2nd Africa Ecosystem Based Adaptation for Food Security Conference 2015

Recognizing the value of healthy soils

The 2014 Africa Progress Panel report presents the two faces of Africa: robust economic growth and continuing poverty. But the report suggests Africa could change this duality by asking: how can resources make a positive impact on development? While impressive headline growth figures are reported, incomes do not trickle down to improve livelihoods of the majority of the population.

Diversifying sources of growth, to include a strengthened agriculture sector that works with nature and not against it, will go a long way to improving livelihoods, considering that the sector currently employs about 60% of Africa’s labour force, most of it rural.

Given that it can take up to 1,000 years to form one centimeter of soil, and with human population and food needs increasing, critical limits are being reached that make soil stewardship an urgent matter for agriculture and food security in Africa.

Going forward, it’s imperative to look at whether relying on oil or soil could provide the most feasible pathway to enhance food security and job creation for the increasingly youthful population under the changing climate, currently at 200 million and rising to 400 million by 2040. Focusing on ecosystem based adaptation (EBA) driven-agriculture and building climate resilience could unleash the hidden economic assets that can spiral growth, improve food and nutrition security, and create employment to unprecedented levels.

Four Challenges

1. Achieving food security for the food insecure millions as soon as possible;
2. Repairing and preparing our ecosystems/resource-base in order to feed the estimated, additional 1 billion people in Africa by 2050;
3. Building on practical actions already under way at the regional level (e.g. Maputo and Malabo declarations) to create increased private sector involvement in ecosystem based adaptation (EbA)-driven agriculture;
4. Shifting the current paradigms towards reinvesting natural resource revenues into EbA-driven agriculture as well as increased investment from oil earnings back into the Earth’s ecosystems that feed us.

Key Objectives

• To determine how EbA can be harnessed to protect and restore Africa’s ecosystems as well as integrate into policy framework to enable improve agricultural production and productivity;
• To identify scalable and inclusive business models for EbA-driven agriculture  that can create opportunities in the entire agricultural value chain;
• To identify scalable, innovative financing models  for EbA-driven agriculture that when implemented could stimulate  growth, job creation and value chain partnership in Africa
• To understand the  benefits of EbA for job creation and the achievement of the proposed SDGs and what  will  Africa lose as a continent if EbA is ignored or given little support;
• To identify enabling policies and legislation that will incentivize countries to invest in agriculture, soil conservation and EbA.