Our Work
AFSA’s work brings together four Pan African campaigns and two strategic initiatives that champion agroecology, food sovereignty and social justice across the continent. Through Agroecology for Climate Action, Seed Is Life, My Food Is African and Defend Our Land Restore Our Soil, we mobilise African citizens, influence policy and protect the ecological and cultural foundations of our food systems. Our initiatives on Agroecology Entrepreneurship and Territorial Markets, and Strengthening Cross-Border Trade for Agroecological Produce, advance sustainable livelihoods, thriving local economies and regional solidarity. Together, these campaigns and initiatives drive a continental movement that uplifts farmers, empowers communities and secures Africa’s right to healthy food, resilient ecosystems and sovereign food systems.
AFSA’s work brings together four Pan African campaigns and two strategic initiatives that champion agroecology, food sovereignty and social justice across the continent. Through Agroecology for Climate Action, Seed Is Life, My Food Is African and Defend Our Land Restore Our Soil, we mobilise African citizens, influence policy and protect the ecological and cultural foundations of our food systems. Our initiatives on Agroecology Entrepreneurship and Territorial Markets, and Strengthening Cross-Border Trade for Agroecological Produce, advance sustainable livelihoods, thriving local economies and regional solidarity. Together, these campaigns and initiatives drive a continental movement that uplifts farmers, empowers communities and secures Africa’s right to healthy food, resilient ecosystems and sovereign food systems.
Agroecology for Climate Action Campaign
Africa’s Pathway to Climate Justice
AFSA is leading a bold continental campaign to make agroecology the heart of Africa’s climate response. Across different African countries through national networks, we are mobilising citizens, influencing policymakers and driving a powerful shift away from destructive industrial agriculture toward natural, farmer-led systems that heal the planet, restore soils and secure livelihoods. Agroecology reduces greenhouse gas emissions, rebuilds biodiversity and puts carbon back into the ground, offering real climate solutions rooted in African realities.
As droughts scorch the land, rangelands dry up and oceans grow warmer, millions of Africa’s farmers, pastoralists and fishers are already bearing the harsh realities of the climate crisis. Industrial agriculture, driven by fossil fuels, chemical fertilisers and deforestation, only deepens the damage. Through the leadership of the Climate and Agroecology Working Group, AFSA’s campaign stands for an Africa where farming cools the planet, nourishes communities, and restores harmony with nature. Agroecology is not just adaptation; it is Africa’s pathway to climate justice.
Join the movement by sharing your agroecology and climate action stories on social media using #Agroecology4Climate, or connect through our WhatsApp community Agroecology 4 Climate to access campaign updates, resources and opportunities to organise, mobilise and act for change.
Seed is Life Campaign
Resisting Corporate Takeover and Reclaiming Africa’s Seed Sovereignty
Across Africa, a powerful movement is rising to defend the very foundation of life – our seeds. For generations, African farmers have been the guardians of biodiversity, saving, sharing and improving seeds through Farmer Managed Seed Systems (FMSS) that feed over 80% of the continent’s people. These community-driven systems are not just about planting crops; they are about preserving culture, resilience and freedom.
Today, this heritage faces mounting threats from corporate monopolies, restrictive seed laws, and the spread of GMOs. Through the Seed Is Life campaign, led by the Seed and Agroecology Working Group of AFSA, we are uniting networks across Africa to resist corporate control and reclaim farmers’ rights to save, exchange, and sell their own seeds. Rooted in agroecology and social justice, this movement calls for policies that protect farmer-managed systems and recognise them as central to Africa’s food sovereignty.
Join the movement by sharing your stories and activities using #SeedIsLife, or connect through our WhatsApp community Seed Is Life to get campaign updates, resources and opportunities to organise, mobilise and act for seed sovereignty.
My Food is African Campaign
A Pan-African Campaign for Healthy Diets and Resilient Food Systems
My Food Is African is a bold Pan-African movement reclaiming Africa’s food systems by celebrating our rich culinary heritage and transforming how food is produced, valued and shared. Food in Africa is not just sustenance, it is identity, resistance and dignity. Every traditional dish carries ancestral wisdom and a deep connection to the soil. Yet industrial and ultra-processed foods are threatening this heritage, eroding our health, ecosystems and pride. The campaign calls on African citizens, governments and institutions to look inward, to our soil, seeds and ancestral knowledge, for the answers to Africa’s food future.
