23 October 2024: The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) co-hosted a virtual side event with CIFOR-ICRAF and the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) at the Norman A. Borlaug Dialogue of the World Food Prize (WFP). The event highlighted the critical importance of leveraging robust soil health monitoring methodologies to answer key knowledge gaps on the impact of land management and landscape restoration practices on soil health and to translate this information into policy.

Worldwide, agriculture employs the largest portion of youth (around 60% in Africa, for example), making soil health central to youth empowerment and food security in developing countries where agriculture's contribution to GDP exceeds 20%. Youth can participate in advocacy for soil and land health through political fora, techno-communications, community action, research and more.

Roël D. Houdanon, Founder & Chief Technical Advisor of the Land and Health Association, shares his thoughts on avenues for youth participation and his unique story of moving through advocacy spaces and championing soil health, as well as a case study for youth action on the ground.

Research shows that soil is connected to all 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, individually and as a holistic solution. To help underscore the importance of these connections, CA4SH has summarized how each of the SDGs links to soil.

Bringing together stakeholders representing the private sector, NGOs, academia, governments and more, CA4SH contributed to three events at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AGRF) between 4th and 5th September to discuss what scaling soil health looks like, and the vision for Africa’s soils we are working steadily towards.

“64 Agriculture Ministers adopted an ambitious final communiqué at the 15th Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Conference, part of the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA). The GFFA 2023 addresses the issue of: “Food Systems Transformation: A Worldwide Response to Multiple Crises”. The Ukranian President Zelenskyy sent an appeal to the Minister of Agriculture.”