 Good afternoon. I should have been wearing my heels. It's a bit too short. Anyway. Yeah. It's nice. Excellent. Yeah, sorry. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. And thanks to Emily so I can see. For the mutation. And to be part of this. Conversation. Sorry, that's a bit lost. Coming here. Which explains why we're late. And. It's, um, I didn't, I didn't get to hear. Previously. And. Key notes and some of the things that he liked it, but I'm sure there's. Quite a lot of. Intersections and overlap in terms of things. That I would like to talk about. And. So let me start with some observations that I think would be critical for a content on land. Especially as we are. Also. In a. I'd say in the context. A kind of global. That is fraught with conflicts. Fraught with. Intersections and overlap in terms of things that I would like to talk about. And I would also say. Several other. All of which. Have implications for land. And. One of the things I would like to say is when we talk about land, I will start up an IPCC report. Way back. And when we talk about lands. We often talk about it in terms of. Systems. We talk about it in terms of food security. We talk about it in terms of investment. But. I'm also wanting to appreciate that. Land is also about civilization. You know, land is about identity. Land is about culture. So it's also important that we extend. Our lens. To not just issues around. Economy. Issues about. Politicians. To not just issues around. Economy. Issues about. Political economy. Also, but also to look at it from that sort of cultural perspective, which I think is also fundamentally important. Especially since. I'd say. One of our key findings in that IPCC report. Is. Land. Is coming under a great deal of pressure. Multiple demands. In terms of lands. And very often. When we're thinking about. The whole. Sort of aspect of climate change. And how we adapt to how we mitigate. We often look at the energy sector. Being that sort of main conference. And as a way of. How we get out of the crisis. But we don't. Sort of. Go back to looking at lands. And to see what are the some of the solutions that we can take advantage of. Related to land. So, so land. I think it's. Has quite a lot of potential. And to offer a way out of this. Out of this conflict. And out of this. This. Let me zoom in. Let me zoom in. Let me zoom in. Let me zoom in. Let me zoom in. Let me zoom in. Let me zoom in. Let me zoom in. Let me zoom in. Let me zoom in. To the African situation and African context. And why land is. Increasingly important. Now. Lands in Africa. To a large extent have been shaped by colonial. Legacy. Historical legacy. I would say also to like extend customary practices. Land tenure arrangements. All of these are. Part of the system. The. We have inherited. And for like. We have to walk along this systems. Along this governance systems. To be able to understand. Issues around. Lands. Lands is a resource. In Africa. Land is a resource. Because. We have a predominantly. Agrarian population. And a lot of people. Depend on. Lands. Lands. Lands. Lands. Lands. Lands. Lands. Lands. Lands. Lands. Lands. What? What? What. What we see in Africa. We see a lot of people dependent lands. Land for livelihoods. Land. For income. And a lot for all range of other things as well. So. As I said before. As we're looking at it from that sort of climate perspective. Important for us to look at. It's. Through both. A problem and a solution. And. And we are not. I'd say taking advantage of. The intersection between. section between adaptation and mitigation, in terms of how we can mine this resource of land. We often look at it land as in adaptation, but there is mitigation value and a strong mitigation potential where land is centered, so that I think is also important if we look at it. I mentioned the fact also that land, as I said before, is coming under a lot of demand, and that demand also comes with this fair share of stress and fair share of difficulties, I would say, particularly for smallholder farmers. I would also say the more we're looking towards a net zero ambition, a net zero trajectory, the more land is seen as an attractive investment, because obviously for our renewable energy in terms of storage, some of these other critical green minerals that we're talking about also also some degree of, you know, that we need battery storage, etc. And so how we can begin to plan, taking advantage of this increased demand for land I think is going to be fundamentally important. The other thing to mention also is that climate change to me is just a correct multiplier. There are other problems with lands and there are other severe, I would say, hard wire problems, structural problems that are related to land, so climate change is just an exacerbating factor in Africa. This is also a continent where we see a yield deficit. And this is a continent also a region where there are still people that are at the risk of both malnutrition and hunger. And it's particularly worrying because we are looking at population increase with African population increase of 2.3 billion. And with that increase, there is more pressure on land. So I think it's becoming even more critical that we do something about land. The other thing that is also difficult to sort of understand is that we talk about Africa having or being home to 60 percent of the world's arable lands. But yes, this is a continent that is a net importer of food. Africa continues to import food from the rest of the world and sending over 80 billion dollars annually, which could increase as well to 100 billion in terms of food imports. So that is a problem. The main problem, I'll say, is the fact that small-fold the farmers who are increasingly reliant on land systems find themselves with several, as I mentioned before, structural deficits but are only able to take advantage of some of the solutions that would come with sustainable land management or this whole aspect of subsidies, which is a problem for them because it means that a Sahelian farmer can produce milk and that milk is cheaper. It's cheaper to buy milk that's imported than it is to buy the milk that this Sahelian