Led by the Citizen and Agroecology Working Group of AFSA, the campaign is rooted in agroecology and cultural pride, connecting what we eat to how we grow it. True African food begins with living soils, cultivated through ecological practices that regenerate nature and sustain life. Eating African means protecting our environment, restoring our health and empowering local farmers, especially women and youth, who are the heartbeat of our food systems.
Join the movement by sharing your African food stories and activities using #MyFoodIsAfrican, or connect through our WhatsApp community My Food Is African to access campaign updates, resources and opportunities to organise, mobilise and act for Africa’s food sovereignty.
Agroecology for Climate Action Campaign
Africa’s Pathway to Climate Justice
AFSA is leading a bold continental campaign to make agroecology the heart of Africa’s climate response. Across different African countries through national networks, we are mobilising citizens, influencing policymakers and driving a powerful shift away from destructive industrial agriculture toward natural, farmer-led systems that heal the planet, restore soils and secure livelihoods. Agroecology reduces greenhouse gas emissions, rebuilds biodiversity and puts carbon back into the ground, offering real climate solutions rooted in African realities.
As droughts scorch the land, rangelands dry up and oceans grow warmer, millions of Africa’s farmers, pastoralists and fishers are already bearing the harsh realities of the climate crisis. Industrial agriculture, driven by fossil fuels, chemical fertilisers and deforestation, only deepens the damage. Through the leadership of the Climate and Agroecology Working Group, AFSA’s campaign stands for an Africa where farming cools the planet, nourishes communities, and restores harmony with nature. Agroecology is not just adaptation; it is Africa’s pathway to climate justice.
Join the movement by sharing your agroecology and climate action stories on social media using #Agroecology4Climate, or connect through our WhatsApp community Agroecology 4 Climate to access campaign updates, resources and opportunities to organise, mobilise and act for change.
Seed is Life Campaign
Resisting Corporate Takeover and Reclaiming Africa’s Seed Sovereignty
Across Africa, a powerful movement is rising to defend the very foundation of life – our seeds. For generations, African farmers have been the guardians of biodiversity, saving, sharing and improving seeds through Farmer Managed Seed Systems (FMSS) that feed over 80% of the continent’s people. These community-driven systems are not just about planting crops; they are about preserving culture, resilience and freedom.
Today, this heritage faces mounting threats from corporate monopolies, restrictive seed laws, and the spread of GMOs. Through the Seed Is Life campaign, led by the Seed and Agroecology Working Group of AFSA, we are uniting networks across Africa to resist corporate control and reclaim farmers’ rights to save, exchange, and sell their own seeds. Rooted in agroecology and social justice, this movement calls for policies that protect farmer-managed systems and recognise them as central to Africa’s food sovereignty.
Join the movement by sharing your stories and activities using #SeedIsLife, or connect through our WhatsApp community Seed Is Life to get campaign updates, resources and opportunities to organise, mobilise and act for seed sovereignty.
My Food is African Campaign
A Pan-African Campaign for Healthy Diets and Resilient Food Systems
My Food Is African is a bold Pan-African movement reclaiming Africa’s food systems by celebrating our rich culinary heritage and transforming how food is produced, valued and shared. Food in Africa is not just sustenance, it is identity, resistance and dignity. Every traditional dish carries ancestral wisdom and a deep connection to the soil. Yet industrial and ultra-processed foods are threatening this heritage, eroding our health, ecosystems and pride. The campaign calls on African citizens, governments and institutions to look inward, to our soil, seeds and ancestral knowledge, for the answers to Africa’s food future.
Led by the Citizen and Agroecology Working Group of AFSA, the campaign is rooted in agroecology and cultural pride, connecting what we eat to how we grow it. True African food begins with living soils, cultivated through ecological practices that regenerate nature and sustain life. Eating African means protecting our environment, restoring our health and empowering local farmers, especially women and youth, who are the heartbeat of our food systems.
Join the movement by sharing your African food stories and activities using #MyFoodIsAfrican, or connect through our WhatsApp community My Food Is African to access campaign updates, resources and opportunities to organise, mobilise and act for Africa’s food sovereignty.
Defend Our Land, Restore Our Soil Campaign
A Pan-African Campaign for Land Justice and Ecological Restoration
Across Africa, land is more than territory, it is heritage, memory and power. Yet extractive industries, corporate enclosures and misguided development projects continue to displace farmers, pastoralists and Indigenous peoples from the very land that sustains them. Defend Our Land, Restore Our Soil is AFSA’s continental call to action to secure communal land rights, stop land grabs and regenerate Africa’s degraded ecosystems. The campaign uplifts the voices of rural and Indigenous communities who safeguard the continent’s living landscapes, advocating for policies that recognise land as a collective good, not a commodity.
