CA4SH partners kick off 2023 with a jam-packed meeting

2023 started strong at the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) with a 30th January partner meeting, bringing together representatives from across the 125-member coalition. Stakeholders from governments, NGOs, farmer organizations, the private sector, and research organizations shared updates and brainstormed action points for policy engagement and strategic planning for soil health for the year ahead.

The CA4SH coordination team brought partners up to date with progress over the past months including updates on the Soil Health Resolution, engagement and outreach through social media, and our (incredibly!) quickly expanding membership.

The meeting provided an opportunity for partners within the coalition to provide updates on recent developments in soil health activities across their organizations.

We heard updates from Lina Mahy from the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub who shared vital information on the establishment of the Hub’s solution library, coalition dashboard, and the upcoming Stocktaking Moment. Manyewu Mutamba, Acting Head of Agriculture at New Partnership for Africa's Development, discussed the upcoming African Fertilizer Soil Health Summit, scheduled in Dakar in June. Soil health is being recognized as key to achieving targets in agricultural transformation and ending hunger and poverty at this event, and Manyewu highlighted opportunities for the Soil Health Resolution to form part of the key messaging.

We also heard from Tobias Orthen from betterSoil, who shared the exciting news on the release of their new book, We Dig it, which provides an illustrated look at how healthy soils support climate and environmental protection, and promote the UN Agenda 2030 sustainability goals.

Australia’s National Soils Advocate, the Honourable Penny Wensly, gave her reflections on CA4SH’s development over 2022, applauding the Coalition for its energy in outreach and engagement and the policy working group’s advances on the Soil Health Resolution.

Once again a shared mission and vision for scaling soil health was clear throughout the discussions, and both the will and energy for collaboration between partners were palpable.

Following the presentations, partners brainstormed taking the Soil Health Resolution forward, opportunities for synergies in upcoming soil events this year, and the governance of the Coalition, paving the way for a strategic Road Map for 2023 and beyond.

Key discussion points from the meeting include:

• The Soil Health Resolution attracted immense support in 2022, particularly during the UNFCCC COP27 where it was officially launched at the first-ever Food Systems Pavilion. UNFCCC COP28 falls on World Soil Day this year, so strategic action points were proposed to make soil health central to the agenda and concretize the Resolution in the 2023 negotiations. Plans were hatched for collaboration across partners for COP28 to better achieve these outcomes.

• Outreach and communications at CA4SH in 2022 were phenomenal and the benefits are showing with incredible traffic and engagement on the CA4SH website, particularly the Flagship Initiatives page which showcases a diverse array of activities across multiple sectors.

• Key action points for developing CA4SH’s implementation plan and governance strategy were discussed with valuable inputs and suggestions. CA4SH is in the process of establishing thematic working groups centered around core objectives. These working groups are:

• Policy 

• Finance

• Soil health monitoring

• Research

• Implementation

• Engagement, Outreach, and Communications

2023 is going to be a doozy. Don’t want to miss a thing? Stay tuned to all the news from CA4SH and the world of soil health by following us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and subscribing to our monthly newsletter.