On 20 August 2026, SoilHive reached an important milestone: its code became fully open source.

Developed through the Norad-funded initiative Establishing an Ecosystem of Soil Data-Driven Services to Meet the Global Fertilizer and Soil Health Challenge, the new release is about more than opening up a piece of technology. It is part of a wider effort to rethink how soil data is shared, accessed and ultimately put to work.

Food security is a collective effort, and at the Africa Food Systems Forum 2026 in Kigali, soil health was at the center of that conversation. 

Across several sessions during the week, CA4SH and partners joined discussions about a question that underlies many of the challenges facing Africa’s food systems: how do we get better evidence, smarter investment and more effective support to the farmers and communities managing the continent’s soils?

27 August 2026, Ulaanbaatar | At UNCCD COP17 Mongolia, soil health was at the center of the agenda. It was present across negotiations, ministerial dialogues, side events, and the Action Agenda. The numbers give a sense of its scale: the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) network held 72 events alongside 90+ partners across the two weeks. 

The session, “Advancing Soil Data and Evidence for Rangeland Restoration, LDN Reporting and Decision Making,” brought together perspectives on how soil information systems, harmonised monitoring approaches, open-data platforms and community-led monitoring can strengthen LDN reporting while making evidence more useful to practitioners, policymakers and investors.

CA4SH joined stakeholders working across the soil data landscape to explore how robust, accessible and harmonised soil health data can turn evidence into action — from informed decisions by farmers and land managers to stronger policy, national reporting and investment. The session highlighted both the challenges of fragmented datasets, limited interoperability and capacity gaps, and the opportunity to build soil information systems that support greater coherence across all three Rio Conventions while helping to de-risk investment in land restoration and soil health.

On the 19th of June 2026, Daniela Solis addressed the 14th Global Soil Partnership (GSP) General Assembly on behalf of the Coalition of Action for Soil Health (CA4SH) and the Landscape Alliance, delivering a clear message: the future of food systems, climate resilience, and ecosystem restoration depends on translating soil evidence into policy and investment decisions.

The presentation highlighted both the urgency of the challenge and the growing momentum behind global soil action.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, rising food insecurity and declining soil health are placing increasing pressure on agricultural systems. While governments collectively invest billions of dollars annually to support agriculture, questions remain about whether these investments are delivering the intended results for farmers, productivity, and long-term sustainability.

Against this backdrop, experts, policymakers, researchers and development partners gathered at the CIFOR-ICRAF Campus in Nairobi for the Building a Soil Information Systems (SIS) Workshop, convened under the Repurposing Agricultural Support for Soil Health Impact Programme.

The recent “Hooves of Hope!” webinar marked more than an Earth Day celebration - it became a powerful global conversation about the future of pastoralism, rangelands, and soil health in a rapidly changing climate.

Bringing together distinguished speakers from science, policy, pastoralist communities, and regenerative agriculture, the event was hosted by Soil4Climate in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the Coalition of Action for Soil Health (CA4SH), and collaborators from around the world. Timed alongside Earth Day and within the context of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, the webinar the webinar drew strong global engagement, with over 100 viewers. Together, participants explored an urgent question: how do we better recognise the communities and ecosystems already demonstrating resilience in the face of climate uncertainty?

Celebrating International Girls in ICT Day

As a Program Manager at the Varda Foundation, Ester Miglio works at the intersection of soil science, data, and digital innovation, helping transform complex information into tools that can be used in practice. Her role is to connect people, data, and products, ensuring that technical development is grounded in real needs and supports better land-use decisions.

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.

From 1st to 9th March 2026, youth, community members and partners under the Towards Ending Drought Emergencies: Ecosystem Based Adaptation in Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Rangelands (TWENDE) Project came together to map priority restoration areas across the Chyulu corridor in Kajiado County. Equipped with the Regreening Africa App and guided by local knowledge, youth played a central role in identifying urgent restoration needs and documenting ongoing interventions.

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 

Across Africa, large volumes of soil data are collected every year, yet much of this information remains difficult to access, combine, or reuse. Addressing this challenge requires not only better digital tools, but stronger collaboration between the institutions that generate, manage, and use soil data. This was the focus of a two-day technical consultation workshop held in Rome in November 2025, which brought together partners working on the open-source transition of SoilHive.

The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) and the African Union Commission have convened a Soil Health Monitoring Task Force to design and operationalize a systematic, scientifically sound monitoring system aligned with the CAADP Biennial Review (BR) process. 

Ahead of the CAADP Partnership Platform (CAADP PP), which took place in Kigali, Rwanda, from 29-31 October 2025, AGRA supported the convening of the Task Team meeting on 27 and 28 October. The validation meeting provided a platform for the Task Force to present its work on building a soil health monitoring system in support of the AFSH Action Plan, including identifying key indicators and a relevant soil health definition. Members of the Task Force and the broader AFSH stakeholder group attended and provided feedback through several participatory workshop sessions.

From 20-24 October 2025, researchers, innovators, public institutions, private sector actors and end users of agricultural technologies in West Africa, convened in Bamako, Mali for the Market for Agricultural Innovations and Technologies (MITA) flagship event. Organized around the theme of "facilitating access to integrated soil management agricultural technologies and innovations," the event is hosted by the Conseil Ouest et Centre Africain pour la Recherche et le Développement Agricoles (West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development or CORAF). 

Click to read reflections from CIFOR-ICRAF Scientist, Dr Bertin Takoutsing