Led by the Land and Agroecology Working Group of AFSA, this campaign reclaims Africa’s ecological dignity by defending land and healing soil. It seeks to restore balance between people and nature, strengthen resilience to climate change, and ensure that every African farmer has the right to cultivate, protect, and pass down the land that nourishes life.
Join the movement by sharing your land and soil restoration stories using #DefendOurLand, or connect through our WhatsApp community Defend Our Land Restore Our Soil to access campaign updates, resources and opportunities to organize, mobilize and act for land justice and ecological restoration.
Agroecology Enterprise & Territorial Market for Sustainable Livelihoods
A Pan-African Initiative for Thriving Local Markets and Sustainable Livelihoods
Across Africa, agroecological entrepreneurs and territorial markets are breathing vitality into local economies and communities. Agroecology Entrepreneurship and Territorial Markets for Healthy Life and Thriving Local Economies is AFSA’s initiative to spotlight and strengthen the smallholder farmers, women and youth who are turning ecological farming into dynamic enterprises that nourish people and sustain the planet. These markets embody the essence of food sovereignty – where culture, ecology and local economies flourish together.
Led by the Citizen and Agroecology Working Group of AFSA, the initiative calls for investment, policy recognition and partnerships that support agroecological businesses and territorial markets as engines of resilience and justice. It envisions an Africa where markets serve life, not profit, and where communities prosper through systems that regenerate nature, celebrate culture and build dignity. When agroecology thrives, both life and economies grow healthy and strong.
Strengthening Cross-Border Trade in the East African Region for Agroecology Produce
A Pan-African Initiative for Thriving Local Markets and Sustainable Livelihoods
Across Africa, agroecological entrepreneurs and territorial markets are breathing vitality into local economies and communities. Agroecology Entrepreneurship and Territorial Markets for Healthy Life and Thriving Local Economies is AFSA’s initiative to spotlight and strengthen the smallholder farmers, women and youth who are turning ecological farming into dynamic enterprises that nourish people and sustain the planet. These markets embody the essence of food sovereignty – where culture, ecology and local economies flourish together.
Led by the Citizen and Agroecology Working Group of AFSA, the initiative calls for investment, policy recognition and partnerships that support agroecological businesses and territorial markets as engines of resilience and justice. It envisions an Africa where markets serve life, not profit, and where communities prosper through systems that regenerate nature, celebrate culture and build dignity. When agroecology thrives, both life and economies grow healthy and strong.
Shifting Financial Power for Agroecology and Food Sovereignty
A Pan African Initiative to Expose Harmful Agricultural Finance and Redirect Investment Toward Agroecology
Across Africa, the expansion of industrial agriculture is not accidental. It is financed. Powerful financial actors including development banks, philanthropic foundations, development finance institutions, multinational corporations, and donor programs are directing billions of dollars toward a model of agriculture built on monocultures, agrochemicals, corporate seeds, and highly concentrated food markets. AFSA’s Financial Flows initiative seeks to expose this financial infrastructure and challenge the institutions whose investments continue to drive ecological damage, farmer dependency, and the erosion of African food sovereignty. By following the money, the initiative reveals the hidden forces shaping Africa’s food systems and brings them into public scrutiny.
Led by AFSA’s Financial Flows work in collaboration with its thematic working groups, the initiative mobilizes research, advocacy, and public pressure to hold financial actors accountable and demand a fundamental shift in agricultural finance. It calls on development banks, donors, and private investors to redirect resources away from industrial agriculture and toward agroecology, territorial markets, farmer managed seed systems, and locally rooted food economies. The vision is an Africa where financial power serves people, ecosystems, and community resilience rather than corporate concentration. When financial flows are transformed, the future of African food systems can finally be shaped by the farmers, communities, and movements that sustain them.
Youth and Agroecology
Empowering Africa’s youth to lead the transition toward agroecological food systems
Across Africa, young people are rising to reclaim food systems that nourish communities, protect ecosystems and secure their futures. Through the Youth and Agroecology Working Group (YAWG), AFSA is mobilising, connecting and empowering youth across Africa to champion agroecology as a pathway to dignified livelihoods, food sovereignty and ecological resilience. Working through national networks, youth organisations and grassroots movements, the working group nurtures young leaders, amplifies youth voices in policy spaces and supports innovative agroecological enterprises led by the next generation of farmers, activists and food system change-makers.
