The United Nations and its partners have launched a $78 million programme aimed at restoring degraded land and improving livelihoods for five million people across Africa’s Great Green Wall.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is providing the funding, while the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) will implement eight of the programme’s 10 projects and coordinate delivery across the nine participating countries.
According to UNEP, the $78 million GEF grant is expected to revitalise the Great Green Wall Initiative and support the restoration of more than 270,000 hectares of degraded land across nine Sahel countries.
The new funding represents a significant boost for the initiative, taking total pooled resources to more than $500 million when combined with co-financing from partners.
The programme is targeted at addressing severe land degradation, drought and climate vulnerability across the nine Sahelian countries involved.
The initiative brings together nine national governments stretching from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, alongside UNEP, the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall.
The participating countries are Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.
UNEP will oversee eight of the programme’s 10 projects and coordinate regional delivery, while BOAD will implement the remaining two projects.
Women are expected to account for more than half of the people who will benefit from the programme. Beyond tackling land degradation, the initiative is designed to expand economic opportunities for communities facing increasing climate and livelihood pressures.
The Great Green Wall is one of Africa’s flagship environmental initiatives. It seeks to restore degraded landscapes across the Sahel while strengthening food security and resilience.
The latest investment comes as desertification, drought and climate change continue to pose growing threats to agricultural livelihoods across the region.
The development is particularly relevant to Nigeria, which is among the African countries participating in the wider Great Green Wall initiative.
Source: Peoples Gazette
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