farmer is producing. And so that speaks to the subsidies that is part of the system of food and supply chain. We've seen how with the Russian and Ukrainian conflicts, how that had a massive impact on African farmers because of this heavy reliance, I'd say, and dependency on weeds, on grains, on fertilizers and how this in turn really has affected the food and supply chain. We've seen a lot of price hike and many farmers and ordinary citizens could not afford basic food supplies, basic food commodities. So the vulnerability in the food system became even more exacerbated, I'd say, with the Ukrainian crisis. But that's probably not the only aspect of it in terms of geopolitics. Increasingly, what we're seeing is African governments leasing lands and I would say prime lands to foreign investors. And so that sort of lease of land has got a lot of implications as well for smallholder farmers because it means that the most fertile land, the best land is leased to investors that have got the purchasing power to basically take advantage of the land and produce on that land. And sometimes even the return of investment has not invested back into those societies where land is leased. So that's another structural problem. And that problem also is about equity in terms of access to land, who has access and how does the access enable food production? And that, as I said before, speaks to the whole aspect, I would say, of matters related to land sovereignty. One of the things to ask that is, in as much as we're talking about a way towards net zero, going towards low carbon developments, I fundamentally think that none of that can be achieved if we don't take land and put systems into the equation. So our potential to become resilient is very much anchored on our potential to build land-based resilience to support small farmer holders and to ensure that the tools that they need, the resources that they need, are resources that are accessible. Our food systems in itself, it's somewhat dysfunctional because if you think about it with the example that I've given, that people have got the resources but they don't also have the resources to add value. If you think about an average Ethiopian farmer would have to produce coffee and that coffee is being exported out. And the Ethiopian farmer or average farmer would be charged for extra. So just supplying the green coffee as it is, it would be cheaper to add value to that coffee in other parts of the. If you were to add value to other parts, the value is added to that green coffee in other regions, in Geneva, in Paris, etc. And that's a double equity issue because it means that one of the small folder farmers has been denied access to the inputs and the elements of commercialization. But secondly also it means that the added value or the value adds and the profits are being taken away from that farmer because somebody else is enjoying the profits of having coffee and adding value to those green coffees. So those are just some of the difficulties and the hardships that we're seeing with regards to land. I think what I'm seeing from where I sit is the increasing need to begin to think about how do we bring small folder farmers into the solution space. Because I think as much as we talk about aspects of equity and justice that will not come full circle unless smallholder farmer is part of the equation. But it's also very important looking at supply chains to say how do you support farmers introducing closer to where the value chains are. Because that then means that we are reducing the impacts of emissions, climate change emissions, but it also means that a smallholder farmer is much closer to the value chain. That's also very important. The structural problems, some of this is not related to climate change. But I think climate change offers us an opportunity to really begin to see how we address the issues related to storage that smallholder farmers are facing, address the issues of grains and fertilizers which are a huge problem that the farmers are facing. And also address some of these negative problems between our food system and our energy system as well. Because at a time when we're looking at matters related to fossil fuel and fossil fuel production, and where we're basically saying that we probably need to do away with natural gas, we must also think about natural gas can is way into fertilizers. And when we stop natural gas, then it means that that production and that supply of fertilizers is also stopped. So we must find ways of thinking along this potential difficulties and how do farmers have access to some of these specific, I'll say tools and ingredients that they need. There's a trade aspect which I think is also very important. There's the African continental trade area, fundamentally essential, the potential to bring close to 1.3 billion people. It should be the largest markets. But at the same time, that also has to be developed in terms of trade infrastructure. But the idea is that because African countries are not trading with themselves, that link is sometimes not there. But obviously, if the links were in place, then it would support better investments. Countries can trade within themselves. And they're not going to be hamstrung by taxes and some of the asymmetries, the power symmetries that we see now on the global market. So how we we develop more secure and stable mechanisms, supply change resilience, I think, will be important to have a very direct link with suppliers. I think that again is important. I've talked about the issue of how land is increasingly outsourced to foreign investors. So I don't want to talk about that too much, but it is a problem that governments are looking more and more to Chinese investors, foreign investors to buy lands. And as I said before, some of these return to investment is not paid back into land reforms. This is also a continent which I think has seen the Green Industrial Revolution come and go. It's almost as if it's a continent where we've been talking about the agrarian transition for a long time. And it seems that agrarian transition in itself has not produced the results that we expected in Africa. So to that