Issue #2

DSL-IP at a Glance

Zooming in on Malawi's child project

Hi Reader!

Welcome back to the GEF-7 Dryland Sustainable Landscapes Impact Program (DSL-IP) regular newsletter. Here you may:

Dive into a different child project every time by meeting one of its members, dipping your toes into the technical focus of each project and following project progress!
Gather general updates on our communities of practice, regional exchange mechanisms and partners.
Catch-up on missed activities and
book your calendars for upcoming opportunities.

Happy reading!

Zooming in on Malawi

The DSL-IP implementation accelerates, with core themes that have been identified for each of the 11 country child projects following the one country, one champion approach. Malawi will champion an integrated food and energy system - a theme of regional significance that allows for upscaling of gender-responsive adaptive strategies that benefit both land and livelihoods.

Endorsed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in June 2021, the DSL-IP Malawi child project "Transforming landscapes and livelihoods: A cross-sector approach to accelerate restoration of Malawi’s Miombo and Mopane woodlands for sustainable forest and biodiversity management project" will operate in the target landscape of Ntcheu (central region), and the Balaka and Mangochi (southern region). With the ambition of more than 150 thousand community members benefitting, the Malawi child project is a response to the policy calls to achieve forest and landscape restoration and livelihood improvement. To effectively engage and ensure a successful start to field activities, an inception workshop was organised by the Project Management Unit of the Department of Forestry, with support from FAO Country Office, Southern Africa Regional Exchange Mechanism and the Global Coordination Unit from FAO Headquarters. The inception was conducted at Sogecoa Golden Peacock in Lilongwe on 2 December 2022. Read more.

Mr Kamanga is the latest member of the DSL-IP Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Working Group. He holds a MSc degree in International Development in Economics and Management of Rural Development from University of Manchester UK. He has gained over thirty years field work experience in planning, monitoring and evaluation (PME) and agribusiness development (AGRIBD). In PME he worked for the Ministry of Agriculture in Malawi on the Agriculture Infrastructure Services Project (AISP) and the Agriculture Infrastructure and Youth in Agribusiness Project (AIYAP). As a Chief Economist, he headed the PME units at four various ministries of the Malawian Government. Before working for ministries, he worked at one of the provincial offices first an Economist and later as a Principal Economist. In Agribusiness Development, he headed an Agricultural Trade and Market Development Unit at MoA where he coordinated SADC, COMESA, NEPAD and OAU activities at MoA. He also has a strong passion serving God and farming.

Malawi's core theme: Integrated Food and Energy Systems

An Integrated Food-Energy System (IFES) is a diversified agricultural production farming system that incorporates agro-biodiversity and builds on the principles of sustainable production intensification. IFES can be small-scale operations managed at village/household level or large-scale operations designed for commercial activities. IFES can optimize land use through a combination of food and energy crops and/or optimize biomass use through a cascading sequence to produce both food and energy. The proposed IFES type for Malawi is intercropping staple foods (mainly maize, sorghums, millets) and pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan), a nitrogen fixing multipurpose plant, which delivers protein-rich vegetables for human consumption, fodder for animals and woody plant material for cooking. Read more on IFES.

Worth a Read

Fresh off the press:

Publishing since 1947, UnaSylva has been updating FAO's stakeholders on significant developments of global importance within the realms of forestry and forest industries. This edition of the journal takes us through FAO's new strategic framework striving for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all – leaving no one behind - and the ways in which forests contribute to the achievement of these goals.

Our DSL-IP is featured in one of these chapters! Read up on how we, together, will be Achieving impact at scale through an integrated landscape approach!

Across the DSL-IP structure:

Being part of something bigger
Country representatives of the COFO Working Group on Dryland Forests and Agrosilvopastoral Systems and the DSL-IP collaborating for everlasting impact in Dryland Regions. Read more.

Learning, inspiring and replicating in DSL-IP countries
The MEV-CAM initiative has been active since 2020 providing more than 100 trainees with knowledge on participative methodologies to empower communities. Read more!

WeCaN and MEV-CAM collaborate to further South-South knowledge exchange

WeCaN held a joint training session with MEV-CAM on how to integrate a gender lens into participatory video, one of MEV-CAM's knowledge process documentation tools. Read more!

Catching up:

Committee on Food Security (CFS50) Side event: Imagine a future where new generations and ecosystems thrive
Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Africa: Reaching impact across the board: scaling up, out and deep through knowledge and integration-based approaches (EN/FR)
UNFCCC COP 27 Side event: Decoupling agriculture from deforestation: Win-wins for climate, livelihoods and food security - YouTube
UNFCCC Session: Scaling-up Nutrition:Nutrition and Climate Financing: How to Walk the Talk

Book your calendars!

24 January 2023: Knowledge Management, learning and outreach series (KMLOS) #1 - Integrated Land Use Planning for Land Degradation Neutrality: Towards a Community of Practice for informed decision making on LDN
31 January 2023: KMLOS #2 - An integrated approach to outscaling sustainable dryland management: Presenting the Sustainable Landscape Production Framework (DSL-SLPF)
18-20 April 2023: Nairobi, Kenya - (Regional event) Unlocking finance for smallholder forest and farm producers: lessons and practices for landscape restoration and sustainable production in Africa. Contact: Sophie Grouwels

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