INTERFACES - Supporting Pathways to Sustainable Land Management in Africa

Sustainable land management is one of the most important drivers of sustainable development in Africa. Sustainable land management should contribute to food security and social justice, mitigation and adaptation of agriculture and forestry to climate change, and nature and environmental protection. Starting in October 2022, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will fund four regional research and development projects and this accompanying project that contribute to this goal.

Project Lead:
Michael Brüntrup

Project description

INTERFACES is an accompanying project that will support BMBF-funded regional projects in their endeavor to drive change for sustainable land management in Sub-Saharan Africa. It will do so through impact-driven support activities which build on networking for the regional projects, science communication, social learning processes and capacity development, and by complementary transfer analyses that enable or facilitate the implementation as well as improve the relevance and outreach of the regional projects' research-based findings.

To achieve changes towards sustainable land management, a fundamental reorganization is needed across technological, economic, political, institutional and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values. Changes must be gender-responsive and socially inclusive, which means that implementation pathways for sustainable land management must be based on thorough gender and power analyses and lead to outcomes that benefit both women and men of different ethnicities, ages, classes, and income levels.

INTERFACES has four work areas that together strengthen the integration, coherence and reach of the regional projects with regard to sustainable land management: 1. Knowledge synthesis through dialogues about future visions and theories of change for sustainable land management - together with the regional projects and actors from science, policy and practice, 2. Support of innovation and implementation processes by identifying change strategies to bridge knowledge-behaviour gaps, 3. Communication, networking and knowledge management and 4. Education, e.g. through the integration of teaching content into African and German graduate programs. The methods and results of the regional projects find their way into the training of project partners and students with regard to the training of future "change agents".

Publications

Events

Project Coordination

Sonja Packschies

Links

Project Website


Video: Tropentag 2023


INTERFACES Colloquium Series

 

Research for the global common Good. Science as a World-making Activity
Presentation
Discussion

 

Will customary land rights hold in Ghana
Presentation
Discussion

 

Digitalization in Agriculture: Potentials and Pitfalls
Presentation
Discussion

 

United for Land: Partners, networks and contributions from a German perspective
Upcoming on 30.11.