Engaging Business for Integrated Landscape Initiatives in Africa

Overview

Business sector largely absent from ILIs

New multi-stakeholder, integrated landscape initiatives (ILIs) are emerging as an operational framework to address risks and support economic growth, food production, ecosystem conservation, and rural livelihoods across entire landscapes. However, a key player in these issues—the business sector serving local, national, and international markets—has been largely absent. More effort is needed to evaluate the business case for their participation.

Bringing business into ILIs

This paper reviews how the business sector is gaining experience in landscape approaches in agricultural regions in Africa and proposes priority action areas for increasing business engagement, from small enterprise to multinational corporations, in new and existing African ILIs in the future.

Turning ideas into actions

The brief’s “Springboards for Action” provided the starting point for discussion of key priorities for action at the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature in Africa Conference. They informed the business engagement outcomes of the African Landscape Action Plan that emerged from that meeting.