The third in the series of “Beating Famine” Conferences will focus on the Sahel, leveraging farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) and evergreening success to inspire a continental movement. Participants from across the Sahel, along with donor agencies and representatives of governments, universities, CBO’s and civil society will come together to share, learn, plan and accelerate the evergreening movement.
West Africa, especially the Sahel, continues to be vulnerable to the impact of large- scale land degradation, soil infertility, climate change and population growth. They are raising the likelihood of increased chronic, acute malnutrition and insecurity in the region. To address this situation, a number of organizations have employed evergreening practices in a number of countries (e.g. Niger, northern Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Senegal), building on a history over more than 20 years of some remarkable successes of environmental and agricultural restoration. These successes are making West Africa a world leader of the movement. It is estimated that FMNR has spread to 21 million hectares in the West African Sahel. But while cost-effective and appropriate interventions are now available, they are not yet widely known and applied to their full potential.
World Vision and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) have worked together, with the support of numerous collaborating organizations, to host Beating Famine conferences in Nairobi, Kenya in April 2012, and in Lilongwe, Malawi in April 2015. Together, in collaboration with WV Mali, the ICRAF Sahel Office, and the Global EverGreening Alliance, the 2019 conference will be held in Bamako, Mali from the 26th to the 28th of February.
Participation of more than 500 representatives from national governments, international and local NGOs, regional institutions, CBOs, research institutions, donors, and international specialist organizations is anticipated.
Key Conference Objectives
The conference is intended to join multiple organizations and efforts into a more impactful movement. Through this conference, we seek to draw attention to and generate support for the African Forest & Landscapes Restoration Initiative (AFR100) and its goal of restoring 100 million hectares, and build on the efforts and successes of many key programs in the region such as World Vision and Groundswell International’s ‘Eco Agriculture in the African Sahel’ project in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana and the EC-funded ‘EverGreen Agriculture Project’.
More specifically, the objectives of the conference include:
- Formalize a greening movement in West Africa which will link on-the-ground realities and implementers with government institutions, policies, and strategies, and with the support and guidance of international donors for widespread land restoration (galvanizing support for the AFR100 Initiative).
- Seek roadmaps for subsequent national-level FMNR and evergreening planning processes.
- Create a supportive network of practitioners to support further spread of FMNR on farmlands, and assisted natural regeneration on degraded rangelands and forestlands within West Africa, and to share lessons from and to other regions.
- Provide a platform to reflect on and disseminate key successes and challenges of the spread of evergreening in West Africa, and extract lessons applicable in other regions.
- Mobilize technical & financial partners to expand the evergreening movement, with donors and governments committing new funds to scale up activities in > 3 Sahelian countries.
- Further raise awareness and enthusiastic participation
Conference Agenda Themes
The conference will be split up into 20 sessions, encompassing the following key themes:
- Pastoral Systems
- Conflict Management
- Energy
- Land Restoration and Sustainability
- Policy Dimensions
- Sustainable Value Chains and Systems
- Spreading the Word
- Action Plans, Targets, Evidence and Monitoring the Spread
You can find more detailed information on the conference agenda in the Provisional Programme Structure.
Tickets
Tickets are available for three categories of participants:
- Farmers, representatives of Sahel-based community-based organisations and representatives of local not-for-profit organisations. Further information here
- Representatives of commercial organisations and international organisations based in Africa ($150 early bird). Click here to register
- Representatives of organisations not based in Africa ($200 early bird). Click here to register
Payments can be made online with a PayPal account or a credit card. Tickets can also be purchased at the door, but spaces are limited, so we recommend securing your place at your earliest opportunity.
There is a limited amount of free tickets for those unable to pay for a ticket. Please apply for a free ticket here
If you have any questions relating to the conference, please email [email protected]
This conference is being brought to you through the collaboration of multiple organizations working on improving the resilience of natural resources across the Sahel, and their contribution to economic development. As the conference comes together, new organizations are joining the team. These organizations currently include:
To find out more about the event program and registrations visit: http://beatingfamine.com/