Attending the Knowledge 4 Great Green Wall Action (K4GGWA) Component 2 Regional Capacity Building Workshop in Accra, Ghana from 23rd to 26th March, 2026 was an enriching and transformative experience for the Young Professionals for Agriculture Development (YPARD) Ghana country chapter members. Over four intensive days, the youth engaged with cutting-edge tools, practical methodologies and collaborative learning approaches to strengthen restoration decision-making across landscapes.

Regional leaders, scientists, policymakers, and development partners gathered at the ICRAF Campus in Nairobi on January 27–28, 2026 for the inception workshop of a groundbreaking initiative: Establishing an ecosystem of soil data-driven services to meet the Global Fertilizer and Soil Health Challenge. The workshop was anchored in the three‑year project titled “Establishing an Ecosystem of Soil Data-Driven Services to Meet the Global Fertilizer and Soil Health Challenge.” The initiative is implemented by CIFOR-ICRAF and the Coalition of Action for Soil Health (CA4SH) in collaboration with the Varda Foundation, with financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). It builds on a soil knowledge exchange pilot conducted in 2024 in Kenya and Tanzania, which identified key barriers and opportunities for strengthening collaborative soil data ecosystems