About GLF Africa 2022
GLF Africa 2022: How to build an equitable, resilient food future brought together over 8,500 participants from 122 countries and featured 182 leading scientists, activists, Indigenous leaders, financiers, youth and government leaders, and 68 incredible partners to explore African solutions to the global food crisis caused by climate change, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine.
Across 31 plenaries, interactive sessions, launches, virtual tours, dialogues, performances, and a job fair, the digital conference explored ways to transform the future of food through healthy landscapes, equitable access to land, and shorter, greener value chains. Messages spread on social media rallied 26 million people around concrete ways for Africa to regain its food sovereignty.
Restoration education as a new professional and educational domain
As the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration drives opportunities to address restoration from new perspectives, The Global Landscapes Forum, International Union Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), Wagenging Centre for Development, and Wageningen University and Research, along with numerous partner universities across the African continent, come together to transform how restoration is taught.
Pioneering professionals in the field elaborate on the proposition for the development of transdisciplinary, practice, and competence-based blended courses and curricula, as an opportunity to kick-start the development of Restoration Education. We highlight three points from the discussion:
- There are many challenges to agri-food systems transformation including knowledge gaps. It is said that Illiteracy is a disease. According to Adejoke Akinyele, a reader from the University of Ibadan, education can be a great solution to such challenges, especially for the youngest population.
- Training the farmers through local community engagement platforms and which also consider economic benefits through entrepreneurial skills is key in achieving Restoration Education, says Avana Tientcheu Marie Louise from the University of Dschang in Cameroon.
- Bringing together a transdisciplinary teaching team is key in blended learning. Linking up with among universities and strengthening partnerships is a big part of the restoration/ landscape values. Spaces such as the African Forest Forum are an example of what a platform can do for stakeholders in restoration education.
Read the Restoration Education concept note
