The 10th Africa Animal Welfare Conference - 2026

Conference Sub Themes

• Climate Resilience, Conservation, and Sustainable Animal Systems-explore integrated approaches that link animal welfare with climate adaptation and biodiversity protection.
• Youth, Volunteerism, and Community Stewardship-recognizes that implementation ultimately occurs at the grassroots level. This track will showcase models of community-led action, youth-driven innovation, and inclusive participation of women and indigenous communities in advancing animal welfare and conservation outcomes.
• Strengthening Legal and Institutional Frameworks-will address legislative reform, inter agency coordination, judicial collaboration, and cross-border enforcement mechanisms. It will examine opportunities for harmonizing standards and enhancing regulatory systems to combat illegal wildlife trade and other forms of animal exploitation.
• Integrating Animal Welfare into Policy, Finance, and One Health Systems-embedding animal welfare within national development planning, climate and agricultural policies, public finance frameworks, and One Health systems. It will examine policy coherence, inter ministerial coordination, and resource mobilization mechanisms needed to ensure sustained and accountable implementation across sectors.
• Ecosystem Conservation and Wildlife Protection – explore Africa’s commitment towards ecosystem restoration and wildlife protection emphasizing on wildlife legislation reforms, community conservation, human-wildlife coexistence, intelligence-led enforcement and artificial intelligence in wildlife protection.

Conference Objectives

1. To catalyze coordinated implementation across sectors and governance levels in enhancing animal welfare, climate resilience and sustainable development.
2. To promote policy harmonization by integrating animal welfare considerations into climate adaptation strategies, conservation frameworks, livestock development policies, and disaster risk reduction plans.
3. To strengthen legal and institutional systems, including enhancing enforcement capacity, judicial cooperation, and cross-border collaboration to address cruelty, illegal wildlife trade, and unsustainable exploitation.
4. To mobilize partnerships and sustainable financing mechanisms that support implementation efforts. Recognizing Africa’s demographic strength, the conference will emphasize youth engagement, volunteerism, and community stewardship as essential drivers of grassroots transformation.
5. Showcase academic and scientific discourse on Africa’s path towards climate resilience and sustainable development.

Conference Vision

The Conference aims to be the premier platform for animal welfare stakeholders in Africa to engage in dialogue, learning and strategy development to address circumstances and developments in animal welfare.

Conference Mission

The Conference sets to bring together animal welfare stakeholders to deliberate on critical issues affecting animals, their value and their contribution to socio- economic, environmental, humane and sustainable development in Africa.

Overall Goal

The overall goal of the conference is to stimulate policy development, review and planning for the realization of animal welfare.

Conference organization and participation

The 10th Africa Animal Welfare Conference will be co-hosted by African Union Inter-african Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), Africa Network for Animal Welfare, (ANAW) and the Government of Zambia. It will convene representatives from AU Member States, regional economic communities, academia, civil society organizations, conservation agencies, youth networks, and development partners. Building on the strong participation of previous editions, the 10th Conference is expected to attract expanded engagement, reflecting the growing recognition of animal welfare as a cross-cutting priority within Africa’s sustainable development agenda.