INTERFACES

Supporting Pathways to Sustainable Land Management in Africa

Land management and the securing, use, control and governance of land-related natural resources is one of the key drivers for sustainable development in Africa. Sustainable land management should contribute to food security, to adaptation of agriculture and forestry to climate change, and to nature and environmental protection, and be organised in a way that contributes to social justice.

INTERFACES Homepage

Available in en de fr

Project leader

Dr. Tina Beuchelt

University Bonn

INTERFACES supports four BMBF-funded regional projects in their endeavour to drive change for sustainable land management in sub-Saharan Africa.

This will be achieved through two fields of activities:

(1) impact-driven support activities which build on networking for the regional projects, science communication, social learning processes, and capacity development, and

(2) complementary transfer analyses that enable or facilitate the implementation as well as improve the relevance and outreach of the regional projects’ research-based findings.

All activities and thinking in INTERFACES are aligned around the question of how to achieve behaviour change, and guided by the principles of transdisciplinarity, social learning and decolonising knowledge production. All its activities try to be gender-responsive and socially inclusive.

INTERFACES is an accompanying project that supports four BMBF-funded regional research and development (R&D) projects in their endeavor to drive change for sustainable land management in Sub-Saharan Africa. At the heart of INTERFACES lies the recognition that to achieve changes towards sustainable land management, a fundamental reorganization across technological, economic political, institutional and social factors is needed, which also includes questioning existing paradigms, goals and values. For changes to be sustainable, they must be gender-responsive and socially inclusive, which means that implementation pathways for sustainable land management must be based on thorough gender and power analyses and lead to outcomes that benefit both women and men of different ethnicities, ages, classes, and income levels.

Therefore, INTERFACES’ support activities will be impact-driven and build on networking to strengthen the integration, coherence and reach of the regional projects with regard to sustainable land management. The outputs from INTERFACES are expected to include scientific and non-scientific publications, the promotion of transdisciplinary research and social learning approaches in order to produce research results that are relevant to practice, the strengthening of already existing networks on land management issues and linking them up with different African networks to further contribute to the implementation of the R&D results in the area of land management. Finally, INTERFACES will anchor implementation-oriented research in education and training.

INTERFACES spans all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on West Africa. It has four work areas that together strengthen the integration, coherence and reach of the regional projects with regard to sustainable land management.

  1. Knowledge synthesis through dialogues about future visions and theories of change for sustainable land management – together with the regional projects and actors from science, policy and practice
  2. Support of innovation and implementation processes by identifying change strategies to bridge knowledge behaviour gaps
  3. Communication, networking and knowledge management and support for gender mainstreaming across all regional projects
  4. Education and capacity building, e.g. through the integration of teaching content into African and German graduate programs

The methods and results of the regional projects find their way into the training of project partners and students with regard to the training of future “change agents”.

Impact-driven Support Activities

  • Development of future visions and impact models for sustainable land management (‘theories of change’) & alignment of research
  • Shared learning through dialogues and the interfaces: science-policy-practice
  • Knowledge management, science communication and networking with stakeholders in Africa and international organizations
  • “Gender mainstreaming” – aligning research and implementation in a gender-sensitive way
  • Training of change agents as multipliers for sustainable land management and implementation research including communication strategies & media competence

Implementation Research

  • Intervention-specific impact pathways and impact predictions through quantitative models
  • “Follow-the-innovation” from research to implementation (participatory observation of activities, shared learning, complementary activities)
  • Understanding and developing of sociocultural appropriate and gender-sensitive strategies to bridge “knowledge-behavior gaps“ and achieve behavioral change: incentive systems for adoption, gender roles, norms, power dynamics in land management

Capacity Building

  • Training of change agents
  • Curricula development
  • Workshops, lecture and seminar series

Related Media

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Blog
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Special Issue: Science in Support of Combatting Land Degradation

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and in recognition of the World Desertification and Drought Day, the INTERFACES team at IDOS and the NGO “Let’s Plant!” co-organised a panel discussion and interactive market place on 18 June 2024. This evening event gave space for organisations and people engaged in combating desertification, soil degradation, and drought to come together and exchange ideas, share their experiences, and build connections.

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Blog #6 - An Eventful Month of June

June 2024 has been particularly eventful, as members of the INTERFACES project hosted many insightful events, but also participated in several key conferences dedicated to addressing some of the most pressing global issues.

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Colloquium Series - Dr. Jonas Meier (discussion)

Discussion: Dr. Jonas Meier "Co-Developing Innovations for Sustainable Land Management”

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Colloquium series - Dr. Jonas Meier (presentation)

Presentation: Dr. Jonas Meier "Co-Developing Innovations for Sustainable Land Management”

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Supporting Pathways to Sustainable Land Management in Africa

INTERFACES is an accompanying project that supports the four research projects DecLaRe, Minodu, InfoRange and COINS in driving change for sustainable land management in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Blog #2 - Highlights from 2023 and Planned Activities for 2024

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Good Funding Practices

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Factors for improving resilience in access to and management of water, energy and food

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Participatory Approaches Enhance Sustainable Land Management

The INTERFACES project adopts a social learning approach for the development of gender-responsive theories of change to aid in the dissemination and uptake of sustainable land management innovations.

