CA-CoP CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

for sustainable production intensification


Dear Subscribers,


Please see herebelow a self-explanatory message from Dennis Garrity regarding the Southern Africa Regional ‘Beating Famine Conference’ in Lilongwe, Malawi on 14-17 April, 2015. The announcement is attached.

 

Amir Kassam

Moderator

e-mail: [log in to unmask]

URL: www.fao.org/ag/ca

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Garrity, Dennis (ICRAF) <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 9:02 AM
Subject: Southern Africa Regional ‘Beating Famine Conference’ in Lilongwe, Malawi on 14-17 April, 2015
To: Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Saidi Mkomwa <[log in to unmask]>

Dear Amir and Saidi,

We want to inform all colleagues in the Conservation Agriculture community that the World Agroforestry Centre and World Vision are planning to convene a Southern Africa Regional ‘Beating Famine Conference’ in Lilongwe, Malawi on 14-17 April, 2015.

We see this as a landmark event to emphasize the crisis of widespread land degradation in southern Africa in the face of climate change, and how this could impact food security in the region. We envision that the conference will highlight the impact of key agricultural and land management practices in addressing these challenges, particularly through such practices as conservation agriculture and agroforestry.

We are bringing together high-level policy makers and practical field experts, and aim to ensure that proven grass-roots solutions combine with enabling institutions. We expect the President of Malawi to open the event, and to have world-class professionals speaking on food security challenges and practical opportunities for application across the region. We expect 250+ delegates, with capacity for more, given the venue we have secured for this landmark occasion. The Africa Union and FAO have indicated strong interest in being engaged in the conference. 

The conference will be a successor to the highly successful Beating Famine Conference that was held in Nairobi in April 2012. That meeting served as a catalyst for a great deal of tangible action and organizational collaboration across East Africa to address food security, resilience and livelihood issues and opportunities. Following the conference a number of NGOs incorporated land regeneration practices into their programs (particularly farmer-managed natural regeneration and evergreen agriculture) and governments examined their policies to find ways of creating enabling environments for uptake of these practices.  We expect even better outcomes for this conference, given the interest and participation from the AU, the African Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance, other international organizations, governments, donors and the NGO community.

Attached is a brief conference announcement for distribution.

With my warmest regards,

Dennis

 

Dennis Garrity

UN Drylands Ambassador                                   UNCCD.int

Senior Fellow, World Agroforestry Centre   WorldAgroforestry.org

Chair, EverGreen Agriculture Partnership    EverGreenAgriculture.net

Chair, Landcare International                             LandcareInternational.net

 

UN Avenue, Nairobi, Kenya

Mobile: +254 722 521204

Skype: garrity.d

 




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