climate change is important to the regions not only for agriculture but also regarding the issues of unemployment, food insecurity, and poverty. It also introduces the datasets that are used in the analyses for the seven countries featured in the series, including new composite gridded datasets that measure the direct effect of climate change on crop productivity.