From 31st August, 2025 to 5th September,  2025, the 15th Africa Food Systems Forum took place in Dakar, Senegal under the theme "Africa's Youth: Leading Collaboration, Innovation and Implementation of Agri-Food Systems Transformation". The 2025 forum convened over 6,000 stakeholders from 106 countries, representing more than 120 institutions. The Coalition of Action for Soil Health (CA4SH), alongside partners and #Youth4Soil, played a pivotal role across multiple high-level sessions, advancing the soil health agenda and youth engagement in sustainable agri-food systems transformation. 

On 19 February 2025, more than 70 partners from across the CA4SH network attended the first partner meeting of 2025 to share progress made and the next steps for scaling global soil health. The CA4SH Steering Committee also convened this month to discuss the action areas identified in the partner meeting and strategized the way forward for the Coalition.

The following update provides key takeaways from the two meetings and outlines action points that partners can take to engage with the Coalition and scale soil health globally.

“The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the apex continental technical institution responsible for coordinating and advocating for agricultural research and development initiatives, shared its experiences during a side event at the Africa Union Pavilion during the ongoing Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. The event focused on the urgent need to accelerate action in promoting soil health as a crucial strategy for addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation.”

Read the full story by Oluwole Fatunbi (FARA)

Bringing together stakeholders representing the private sector, NGOs, academia, governments and more, CA4SH contributed to three events at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AGRF) between 4th and 5th September to discuss what scaling soil health looks like, and the vision for Africa’s soils we are working steadily towards.