With Africa’s population rapidly growing and youth unemployment rising, agroecology offers meaningful opportunities for young people to engage in sustainable farming, entrepreneurship, advocacy and community leadership. The Youth and Agroecology Working Group builds the skills, solidarity and platforms needed for young Africans to influence food and agriculture policies, share knowledge and scale up working agroecological solutions rooted in local cultures and ecosystems. AFSA is cultivating a new generation committed to restoring the land, strengthening communities and shaping a just and resilient food future for Africa.
We invite young actors and leaders in agroecology and food sovereignty to join the movement by sharing your involvement in agroecology stories on social media using #Youth4Agroecology or connect through the link below to access updates, and opportunities to organise, mobilise and act for change.
Congo Basin Programme
Restoring the balance between rainforest conservation, food sovereignty, and human rights in the Congo Basin
AFSA’s Congo Basin Programme, implemented through the Congo Basin Biodiversity, Climate and Agroecology Initiative (COBCAI), is a regional effort to advance agroecology, strengthen community rights, and support climate-resilient and biodiversity-friendly food systems across the Congo Basin. Covering Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon, the programme responds to the interconnected challenges of forest degradation, unsustainable agricultural systems, climate change, and the exclusion of Indigenous Peoples and local communities from decisions affecting land, food, and environmental governance.
The programme works with small-scale farmers, civil society organisations, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, women, youth, researchers, and public institutions to promote community-led agroecology as a practical pathway to ecological restoration, resilient livelihoods, and just food systems. Its approach combines policy advocacy, movement building, research and knowledge generation, farmer training centres, seed systems, farmer field schools, participatory land and forest governance, and the development of territorial markets and forest-friendly value chains. Through these interventions, the programme is contributing to building local agency, reducing pressure on forests, improving food sovereignty, and supporting governance systems that recognise the rights, knowledge, and leadership of the communities who have long cared for the Congo Basin.
AFSA’s Congo Basin Programme is therefore not only an environmental or agricultural initiative. It is a long-term investment in ecological justice, local leadership, and a region where forests and communities can thrive together.
Defend Our Land, Restore Our Soil Campaign
A Pan-African Campaign for Land Justice and Ecological Restoration
Across Africa, land is more than territory, it is heritage, memory and power. Yet extractive industries, corporate enclosures and misguided development projects continue to displace farmers, pastoralists and Indigenous peoples from the very land that sustains them. Defend Our Land, Restore Our Soil is AFSA’s continental call to action to secure communal land rights, stop land grabs and regenerate Africa’s degraded ecosystems. The campaign uplifts the voices of rural and Indigenous communities who safeguard the continent’s living landscapes, advocating for policies that recognise land as a collective good, not a commodity.
Led by the Land and Agroecology Working Group of AFSA, this campaign reclaims Africa’s ecological dignity by defending land and healing soil. It seeks to restore balance between people and nature, strengthen resilience to climate change, and ensure that every African farmer has the right to cultivate, protect, and pass down the land that nourishes life.
Join the movement by sharing your land and soil restoration stories using #DefendOurLand, or connect through our WhatsApp community Defend Our Land Restore Our Soil to access campaign updates, resources and opportunities to organize, mobilize and act for land justice and ecological restoration.
Agroecology Enterprise & Territorial Market for Sustainable Livelihoods
A Pan-African Initiative for Thriving Local Markets and Sustainable Livelihoods
Across Africa, agroecological entrepreneurs and territorial markets are breathing vitality into local economies and communities. Agroecology Entrepreneurship and Territorial Markets for Healthy Life and Thriving Local Economies is AFSA’s initiative to spotlight and strengthen the smallholder farmers, women and youth who are turning ecological farming into dynamic enterprises that nourish people and sustain the planet. These markets embody the essence of food sovereignty – where culture, ecology and local economies flourish together.
Led by the Citizen and Agroecology Working Group of AFSA, the initiative calls for investment, policy recognition and partnerships that support agroecological businesses and territorial markets as engines of resilience and justice. It envisions an Africa where markets serve life, not profit, and where communities prosper through systems that regenerate nature, celebrate culture and build dignity. When agroecology thrives, both life and economies grow healthy and strong.
Strengthening Cross-Border Trade in the East African Region for Agroecology Produce
A Pan-African Initiative for Thriving Local Markets and Sustainable Livelihoods
Across Africa, agroecological entrepreneurs and territorial markets are breathing vitality into local economies and communities. Agroecology Entrepreneurship and Territorial Markets for Healthy Life and Thriving Local Economies is AFSA’s initiative to spotlight and strengthen the smallholder farmers, women and youth who are turning ecological farming into dynamic enterprises that nourish people and sustain the planet. These markets embody the essence of food sovereignty – where culture, ecology and local economies flourish together.
