GLF Africa

Four years, every edition

The Global Landscapes Forum brings together scientists, policymakers, community leaders, youth and funders to talk about how Africa’s landscapes are restored and managed. Waridi has delivered every GLF Africa conference in Nairobi since 2023, four editions from 2023 to 2026, for CIFOR-ICRAF and the Global Landscapes Forum, each one hybrid, with delegates on the CIFOR-ICRAF campus in Gigiri and many more following online from across the world.

That continuity matters. Each year we start with what the last edition taught us, and the client works with a team that already knows its programme, its people and its standards.

2023: a conference festival in under four weeks

The first edition, A New Vision for Earth, came to us with less than four weeks of lead time. We assembled a Waridi team of sixty-five to match the client’s working style and pace. Sustainability guided every decision: recycled-wood furniture, a green stage, local community artists and musicians. The client asked for a “conference festival”, so poets, singers and dancers broke up the plenary sessions and a lunchtime concert closed the day.

2024: Greening the African Horizon

With even less time, under three weeks, we built the edition on a planning template drawn from 2023 and ran working groups for each strand of logistics. The branding was designed to be reused, so nothing was thrown away afterwards, and the set carried the theme: laser-cut leaf panels, living green walls, kitenge-upholstered armchairs and giraffe-themed signage inspired by Kenya’s wildlife. A garden tent housed the media room and interview area.

2025 and 2026: Stewarding Our Rangelands

The 2025 edition was shaped around the client’s collaborative way of working, mirrored in our workplan so the two teams moved as one. In 2026, under the theme Stewarding Our Rangelands, the conference grew to two days with plenaries, partner-led expert dialogues, two thematic pavilions, a craft market and exhibition area, a photo exhibition and evening receptions, with sessions broadcast live and simultaneously interpreted for the online audience. Stage design and décor used natural, locally sourced and recycled materials, and students from The Events Academy led parts of the delivery on the ground.

The same team, every year

Waridi led delivery across all four editions: project management, venue and vendor management, guest registration, technical production for the hybrid broadcast, event branding and décor, with one team accountable for every moving part.