All publications and documents

For Zimbabwean farmer Sinikiwe Sibanda, planting more sorghum and millet than maize has paid off. As the coronavirus pandemic has led to decreased incomes and increased food prices across the southern African nation — it is estimated that more than 8 million Zimbabweans will need food aid until the next harvest season in March — Sibanda’s utilisation of traditional and indigenous food…

Researchers from the Global Development Institute have been awarded a new research contract of £32 million to establish the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as part of UK Aid. Led by Professor Diana Mitlin, ACRC and its international partners will tackle complex problems in some of Africa’s fastest…

Bonn, 29 October 2020 - Future pandemics will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, do more damage to the world economy and kill more people than COVID-19 unless there is a transformative change in the global approach to dealing with infectious diseases, warns a major new report on biodiversity and pandemics by 22 leading experts from around the world. Convened by the…

Despite conceptions that the Sahara Desert is a desolate wasteland, in fact it is home to 1.8 billion trees. Researchers discovered this by utilizing satellite imagery from NASA, and deep learning. This is the first time that anyone counted trees across a large dryland region. There are far more trees in the West African Sahara Desert than you might expect,…

Siyabulela “Siya” Sokomani, a young entrepreneur from South Africa, runs a commercial nursery that grows thousands of native saplings every year. By nurturing those trees, he is restoring degraded land and fighting climate change in his community’s township in Cape Town. He’s one of countless African leaders critical to achieving the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative’s (AFR100) goal…

The Great Green Wall of the Sahel is an ambitious programme aimed to combat the natural challenges the region is facing. It demonstrates the will and commitment of both the people and the regional states to reject its geographic and climatic fate. The scale of ambition is high. Indeed, how, and above all what is the rationale behind a programme aiming to re-green an 8000…