Led by the Citizen and Agroecology Working Group of AFSA, the initiative calls for investment, policy recognition and partnerships that support agroecological businesses and territorial markets as engines of resilience and justice. It envisions an Africa where markets serve life, not profit, and where communities prosper through systems that regenerate nature, celebrate culture and build dignity. When agroecology thrives, both life and economies grow healthy and strong.
Shifting Financial Power for Agroecology and Food Sovereignty
A Pan African Initiative to Expose Harmful Agricultural Finance and Redirect Investment Toward Agroecology
Across Africa, the expansion of industrial agriculture is not accidental. It is financed. Powerful financial actors including development banks, philanthropic foundations, development finance institutions, multinational corporations, and donor programs are directing billions of dollars toward a model of agriculture built on monocultures, agrochemicals, corporate seeds, and highly concentrated food markets. AFSA’s Financial Flows initiative seeks to expose this financial infrastructure and challenge the institutions whose investments continue to drive ecological damage, farmer dependency, and the erosion of African food sovereignty. By following the money, the initiative reveals the hidden forces shaping Africa’s food systems and brings them into public scrutiny.
Led by AFSA’s Financial Flows work in collaboration with its thematic working groups, the initiative mobilizes research, advocacy, and public pressure to hold financial actors accountable and demand a fundamental shift in agricultural finance. It calls on development banks, donors, and private investors to redirect resources away from industrial agriculture and toward agroecology, territorial markets, farmer managed seed systems, and locally rooted food economies. The vision is an Africa where financial power serves people, ecosystems, and community resilience rather than corporate concentration. When financial flows are transformed, the future of African food systems can finally be shaped by the farmers, communities, and movements that sustain them.
Youth and Agroecology
Empowering Africa’s youth to lead the transition toward agroecological food systems
Across Africa, young people are rising to reclaim food systems that nourish communities, protect ecosystems and secure their futures. Through the Youth and Agroecology Working Group (YAWG), AFSA is mobilising, connecting and empowering youth across Africa to champion agroecology as a pathway to dignified livelihoods, food sovereignty and ecological resilience. Working through national networks, youth organisations and grassroots movements, the working group nurtures young leaders, amplifies youth voices in policy spaces and supports innovative agroecological enterprises led by the next generation of farmers, activists and food system change-makers.
With Africa’s population rapidly growing and youth unemployment rising, agroecology offers meaningful opportunities for young people to engage in sustainable farming, entrepreneurship, advocacy and community leadership. The Youth and Agroecology Working Group builds the skills, solidarity and platforms needed for young Africans to influence food and agriculture policies, share knowledge and scale up working agroecological solutions rooted in local cultures and ecosystems. AFSA is cultivating a new generation committed to restoring the land, strengthening communities and shaping a just and resilient food future for Africa.
We invite young actors and leaders in agroecology and food sovereignty to join the movement by sharing your involvement in agroecology stories on social media using #Youth4Agroecology or connect through the link below to access updates, and opportunities to organise, mobilise and act for change.
Congo Basin Programme
Restoring the balance between rainforest conservation, food sovereignty, and human rights in the Congo Basin
AFSA’s Congo Basin Programme, implemented through the Congo Basin Biodiversity, Climate and Agroecology Initiative (COBCAI), is a regional effort to advance agroecology, strengthen community rights, and support climate-resilient and biodiversity-friendly food systems across the Congo Basin. Covering Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon, the programme responds to the interconnected challenges of forest degradation, unsustainable agricultural systems, climate change, and the exclusion of Indigenous Peoples and local communities from decisions affecting land, food, and environmental governance.
The programme works with small-scale farmers, civil society organisations, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, women, youth, researchers, and public institutions to promote community-led agroecology as a practical pathway to ecological restoration, resilient livelihoods, and just food systems. Its approach combines policy advocacy, movement building, research and knowledge generation, farmer training centres, seed systems, farmer field schools, participatory land and forest governance, and the development of territorial markets and forest-friendly value chains. Through these interventions, the programme is contributing to building local agency, reducing pressure on forests, improving food sovereignty, and supporting governance systems that recognise the rights, knowledge, and leadership of the communities who have long cared for the Congo Basin.
AFSA’s Congo Basin Programme is therefore not only an environmental or agricultural initiative. It is a long-term investment in ecological justice, local leadership, and a region where forests and communities can thrive together.