The Soil Health SteerCo met to align on action for 2024
21 FEBRUARY 2024: The Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) Steering Committee met to discuss actions and foci for the coming year.
CA4SH was launched at the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021 through a multistakeholder process and has since narrowed in on the objective of getting soil health in the climate agenda. In 2023, we were delighted to see this goal realized in the UN Climate Convention COP28 Declaration on Food and Agriculture, and further reinforced in the Non-State Actors Call for Action which was signed by a broad coalition composed of over 200 farmers and other frontline food systems actors, businesses, cities, consumers, civil society, philanthropists, and other players.
Moving forward, we are committed to keeping soil health in the agenda, scaling it to other arenas (e.g., UNCBD, UNFSS), and further articulating its presence.
With this in mind, the SteerCo discussed CA4SH’s next steps, which are being carried out under the themes of Implementation and action on the ground, as well as Resource mobilization.
The February meeting was the second meeting of the CA4SH SteerCo, after their kickoff meeting last year to define the scope of the committee and their remit.
After reviewing the action points raised in the previous meeting, the SteerCo identified the following activities for 2024 and beyond:
Identify next steps beyond “enhancing soil health in the UAE Food Systems Declaration
Elicit a response to the UAE Declaration
Demonstrate scale and impact on the ground
Intervene at the solutions level
Find a formal role for CA4SH to play in defining indicators for soil health metrics
Continue work on strengthening the role of soil health in the NDCs, which are being updated by 2025
Create stronger linkages between soil health and the Global Biodiversity Framework, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, and private sector activities
Mobilize resources to scale healthy soil practices on the ground
Generate evidence to elicit further support
Bring soil health initiatives together towards common goals
Create a joint strategy for all three COPs
Create an “Implementation Room” on the CA4SH website and populate it with examples from across the CA4SH membership
These activities, and their corresponding actions, will be continuously assessed, added-to and adapted by the SteerCo and the CA4SH membership.
Please reach out the the CA4SH Coordination Team at any time to bring thoughts, concerns, ideas, etc. to the attention of the Committee, and be sure to follow our channels for updates across the Coalition!
