The IPC9 Convergence took place from the 2nd to the 5th of November at Kumbali Lodge in Lilongwe, Malawi. 170 participants from all five continents converged in Lilongwe and spend the first two days of the Convergence learning from each other under the theme Designing solutions for a sustainable future. The sub themes were Plan Africa – Food and Empowerment, Education and Training; Green Economics, Health, Gender and Climatic Change.
The outcomes of the thematic discussions at the Convergence include the following:
- A commitment by many participants to take the Plan Africa initiative forward. Data collection for the initiative started at the Convergence and the main aim is to give the ecologically sustainable thrust in Africa a major push.
- The development of a curriculum for training in Permaculture in Africa. The development of the African Permaculture Institute received support and was felt to be overdue.
- The potential role of Permaculture as an effective tool for addressing many of the global challenges ranging from Climatic change to HIV and AIDS was highlighted in many of the deliberations
The third and fourth days were organised using open space technology to allow the participants to follow their energies to work on issues of their choice. The outcomes of these discussions will soon be available on the web site and the main proceedings of the convergence were made available to the participants on CD.