extent, we would say that, as I mentioned before, the climate change for me is just another big threat. It's another exacerbating factor. The fact also that extensive agriculture has left sufficient, I mean, subsistence farmers, I would say, worse off, is a legacy of colonialism. The more we look at aspects of production and overproduction, even to some extent, the more I would say that that means a certain number of people, this possess of their lands, there's a lot of land grabbing in Africa. It's a huge problem. And the more these people are left without the resources, the key reason that they need to be able to make that land productive. The biggest problem I see in this whole conversation about climate change, it's not about land itself, it's about how you increase the productive capacity of farmers. And as I mentioned before, the Green Revolution is essentially about creating the right context, the right business environment, improved, I would say, crop yields, etc., increasing the potential of irrigable lands or irrigation. Those things have not happened quite to the scale that one expected it to happen. So there is quite a lot to do with some of the structural problems, even before we talk about climate change. We do have a tendency to conflate everything to climate change, but we should also bear in mind that land has been a problem in terms of structural difficulties, structural inequities for a long time. And I haven't even talked about the issue of gender and how that has also basically disempowered women. There are many smallholder farmers that are women. When it comes to issues around climate information services, many of these women are not able to take advantage of that. They're not able to make strategic decisions about when to plant, where to plant. The kind of data that they need that would give them anticipatory planning to be able to ensure that they are basically taking advantage of that knowledge is often not there. So that, again, is another important point to raise. Maybe let me just close to just highlight that land is under stress. That's a given. It's under stress because we have these multiple demands. It's a contested result as we speak. And Africa has become someone of the new terrain for that contestation, and that contestation will increase. We have seen that countries that had a very strong potential in terms of agricultural potential have lost that potential because they have gone heavily into mining. So the more we're looking at mining and anything that involves an extractive economy, the more we're losing that potential of land as a reason. Because however much we're trying to go towards sustainable land management or mining sustainably, there are still problems. We have to think about regenerative ways of using land, and that's not happening. Somebody I know once said to me that when you think about it in terms of poverty, the biggest problem we have is not poverty as such. It's soil impotility. Basically, soils are not what they used to be. And that constant degradation, constant erosion of soil nutrients is something that we need to have almost a radical awe of how we deal with this. Because as long as this is absent, it means that farmers do not have the potential to take advantage of land and to do so in a way that matters. So that's an important thing that we need to do. There are opportunities around carbon sequestration, and those are fantastic opportunities. There are even discussions around carbon dioxide removal and how we do that, and obviously land is going to come into the equation when we're thinking about that. But I think it's important, even as we're thinking about those opportunities, to think about how we take advantage of making the land more productive. So that we don't blind sight on some of the biggest structural problems that are there, and we'll use that to a mitigation problem. Land offers us opportunity for adaptation and mitigation, but right now the biggest priority that African countries have is adaptation, and how we can make lands more aligned to adaptation practices is also fundamentally important. How we make land fit the purpose of food security to ensure that we have a healthy ecosystem is also important. Let me finish with the last point I wanted to make, which is around the sole business of our green minerals. I tended to have this tendency to say when it comes to low carbon development, I fundamentally believe that Africa is already home to a lot of the resources that are necessary for low carbon development, and land is an important one. But we also have huge amounts of endowments in terms of a number of these green minerals. And I think that as we're thinking about further investments that could be had, we also need to think about people, because we can't think about investments and markets if we do not think about people. So the history hasn't been very positive, because as I often say, many of these resources have been part of an empty economy and people haven't benefited. So I think it's important that as we're talking about green minerals, that we bring it back to the centre. And the centre, or finding that centre, is ensuring that substantial farming is given the relevant support. And that's not far from how it's given the relevant support. Given the relevant support in terms of the land reforms that we need to make in terms of tools, fertilisers, grains, but also in terms of knowledge, knowledge transpires critical. Farmers in Africa and developing world, I'd say, are very often taken by surprise by the shots that they're not able to insulate themselves from. So these external shots are happening at a rate that's faster than they can cope with. So the solutions that we bring to the table I think is going to be fundamentally important and how we do that with people would be critical. So again, coming back to this issue of inequality and climate change is to ensure that we're not just looking at inequality as a government in Ethiopia or government in Zambia selling lands or leasing lands to Chinese investors or to European investors, but there is in country inequality. There is such a thing as a political elite that can also