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Colloquium Series - Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert (presentation)

Presentation: Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert "Interdisciplinary Approach to Strengthen Land Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa”

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Colloquium Series - Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert (discussion)

Discussion: Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert "Interdisciplinary Approach to Strengthen Land Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa”

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The Knowledge Management for Agriculture Development (KM4AgD) agenda for Africa

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Colloquium Series - Prof. Dr. Brigitte Kaufmann and Dr. Hussein Wario (presentation)

Presentation: Prof. Dr. Brigitte Kaufmann and Dr. Hussein Wario "Sustainable land management in sub‐Saharan Africa: Improving livelihoods through local research”

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Colloquium Series - Prof. Dr. Brigitte Kaufmann and Dr. Hussein Wario (discussion)

Presentation: Prof. Dr. Brigitte Kaufmann and Dr. Hussein Wario "Sustainable land management in sub‐Saharan Africa: Improving livelihoods through local research”

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Science Communication and Knowledge Management

The forum encompasses all African and non-African stakeholders committed to enhancing Africa’s agricultural productivity, competitiveness, and markets to help achieve the national, regional, continental and global SDGs for poverty and hunger reduction, and environmental sustainability. A large part of knowledge management in INTERFACES will be based on FARA’s proven methodologies and platforms and will systematically merge the regional projects’ findings with other processes and stakeholders involved in sustainable land management in Sub-Sahara Africa. Press Releases

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Colloquium Series - Dr. Frederike Klümper (presentation)

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Colloquium Series - Dr. Frederike Klümper (discussion)

Discussion: Dr. Frederike Klümper "Empowering communities for a just transition towards land degradation neutrality: evidence from Benin, Kenya, Madagascar and Malawi"

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RURAL21 - Research Article

The INTERFACES project backs four regional ventures run by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and aimed at promoting sustainable land management in sub-Saharan Africa. Its mission focuses on developing change strategies to boost innovation and implementation processes. Link to article below.

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Fostering gender-responsive innovation adoption among smallholder farmers in Africa

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Colloquium Series - Dr. Constance Awinpoka Akurugu (discussion)

Discussion: Dr. Constance Awinpoka Akurugu “Gender-based violence in northern Ghana and the role of traditional leaders in combating it”

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Colloquium Series - Dr. Constance Awinpoka Akurugu (presentation)

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Colloquium Series - Dr. Till Below (presentation)

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Colloquium Series - Dr. Till Below (discussion)

Discussion: Dr. Till Below "Towards climate resilient agri‐food systems in Africa: Providing farmers with climate data for informed decision-making”

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Working with Theories of Change: The INTERFACES Approach

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Farmer Mahama Yakubu shares his experience practicing ISFM in the Tolon District, Ghana

Visual Report and Documentary of INTERFACES: COINS & DecLaRe Workshop Tolon District Field Visit in Tamale, Ghana organized and facilitated by INTERFACES Implementers: FARA, WASCAL, UBIDS, ZEF, IDOS & INRES

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Colloquium Series - Juliane Wiesenhütter and Nina Bisom (presentation)

Presentation: Juliane Wiesenhütter and Nina Bisom "United for land - Partners, networks and contributions from a German perspective"

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Colloquium Series - Juliane Wiesenhütter and Nina Bisom (discussion)

Discussion: Juliane Wiesenhütter and Nina Bisom "United for land - Partners, networks and contributions from a German perspective"

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Insights into the research project INTERFACES

In the video, the project leader Tina Beuchelt presents the project, which explores pathways to support sustainable land management in Africa.

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Colloquium Series - Prof. Hornidge (discussion)

Discussion: Prof. Dr. Anna‐Katharina Hornidge "Research for the global common Good. Science as a World-making Activity"

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Colloquium Series - Prof. Hornidge (presentation)

Presentation: Prof. Dr. Anna‐Katharina Hornidge "Research for the global common Good. Science as a World-making Activity"

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Colloquium Series - Dr. David Anaafo (discussion)

Discussion: Dr. David Anaafo "Will customary land rights hold in Ghana"

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Colloquium Series - Dr. David Anaafo (presentation)

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Colloquium Series - Dr. Heike Baumüller (presentation)

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Colloquium Series - Dr. Heike Baumüller (discussion)

Discussion: Dr. Heike Baumüller "Digitalization in Agriculture: Potentials and Pitfalls"

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Impression Video First Status Seminar

The German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) funds transdisciplinary research on sustainable land management in order to improve livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Keynote with Johns Kharika (UNCCD)

This video was taken during the first Status Seminar held in hybrid form (first day only) and online 26-28 April 2023 at IDOS in Bonn.

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Impression Video Tropentag 2023

The BMBF funded programme INTERFACES and the four regional projects, COINS, DecLaRe, InfoRange and Minodu came together at the Tropentag Conference from the 20th to 22nd of September in Berlin. Highlight was the pre-conference workshop organised by INTERFACES.

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Project Team

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Aarnoudse, Dr. Eefje

Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences

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Abugri, Benjamin

FARA - Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa

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Anaafo, Dr. David

WASCAL

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Asare-Nuamah, Dr. Peter

University Bonn

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Asimeng, Dr. Emmanuel Theodore

IDOS - German Institute of Development and Sustainability

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Beuchelt, Dr. Tina

University Bonn

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Brüntrup, Dr. Michael

IDOS - German Institute of Development and Sustainability

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Donnelly, Aiveen

IDOS - German Institute of Development and Sustainability

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Fischer, Silvia Berenice

Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences

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Jaenicke, Dr. Hannah

University Bonn

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Luedeling, Eike

University Bonn - Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES)

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Muc, Patrycja

Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg - University of Applied Sciences

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Poitevin, Cécile

University Bonn

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Sanginga Alame, Dorcas

University Bonn - Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES)

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Schümchen, Andreas

Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg - University of Applied Sciences

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Terlau, Prof. Dr. Wiltrud

Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg - University of Applied Sciences, International Centre for Sustainable Development (IZNE)

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Weise, Theresa

University Bonn

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Whitney, Dr. Cory

University Bonn - Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES)

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Partners

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