Africa needs to focus on projects to boost livelihoods

THE continent needs to scale up agro-forestry practices to improve soil fertility, provide fodder for livestock and improve micro-climates.

In Niger, farmer-managed activities to naturally regenerate trees and other native plants resulted in farms with high tree densities and bigger grain production, providing families more food and surplus for sale.

Africa needs to protect and replenish water to collect and concentrate runoff on cultivated areas.

In Burkina Faso, for example, efforts to recharge groundwater levels allow farmers to create vegetable gardens, improving food security and even enabling them to sell any surplus.

Africans must fight soil erosion and prepare for natural disasters, which are becoming increasingly common as climate change affects weather patterns.

In Nigeria, about 2,6 million people are benefiting from the US$900 million Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Project, which is strengthening the country’s preparedness to respond to natural hazards and climate risks, and fight erosion.

As a result, 16 States have improved erosion risk maps and prepared better-quality catchment management plans, 75 hydromet stations have been installed to provide data for integrated catchment planning and vast areas of eroded gullies have been restored.

Africa needs to strengthen land tenure security, a necessary condition to encourage land-users to sustainably manage their land.

In Ethiopia, in addition to largescale land restoration, land certificates have been issued to more than 360 200 households, many headed by women.

This includes some 10 000 landless youth who received certificates in exchange for restoring degraded communal lands, thereby encouraging young people to invest in making land more productive and conserving soil and water.

With the more than US$5 billion planned for investing until 2025, this will implement over 60 projects using a multi-pronged approach to help strengthen community climate action in Burkina Faso; youth skills development in Chad; women entrepreneurship in Djibouti; agriculture and livestock in Mauritania; water security in Niger; electricity access in Ethiopia; and land tenure in Senegal, to name a few.

Restoring landscapes and livelihoods across the drylands of Africa is about building hope, and stakeholders should join forces with communities, countries and partners to make it a reality.