While there are many successful development initiatives in the African region, entrenched structural inequalities and power asymmetries continue to lock out millions of people from taking charge of their own development aspirations.

The global food system is broken – it is unsustainable, unhealthy, unjust, and in dire need of transformation. Our food systems contribute to climate change, biodiversity loss, unhealthy diets, hunger, and social inequality. There is need for fundamental changes to the way our food is grown, processed, distributed, and consumed. This aspiration is at the heart of the shift from the old agricultural productivity paradigm towards food systems, in line with the concept of planetary boundaries and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The contradictions of our current food systems are growing increasingly stark: Modern industrial agriculture accelerates climate change while failing to nourish communities or sustain ecosystems. At this critical crossroads, agroecology emerges not just as an alternative farming method, but as a systemic solution that realigns our food systems with ecological boundaries and social equity.

This body of work builds on TMG's flagship Global Soil Week programme, which aims to enable the protection of legitimate land tenure rights in the context of land degradation neutrality (LDN) measures and enabling smallholder farmers and local communities to contribute to the implementation of the UN Convention for Combating Desertification.[DB1] A key objective of the work is to mobilize partnerships to translate global policy frameworks and targets into feasible actions at the local level and leverage action research to improve global governance agendas.

Healthy soils are a prerequisite for sustainable food production, carbon storage and the provision of clean drinking water. Under this theme we focus on some of the underlying socio-political dynamics and other structural challenges that limit smallholder farmers from investing in soil restoration and protection. Based on locally embedded research with our partners in several African countries, we develop, and pilot, "social innovations" to overcome the identified structural obstacles. We also explore the enabling conditions for scaling up sustainable land management, at local and ecosystem levels.

Nature plays a vital role in building resilience to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters. The focus of this thematic strand is promoting ecosystem-based adaptation in multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder alliances, as well as empowering local communities through the use of digital data for sustainable water(shed) management.

It is broadly acknowledged that the lack of land tenure security is a key barrier, not only to improved food security and sustainable land management practices at the farm level, but also for the restoration of ecosystems and resilience to climate change. While most countries have legal frameworks in place to recognize claims to land, both at individual and community level, enforcement remains weak. Despite their significant contribution to food security, and farm-based livelihoods, women are particularly disadvantaged due to the dominance of patriarchy and other unequal socio-cultural values in determining the ownership of land and other productive resources.