10 Million Youth Building Climate Resilience on 10 Million Hectares: Coming Together to Fight Land Degradation and Desertification
The Problem
Climate change and rising temperatures are contributing to severe environmental impacts around the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, increasing temperatures, precipitation changes, a growing population, land degradation and weak governance structures are combining and driving the expansion of drylands and desertification. The scale of the problem is staggering: the Global Environment Facility estimates that 3.2 billion people are affected by land degradation.[1] As rainfall patterns change, local peoples are less able to rely on the lands they have traditionally used to grow crops, herd animals, collect forest products, and sustain their livelihoods. When lands are degraded agricultural productivity falls, biodiversity decreases, hunger and poverty rise, and inequality grows. By some estimates, if nothing is done to fight these forces, nearly two-thirds of Africa’s arable lands will become unproductive by 2050.[2]
Finding effective ways to combat these trends is critical to improve soil quality, stop deforestation, increase carbon sequestration, conserve biodiversity, promote more sustainable rural development and stem the tide of climate-induced migration. These strategies and solutions are likely to come in many forms and from many places but in sub-Saharan Africa, it will be youth – young women and men between the ages of 15 and 35 – who are most likely to adopt and implement innovative tools and approaches to address climate change and land degradation.[3] By understanding the pathways that will enable more rural youth in Africa to take the lead in addressing land degradation and deforestation, governments, civil society, and the private sector can join forces to support youth action and promote more sustainable climate outcomes and poverty reduction.
Understanding what is Needed
To understand the barriers, constraints, and opportunities that African youth have to address land degradation and desertification through more sustainable land management and improved agricultural practices, the pan-African youth network, Youth Initiative for Land in Africa (Yilaa) will partner with Landesa, an international NGO that works to strengthen land rights for rural women and men, to design and conduct youth action research in 20 countries. This 18 month activity will serve as the first phase of a major project: “10 Million Youth Improving 10 Million Hectares.”
The objective of this ambitious project is to identify degraded or at-risk lands and enable youth more secure access with a goal supporting reforestation, sustainable land management and regenerative agriculture practices on lands they manage to advance climate mitigation and adaptation and poverty reduction. Youth engagement in agriculture in Africa is vital for the future of the sector and for African economic well-being. Today, the average age of African farmers is 60, and youth unemployment rates are rising.[1] To continue to feed Africa, support critically important export markets, and promote rural development, younger farmers need to be recognized as valued contributors and take their place in agricultural supply chains to build more sustainable livelihoods farming, herding and in forestry. These younger women and men have an important advantage over their elders: they are much more likely to have experience with and access to technology that spreads market and technical information, supports innovative practices, expands access to inputs, and creates platforms to share experiences and learning.[2] Yet too often, they lack access to critical inputs including land, financial and credit services, extension services and support networks.[3]
This work will involve designing and implementing a participatory youth action research project that will work directly with young women and men in Yilaa’s network to identify country-specific barriers that youth face in accessing land and engaging in sustainable land management practices, including regenerative agriculture. The project will:
- Explore and clarify what “sustainability” means each context and location for youth and the communities living with these changing conditions;
- Engage youth who are living with the impacts of land degradation and desertification, drawing on their knowledge and experience to identify barriers/opportunities for youth face to access land (with a focus on social norms), develop land-based livelihoods and support sustainable land management and to adopt research methods;
- Develop a literature review to understand key political economy challenges and engage other key stakeholders to understand context-specific political economy constraints that limit youth access to land and participation in agricultural supply chains and to build support for needed policy changes and increased youth engagement and integration into supply chains;
- Identify the skills, inputs and other resources needed to help youth access land and other supporting resources to implement sustainable land management techniques and serve as climate champions in their communities;
- Develop findings that can be shared broadly with youth organizations, civil society, donor organizations and governments to generate interest in subsequent phases of the project; and
- Strengthen the skills of youth so that they can take a place at the center of the development debates and discussions related to land degradation, desertification, and climate action in their home countries.
Yilaa is a non-profit organization which has more than 20 focal points (Countries). We put ourselves in the place of young people, align our incentives with their objectives and collaborate to unleash the full potential of their agricultural and climate change project by controlling land and encouraging states to give pride of place to young people’s access to rural land. The activities of YILAA approaches work by applying its external knowledge to the internal way of making African States. We also focus on youth land tenure and climate change.Landesa is a global non-profit organization that champions and works to secure land rights for millions of the world’s poorest, mostly rural women and men to provide opportunity and promote social justice. By developing sustainable and gender-sensitive laws, policies, and programs, Landesa has worked in over 50 countries to secure land rights for more than 180 million families. Critically, Landesa helps implement these laws, policies, and best practices across countries, companies, and communities, translating
[1] https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_737670.pdf
[2] Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A., Munthali, A., Robson, E., Bango, A., … Milner, J. (2015). Intergenerational relations and the power of the cell phone: Perspectives on young people’s phone usage in sub-Saharan Africa. Geoforum; Journal of Physical, Human, and Regional Geosciences, 64, 37–46.
[3] http://www.fao.org/3/ca2877en/ca2877en.pdf
[H1]Add: 20 countries. But, we will start with 5 countries
[H2]24 month
[1] Land Degradation | Global Environment Facility (thegef.org)
[2] http://www.cartographie.ird.fr/publi/evolDesertifAfrO.pdf
[3] Mungai C, Muchaba T, Szilagyi L, Radeny M, Atakos V, Ntiokam D. 2018. Youth Engagement in Climate-Smart Agriculture in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges. Wageningen, Netherlands: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).