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. 

The recent establishment of a mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy laboratory at the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in the capital city of Banjul is set to bring wide-reaching benefits to decision-making by providing inclusive and fast analysis compared to conventional laboratory techniques. MIR offers a faster, more inclusive and cost-effective way to analyse soil health, enabling large-scale projects, including national surveys and supporting sustainable farming and landscape restoration.

The MIR lab in The Gambia is part of a growing network led by CIFOR-ICRAF’s Soil-Plant Spectral Diagnostics Laboratory in Nairobi, which has pioneered dry spectral soil analysis across Africa since 2009.

24 June 2025 | The second virtual #Youth4Soil Solutions Showcase, themed “Restore. Reform. Reap.” spotlighted the critical role youth are playing in reversing land degradation, rethinking failed systems and reaping the collective benefits of healthier ecosystems.

Climate change is no longer a distant threat—it’s a daily reality for millions of people around the world. And nowhere is this more evident than in the systems that feed us.

Farmers and fishers are on the frontlines of a crisis they did not create. As the climate shifts, so too must our approach to food. It’s time to put food and agricultural systems at the centre of climate adaptation.

Read the full story from WWF

Rangelands are a critical ecosystem, deeply rooted in traditional, indigenous land uses and livelihoods, and a major player for carbon sequestration, food and nutrition security, biodiversity, and climate adaptation. As scientific and multistakeholder organizations, the CIFOR-ICRAF Soil and Land Health Research Theme and the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) attended and led several sessions at the 2025 International Rangelands Congress (IRC) from 2-6 June 2025 in Adelaide Australia, including a two-day pre-congress workshop toward a Global Rangelands Standard & Monitoring Framework.

On 5 June 2025, on the occasion of World Environment Day, the SOILL-Startup project officially announces the official launch of the SOILL Hub, a new collaborative digital platform designed to accelerate the European transition to healthy soils by 2030, in support of the EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe” and its community of Living Labs.