Follow-up meeting

A follow-up meeting to develop action points on climate change, biodiversity conservation and food systems in the Basin was held in Kampala, Uganda, from 03 to 04 April by AFSA.

This meeting brought together the leaders of the 9 thematic groups established at the Kinshasa summit in August 2023.

It was imperative for AFSA and the Congo Basin stakeholders to (1) go deeper into each action point to define detailed work plans, strategies and responsibilities.

(2) Foster collaboration and coordination between key leaders and stakeholders to

Stakeholders to implement these action points effectively.

The meeting resulted in the following outcomes:

a. The 09 thematic groups were reduced to 4 thematic groups by aligning us to the strategic axes in line with AFSA's theory of change;

b. A draft of the elements of the action plan in terms of a 10 year action programme were gathered and discussed for each point identified according to the 4 thematic groups defined and served to provide the basis for the theory of change that will be defined for the programme over the next 10 years.

Note that 4 strategic pillars were adopted by the representatives of the 6 Congo Basin countries present at the meeting:

1. Policy change pillar: based on Advocacy for policy change and will aim to Influence agricultural and environmental policies in favor of agroecology in the Congo Basin;

2. A dynamic movement pillar: based on the emergence of a movement for agro-ecology and food sovereignty by ensuring synergy between players, training for movements, networking and capacity building;

3. Evidence pillar: based on action/participatory research & documentation & dissemination of knowledge/communication on changing the narrative;

4. Scaling-up of agroecological practices pillar: based on the adoption of agroecological practices & successes on a large scale: This will include the Promotion of climate change resilient food systems based on the principles of agroecology and food sovereignty and includes activities related to: Agro-ecological entrepreneurship - Promotion of local consumption and Protection and restoration of ecosystems.

The next steps are as follows

- The technical teams designated for the 4 thematic groups will continue to work in a virtual format with Sasha to finish out the objectives and activities of each strategic axis;

- Possibility of organizing meetings in each country on an exclusive basis in order to find country focal points responsible for coordination. AFSA will look into ways of organizing country meetings.