agrifood systems Archives - Global Landscapes Forum

The stories of African youth

kneditor — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:58:50 +0000

About GLF Africa 2024

Can Africa show the world a sustainable way forward? The climate crisis is taking a toll on Africa – and especially on rural communities that depend on natural resources for their livelihoods.

On 17 September, thousands of participants gathered at ‘GLF Africa 2024: Greening the African Horizon’ in Nairobi, Kenya, and online for a global conference focused on forging a prosperous and sustainable future for Africa’s land- and seascapes, driven by local solutions.

About this session

It’s finally time to announce the winners of our highly anticipated African Youth Storytelling Contest. Get ready to immerse yourself in the world of imagination as we celebrate the power of storytelling and honor the talented young Africans who have captured our hearts and minds.

In this session, we unveil the three winners of the contest, whose stories have left an indelible mark on our digital audience. Discover captivating, emotive and creative narratives that will transport you to another realm.

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Country voices: Creating a common vision for future landscapes

kneditor — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:36:46 +0000

About GLF Africa 2024

Can Africa show the world a sustainable way forward? The climate crisis is taking a toll on Africa – and especially on rural communities that depend on natural resources for their livelihoods.

Introducing PILA: A New Framework for Sustainable Agricultural Transformation and Landscape Management

A new framework to support countries in transforming agricultural systems by scaling up sustainable production, restoring ecosystems and alleviating pressure on forests to improve food value chains will soon be put to the test.

The Participatory Informed Landscape Approach, known as PILA, uses an integrated landscape management approach to accelerate the transformation of value chains at the landscape level. PILA, developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as part of the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program, is now being piloted in India, Kenya, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Vietnam.

Hosted by FOLUR, this session brings together experts and landscape actors implementing PILA to discuss the role of integrated landscape management, how decisions across the value chain are made and the role of smallholder farmers.

Resources

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A green leap in the AI era: Pathways for scaling food systems in Africa

kneditor — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:21:04 +0000

About GLF Africa 2024

Can Africa show the world a sustainable way forward? The climate crisis is taking a toll on Africa – and especially on rural communities that depend on natural resources for their livelihoods.

About this session

Africa’s food systems are being transformed by strategies like input intensification, advanced technologies, and AI. With smallholder farmers producing 80% of the continent’s food, what role will AI play in their future? This plenary explores two key questions: the balance between input-intensive agriculture and agroecology, and how AI can drive sustainable, resilient agrifood systems across Africa.

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The State of Food and Agriculture 2023

kneditor — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 08:50:52 +0000

Agrifood systems play a crucial role in society, providing food security and employment for over a billion people worldwide. However, unsustainable practices in these systems contribute significantly to climate change, natural resource depletion, and the unaffordability of nutritious diets. Decision-makers often lack comprehensive insights into the economic, social, and environmental impacts of agrifood activities. The State of Food and Agriculture 2023 examines the concept of hidden costs and benefits associated with agrifood systems. It introduces true cost accounting (TCA) as an approach to assess these hidden impacts.

Key Messages

The report proposes a two-phase TCA assessment process: initial national-level assessments to raise awareness, followed by detailed evaluations to prioritize solutions and drive transformative actions.
Preliminary assessments across 154 countries suggest global hidden costs from agrifood systems exceed 10 trillion 2020 PPP dollars.
Low-income countries are disproportionately affected by these hidden costs relative to their national incomes.
There is an urgent need to integrate these hidden costs into decision-making processes to facilitate the transformation of agrifood systems.
Scaling the application of TCA requires innovations in research, data, and capacity building, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
This effort aims to enable transparent and consistent decision- and policymaking in agrifood sectors worldwide.

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Working with smallholders: a handbook for firms building sustainable supply chains (Third edition)

kneditor — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 14:44:05 +0000

A number of global trends, such as concurrent rises in incomes and urbanization, are driving the increased consumption of meat, dairy, and biofuels. Meeting the demand for products will require considerable increases in global production, particularly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where smallholder farming predominates and yields remain low. At the same time, it will be essential to promote improved food quality, to reduce negative impacts on health, while additional initiatives must address how to reduce food losses. Climate change is bringing further stressors. These challenges also present opportunities to help smallholder farmers boost their productivity by facilitating better access to inputs, technology, knowledge, financing, and markets. Agribusinesses are increasingly working with smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries to secure agricultural commodities, which help to boost rural incomes and economic growth. Smallholders also represent a growing market for farm inputs, information, and financial services.

Working with Smallholders: A Handbook for Firms Building Sustainable Supply Chains’ shows agribusinesses how to develop more sustainable, resilient, and productive supply chains and the substantial impact of doing so on development. The book compiles innovative solutions and cutting-edge ideas to meet the challenges, and illustrating these points through a variety of case studies from initiatives around the world.

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Advancing gender equality and agrifood systems: what’s working?

kneditor — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 15:08:23 +0000

The briefing identifies three main categories of constraints impacting gender equality within agrifood systems: structural barriers, land tenure, and resource access. Through case studies from Guatemala, Indonesia, and Kenya, it explores initiatives aimed at addressing these issues. The insights gleaned from these studies offer valuable lessons to understand what has worked to drive changes in behavior and practice.

Key messages

Gender disparity in agriculture: Women constitute a significant portion of the agrifood workforce globally, yet they face undervaluation and earn less compared to men. Structural barriers like discriminatory norms limit their participation.
Barriers to participation: discriminatory social norms and legal frameworks hinder women’s access to resources and opportunities in agrifood systems, affecting their welfare and household outcomes.
Empowerment yields multiple benefits: Closing gender gaps in agrifood systems can alleviate hunger, boost incomes, and enhance community resilience. Understanding effective strategies is crucial for advancing gender equality and reaping these benefits.

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The many stories across Africa

kneditor — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 12:56:03 +0000

About GLF Africa 2022

GLF Africa 2022: How to build an equitable, resilient food future brought together over 8,500 participants from 122 countries and featured 182 leading scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, financiers, youth and government leaders, and 68 incredible partners to explore African solutions to the global food crisis caused by climate change, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine.

Across 31 plenaries, interactive sessions, launches, virtual tours, dialogues, performances, and a job fair, the digital conference explored ways to transform the future of food through healthy landscapes, equitable access to land, and shorter, greener value chains. Messages on social media rallied 26 million people around concrete ways for Africa to regain its food sovereignty.

Breaking stereotypes and misconceptions

All too often, the stories we hear about the African continent are not told by Africans, leading to misconceptions and negative stereotypes. How can Africa take control of its own narrative? In the words of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

“Stories have been used to dispossess and malign. But stories can also be used to empower and humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a person. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.”

Join this session to discover new narratives around the peoples, cultures, and landscapes of the African continent, as told by young storyteller Lungisani Mjaji:

“It is not what you are able to see as a storyteller but what you could make others see with your work.”

Find out more about Why we need to change the narratives on Africa

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