Resource Library
Feature Resource:
Insight Brief: The Imperative for Strengthening Soil Information Systems in Africa: Reflections and Key Insights from Practice
African Heads of State and Government formally adopted the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health (AFSH) Summit Declaration, also known as the Nairobi Declaration, during the AFSH Summit. The AFSH Summit addressed the urgent need to improve soil health and enhance fertilizer utilization across the continent to boost agricultural productivity and alleviate hunger and poverty. These priorities were initially identified in the 2006 Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution.
Furthermore, the 2014 Malabo Declaration under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) reaffirmed AU Member States' commitment to inclusive agricultural transformation, building on earlier initiatives such as the 2003 Maputo Declaration on CAADP and the 2004 Sirte Declaration on sustainable agriculture and water management. Despite these commitments, AU Member States have faced significant challenges in implementing the objectives outlined in these declarations.
Guidance Note - Advancing Africa's Soil Health Monitoring to Support the Nairobi Declaration and CAADP Kampala Agenda
To reverse Africa's interrelated challenges of land degradation, climate change, food security and biodiversity loss, African Union (AU) Member States will need to markedly increase the health of their soils and invest in soil restoration that is targeted and based on scientific evidence.
Youth Initiatives for Scaling Soil Health: Advice from #Youth4Soil Global Advocates
The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) is a multistakeholder partnership committed to scaling soil health, globally. CA4SH places a high degree of importance on the role of youth as innovators and experts toward scaling global soil health. Youth are engaged through the #Youth4Soil movement, which includes a working group, mentorship opportunities, and support for speaking and engagement. We also want to highlight youth approaches to advocating for global soil health.
In April 2024, Roël D. Houdanon, Founder & Chief Technical Advisor, Land and Health Association shared an op-ed highlighting the role of youth in defending soil health. He presented several avenues for youth to get involved in scaling soil health:
Awareness Raising
Innovation & Technology
Policy Advocacy
Community Engagement
Education
Science & Research
We reached out to youth partners to learn about their individual approaches to scaling soil health through these thematic action areas.
These are their responses.
The Road Ahead for Soil Health Action: A Call to Action from the 2024 CA4SH Webinar Series
The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) is a multi stakeholder partnership committed to scaling soil health, globally. CA4SH ’s membership base comprises stakeholders from member states, the private sector, research institutions, civil society, farmer organisations, multilateral organisations, and NGOs.
To leverage the wealth of knowledge and experiences from across our partners in addressing key challenges currently constraining farmers to implement healthy soil practices, CA4SH held a three-part virtual Webinar Series in early 2024. The 2024 Webinar Series was held over three sessions under the topics of bringing soil health into policy, science & knowledge for improving and monitoring soil health, and financing healthy soil practices. The objectives were to explore soil-related themes and share experiences with a focus on tailoring and scaling successful methodologies.
This brief summarizes the sessions, and coallates lessons learned, calls to action, and opportunities for scaling these approaches to align action on soil ahead of the 2024 Rio Conventions.
Lessons Learned from COP28: Advocating for Soil Health in Multinational Fora
Soil health was formally recognized in the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action, in part because of the advocacy approach taken by CA4SH and our partners. In this brief, CA4SH partners and member states who engaged in this process lay out key lessons learned while advocating for soil in the context of the UNFCCC COPs, with recommendations for scaling this approach in other contexts.