AWF

This morning in Kigali, the @AWF_Official signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding with Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners, LLC (@es_partners) to expand community enterprise across Africa’s conservation landscapes. The partnership will begin in Rwanda’s Volcanoes landscape and Uganda’s Kidepo Valley. In Volcanoes, alongside the Rwanda Development Board (@RDBrwanda), we will support over 500 households affected by the restoration of Volcanoes National Park Rwanda, with the ambition to reach more than 3,500 households over time. In Kidepo, ESP will build on AWF’s work with communities, including support for more than 2,000 cotton farmers adopting regenerative practices and planned support for shea production reaching a further 4,000 people. By combining AWF’s conservation experience and local partnerships with ESP’s expertise in enterprise development, markets and finance, we aim to strengthen local businesses and value chains. The anticipated outcomes are stronger livelihoods, higher household incomes and sustainable jobs, alongside thriving wildlife, secure habitats and improved quality of life. We look forward to working with ESP, government partners and communities to advance this shared ambition.

It was an honour to welcome Hon. Joseph Africano Bartel @bartelafric, Under Secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of South Sudan, to our headquarters in Nairobi today for a courtesy visit. South Sudan holds some of Africa’s most remarkable natural heritage, and many of its wildlife landscapes cross national borders. One of these is the #KidepoValley landscape, which spans northern Uganda and South Sudan. Because wildlife moves freely across this landscape, protecting it depends on cooperation across the border. Our conversation centred on a shared commitment to biodiversity conservation, climate resilience and transboundary cooperation. We are grateful to Hon. Bartel for making time to visit, and we look forward to building on this engagement.

Happy #AfricaYouthDay! Twenty years ago, the @_AfricanUnion adopted the African Youth Charter. Today, young Africans are not waiting to be invited to the table. They are already sitting there. I have spent years working alongside young people across Africa and beyond, at negotiating tables and in our fellowships. They are restoring land, building technology that respects our natural limits, and holding leaders to account. No summit closes without their voice, and rightfully so. At @AWF_Official, we are glad to keep working closely with the African Union through an MoU that sets out clear steps for involving young people in every key activity we deliver together. For us, that is what meaningful engagement looks like: youth leading to shape the work from the start, not added at the end. My message is simple. Without the youth, there is no meaningful progress and we have to give way for the youth to lead. In my latest op-ed with @The_EastAfrican, I explain how and why: theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/opi… #AfricaYouthDay #AYC20 #YouthLeadership #Conservation