take advantage of land opportunities and take advantage of investment opportunities and then populations, farmers, a little bit stranded. So we need to also make sure that we look at inequality and we look at issues around justice in the broadest form and not just focus on, this is something that is done to people and that happens across a lot of problems. Within countries, these inequalities are also right. Thank you very much. Thank you Fatima for a very different but also a touch of on similar issues at Mark. We have a few minutes left for questions. So if there are some questions, then raise your hands. You still have two red shirts volunteers with microphones. So there's a question over there from gentlemen. You'll be second. What's the other side of it? If you have a question that links with two questions at the time, maybe light should be off. Hey, I'd like to see the graph. My name is, right, I'm at the University of London. It's a university in France, which is stored by the government from last semester's year. I've probably lost a really good source of name, which is the one that is in central activism, or the other components of LAMS, as it were, which was why with all sessions, not to be the best name, which I've published. I don't think that's a problem. I'm saying the issue and also the balance, because I know that the academic process has to be set in software for decades, and we keep on so which I have 19 years to go. So for me, I know the elements of support, looking at the entire concept that people post reports and people are also doing. So that's the first level within the institution that we're trying to have, after the studies, to ensure that we have the software, people who post and post or postings, if you may, in principle. And the other most important level of balance is that all the people on the ground, because every time we see active mentions, it's mostly for those who are looking for who are in line up. We are probably having them, but in terms of social accountability, what seems to happen in terms of we're talking about increasing the past needs, the current past needs and the sort of needs that we've achieved to do by asking for us, raising the value is one of that. So I think that's the role that needs to be used. We need to pass these sort of needs to all of the life in them, all of the activities to all of the happenals to all their initiatives. It's one of the roles that we have. And I think it's also going to be responsible to the parties that are in place. So I think it's a very strong movement for us. I think you know, we can be responsible for that balance that I always said. Thank you, Adam. Thank you very much. Okay, so let me address some of these questions. I want to go back to the gentleman from Sambia and maybe just challenge the motion. I actually didn't mention capitalism. I actually talked about colonialism, but I think that these are all sort of analogs, if you like, of the same thing. And it's really difficult to sort of just look at this as a now thing. And I hope that that's not what I was saying, because when you go back to the colonial projects, the colonial project was also about production, right? And it was production for colonial metropoles. So subsystem farming was discouraged to a light extent. It wasn't given the support that it needed. So we're operating from that perspective. That system has followed through. And the new elites that have come through have not necessarily changed the system. So in that sense, I'd agree with you that our governance structures are weak. And part of addressing the problem is ensuring that we have a governance structure that is fit for purpose and a governance structure that can be challenged. So that at least the support to smallholder families can be done using the governance and the governance system as an entry point. But when you talk about issues around land grabbing and a whole community do not have the opportunity to challenge this. And this is done not in very transparent ways for investors. You know, that also has to a light extent, perhaps in its tendencies, that in many ways do not support smallholder families. So these things, I don't think you can divorce or disassociate them from their root causes of a story of dispossession, right? A story of exclusion. And the story is made worse because we now have other bigger problems or the outliers like climate change that we have to look at. The question about women that Julia raised, I think it's one of the core problems of agriculture, especially in terms of productivity. Because women farmers, you know, are in the millions that they don't often, they're often in the front line, even in terms of the impacts of climate change. And one of the most important resources that they need is information. Climate information is very often missing because there are power plays and power dynamics as well. And that as a woman farmer, I may not get the information relevant to really understand what are the patterns of whether that I need to take advantage of to be able to see what to plant, how to plant, and where to plant. So there's been a lot of corporates and farmers school, I think, which are essential to the learning process, but it's still nearly not enough. Whenever there is a big initiative in many parts of Africa, where women are involved, some of their male counterparts will come in and muscle in and those profits would be taken away. So I think we haven't found a solution for how to support women. But we haven't found a solution also for how to support this and franchise men in the system. There is there is an issue of this and franchise men's that we have to take advantage of and we have to accept. And so women have all kinds of problems from storage to problems related to energy processing device that they might need also, and two problems related to market to infrastructure, how they move their goods from a point of production to a point of delivery or commercialization. So those are all issues that are heavily weighted against women. And the more we're talking about extreme events, especially in terms of just insurance, having the insurance culture.