At the Plan Africa meeting held in Lusaka in March 2009, the notion of forming the African Permaculture Institute (working title) was discussed. It was strongly felt that Africa must develop its own organised body that takes responsibility for the integrity of the African teaching and curriculum development process. This could be achieved by creating an African board to standardise the accreditation process to meet the African reality.

The API must be driven by Africans for Africans, with the curriculum and certifying body linked to international standards appropriate to Africa. The API will be managed by a peer review process to create a standards body that can endorse African certificates.

The core functions of the API will be to:

· Issue internationally recognized certificates
· Issue diplomas
· Register permaculture institutions
· Endorse institutions and trainers/teachers

In order to be accredited organisations and teachers will need to submit their curriculum for review. Teachers and Organisations will also need to submit the names of people graduating from the Permaculture Design Course (PDC) that they have trained.

The API and the African Curriculum will be discussed at the 9th International Permaculture Conference and Convergence in Malawi. 2-6 November 2009