Join SPARC at the Global Landscapes Forum to explore opportunities for sustainable dryland economies

On the 2nd June, SPARC will host ‘Partnering with dryland communities to overcome protected crises: challenges and opportunities’  - an online plenary at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) digital conference on ‘Restoring Africa’s Drylands: Accelerating action on the ground’. 

In the build up to the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the plenary event will lead discussions on the persistence of protracted crises, insecure land rights, and environmental fragility on the livelihoods of pastoralists across Africa’s drylands, and explore the role that sustainable innovations can play to build the resilience of dryland communities.

The 45-minute session, which will take place at 17:15-18:00 BST/ 19:15-20:00 Nairobi time, will discuss the latest SPARC research with pastoral and agro-pastoral communities across the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

Protracted crises are persistent in Africa’s drylands. Weak governance, insecure land rights and access, environmental fragility and armed conflict continue to impact the lives of millions. SPARC research has revealed how pastoral and agro-pastoral communities are responding to multiple pressures, including the additional stress of climate change, and adapting their livelihoods.

Innovations emerging from these regions are also providing solutions to some of their most critical challenges. The plenary will delve into this by discussing some of the opportunities and challenges when taking a more integrated approach to addressing ecosystem restoration in drylands, which are facing recurrent and protracted crises.  

The session will highlight from the multiple perspectives of development professionals, livestock/dryland scientists, and youth activities, and the key barriers to resilient development in the drylands of East and West Africa.

Speaking at the session will be:

• Emmanuel Seck - Environmentalist and Knowledge Manager at ENDA - as moderator;

• Musonda Mumba, UNDP - as keynote speaker;

• Fiona Flintan - Senior Scientist specialising in natural resource management and land governance and SPARC Politics and Governance Team Lead;

• Charity Lanoi - GLF land restoration steward and youth representative;

• Christabell Makokha - Senior Innovation Advisor for SPARC and current Head of Partnerships and Innovation Lead at Aceli Africa.

The plenary aims to pinpoint actionable recommendations for GLF participants to take forward, to partner with dryland communities and support their aspirations for stable, secure, sustainable futures. In addition, we will discuss strategies and tactics to overcome the challenges.

The session hopes to answer the following questions:

• How can we advance women’s and girls' wellbeing and gender equality?

• How can we make sure young people have decent prospects for livelihoods and work?

• How can we ensure that development investments in the drylands are realistic, responsive to people’s priorities, and joined-up so development actors avoid overlap and fragmentation?

• What is working and why? How do we support innovations that work in one location and that have potential to work in another?

• How can we create institutions and processes to ensure that today’s investments put dryland communities on the road to sustained resilience where future shocks will not knock them into further poverty, displacement, or other forms of crisis?

To join the event, simply register at the Global Landscape Forum website.

See you there!

Follow us @SPARC_Ideas