From the President's Desk- November 2025

November, the last month to fulfill all your New Year resolutions and also the month we all begin to take stock of the year.  At IFLA Africa, this has been a year of growth and transition. As we start to reflect and celebrate the year as IFLA Africa, we are eagerly waiting to receive your submissions for the IFLA Africa Year-end Greeting Card. The winning design will be featured on the official IFLA Africa website, newsletter, and social media; don’t miss the chance to showcase your creativity.

This last month, we had a number of actions by IFLA on the global stage. The IFLA Global Landscape Architecture Awards were launched, an initiative that will seek to award outstanding landscape architecture projects worldwide. The awards will be across many categories including climate action, biodiversity, age-friendly design, and social justice, among others. Be on the lookout for the submission notice, I look forward to having African landscape architects featured in the inaugural awards.

COP30 was also held this November in Brazil framed as the “implementation COP” with emphasis on turning climate commitments into concrete action. IFLA was well represented at COP 30 with the delegation led by IFLA President, Bruno Marques. IFLA released a “Call to Action for COP30” emphasising that “landscape must come first.” Many climate and biodiversity crises are outcomes of poor design and planning; healthy landscapes should be treated as critical infrastructure.   IFLA continues to advocate for systemic change, where landscapes are no longer an afterthought or aesthetic “nice-to-have,” but foundational to climate adaptation, urban resilience, biodiversity protection and sustainable development.

Africa already suffers disproportionately from climate impacts, droughts, floods, extreme heat, and land degradation. IFLA’s call to action should inspire us to develop and advocate for continental wide strategies for landscape-based infrastructure. Global representation at COP30 by IFLA, strengthens the need for training, professional standards, and recognition of landscape architecture in jurisdictions where the profession is neither recognized nor regulated, a common thread across African countries. IFLA Africa continues to support the work of our members in local advocacy and through our partnership with CLARB we have an opportunity to capacity build our members to effectively advocate for the profession.

As we prepare to wind down the year, here are some of reflective questions. What can your national association do to improve the practice in your country? How can you collaborate with others to advance your goals? How can you contribute to IFLA’s Africa’s work? Our projects may showcase that are we stewards of the earth, however advocacy is the wind that carries our work into the rooms where decisions are made.”

Thank you to the CER team led by Tobiloba Akibo for putting this newsletter together.

Happy reading.

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