Headline: IASS takes a stake in the development of pro-poor strategies in land management

67 percent of Africa’s land is subject to degradation: Due to erosion and desertification soils lose their fertility. This results in reduced crop yields and threatens food security and economic development. Poor rural populations are particularly affected as they largely depend on the land for their livelihoods. Climate change is expected to further increase their vulnerability. But how can land degradation be mitigated or reversed? How can livelihoods of the rural poor be improved?

A new joint research project by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) will address these pressing questions. With a focus on Tanzania and Malawi, the project “AGORA: Acting Together now for Pro-poor Strategies against Soil and Land Degradation” will explore how to:

• enable land and resource users to apply sustainable land management (SLM) strategies
• promote and establish a process that supports marginalized groups to work together with decision-makers and other stakeholders in the design of more equitable solutions to land degradation and development problems
• provide knowledge to decision-makers and facilitate its use to support informed decision-making.

The project is planned for a period of 3 years and is funded by BMZ (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit).