29 August 2014: The Second Africa Drylands Week focused on the role of sustainable land management in the context of Africa’s Year of Agriculture and Food Security, with participants addressing achievements in, and challenges to, drylands development.

The Second Africa Drylands Week took place from 25-29 August 2014, in N’Djamena, Chad, gathering 200 participants, including decision makers, ministers and parliamentarians. The event was co-hosted by the Government of Chad and the African Union Commission (AUC), in collaboration with, inter alia, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) and the World Agroforestry Centre, as well as SOS Sahel, the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall and the African Forest Forum.

During the event, participants considered successes and challenges facing drylands development, including sustainable land management (SLM). Reviewing advances in land regeneration made by farm families in the Sahel and in Eastern and Southern Africa, participants noted multiple benefits in food security, resilience and adaptation to climate change, and the restoration of land and soils.

The meeting recommended that the drylands development community, through the African Union (AU), and all collaborating and supporting organizations, commit seriously to enabling every farm family and every village across the drylands of Africa to practice Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) and Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) by 2025. Participants also pointed out that finance and coordination would be the greatest challenges to such advances.

Participants also recommended that the Africa Drylands Week be institutionalized by the AU Assembly as a “regular and sustained means of promoting development in drylands.”

The Second Africa Drylands Week was held three years after the First Africa Drylands Week, which took place in Dakar, Senegal, from 10-17 June 2011. [Second Africa Drylands Week Final Communiqué] [African Union Press Release] [First African Drylands Week]