Soils provide the basis for over 90% of food production for the African population and hold great potential as carbon sinks. Yet, 65% of Africa's productive land is considered degraded, resulting in estimated losses of over $9 billion annually. The impacts are particularly severe for women and youth with unequal access to land and healthy soils. Urgent and large-scale action is needed to meet the Nairobi Declaration target of reversing land degradation and restoring soil health on 30% of degraded soils in Africa by 2034, and to ensure food and nutrition security, livelihoods and climate resilience for a growing population.

This side event will start with a high-energy keynote about the status of soil health in Africa and then transition into two interactive panel discussions. The first panel will highlight existing high and low-tech innovations for optimizing soil health. The second panel will discuss scaling innovations to accelerate pathways to accelerate soil health action across the continent, with a focus on achieving impact through multi-stakeholder partnerships and policy instruments for market-based scaling. The session will conclude with closing remarks, summarizing the key insights and take-aways for governments, funders, implementers, and private sector actors.