In the early 1600s, the German polymath Johannes Kepler studied years of astronomical observations and discovered that planets move in ellipses. But Kepler had no idea why planets moved that way. He had found a pattern in the data. A few decades later, Isaac Newton identified the mechanism underlying Kepler’s laws of planetary motion—gravity.
Thirty years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action — what many hailed as a landmark global framework for gender equality—progress remains uneven and inequalities still exist in many spheres. The Declaration, adopted by 189 nations, made one thing clear: development will not be advanced unless we also advance women’s empowerment. However, progress has been slow and at the current pace, it could take decades to close global gender gaps. Women and girls continue to face systemic barriers to rights, resources, decision-making and opportunities. Nowhere is this more evident than in food, land and water systems.
A new practical guide developed by the Centre National de Semences Forestières (CNSF) in partnership with CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes (MFL) has been released to support native tree regeneration in the Sahel and Sudanian zones of West Africa. The guide compiles over four decades of research on breaking seed dormancy and improving germination of indigenous tree species, providing practical pretreatment methods such as soaking, scarification, and boiling water treatment.
Did you know that almost everything we eat today was shaped by plant breeders? Without them, our plates would be empty.
How do you move from collecting fisheries data to building systems that governments can sustain, adapt, and scale?
