The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel: A General Overview

GreenWallfortheSaharaInitiative
Copyrights© 2004 AU
May 6, 2015African Union Commission
The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel
A General Overview
By
Elvis Paul N. TANGEM (PhD)
Coordinator, GGWSSI
African Union Commission
BEAT FARMING SOUTHERN
AFRICA CONFERENCE
13th
-17th
APRIL 2015

The Great Green Wall Initiative

Brief History Of Green Belts / Walls in Africa
 The idea of initiating a green belt was born well before
the United Nations conference on combating
desertification (Nairobi, 1977). Already there were
green belt projects and similar activities in Africa for
decades, for example:
– Biological fixation of coastal dunes in Morocco
(1915)
– The Green belt project in Niamey (1965)
– The Green barrier project in Algeria (1971)
– The Green belt project in Nouakchott (1975)
– The ‘Green Belt for Nigeria’

Why the renewed focus on Great
Green Wall for the Sahara Initiative
(GGWSSI)?
 Rio family of Conventions.
– Climate change
– Desertification
– Biodiversity
 Land tenure and demographic changes
 Poverty alleviation
 Increased deforestation
 Food insecurity
 MDG goals

Overview of GGWSSI
 In July 2005, President Olusegun Obasanjo of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, proposed the
establishment of a “Green Wall for the Sahara
Initiative” at the Fifth Ordinary Summit of the
African Union (AU).
 The Heads of State supported it and requested
the Chairperson of the African Union
Commission to facilitate the elaboration of a
concept paper.

Overview of GGWSSI
 A concept paper was subsequently developed
and launched during the Food Security Summit
held in Abuja, Nigeria on 7th
December 2006.
The Summit in January 2007 adopted a
Declaration and Decision on it, urging the
Commission to proceed with facilitating the
implementation of the concept, and
 A Plan of Action to adopted by AU Summit in
January 2009.

Scope
 Sahara-Sahel Countries:
Algeria; Burkina Faso; Cape verde; Chad;
Djibouti; Egypt; Ethiopia; Erithrea; Guinea
Bissau; Libya; Mali; Mauritania; Niger; Nigeria;
Saharawi Arab Republic; Senegal; Somalia;
Sudan; The Gambia; and Tunisia.

Goals and Objectives
 Bringing together relevant actors within a framework to
address desertification and environmental degradation
through inter-related and coordinated set of activities;
 To improve the livelihoods of the inhabitants of the
Sahel-Sahara zones
 Enhancing environmental sustainability
 Controlling land degradation;
 Promoting integrated natural resources management;
 Arresting the advance of the Sahara Desert;
 Conserving biological diversity; and
 Contributing to Poverty Reduction

Expected Outputs
In the short-term, the Initiative could:
 Enhance policy harmonization;
 Create awareness and thus get the wider
public involved in a sustainable manner;
 Create alternative livelihood systems for the
populations affected and create wealth

Expected Outputs cont’d
In the long-term, it could:
 Arrest soil degradation;
 Slow the advance of the desert frontier;
 Reduce poverty amongst the participating
populations;
 Ameliorate climatic conditions within the Wall;
 Contribute to climate change adaptation and
mitigation;
 Conserve biodiversity;
 Produce a publication on lessons learnt.
 Increase land productivity and food production

Implementation Modalities and
Approaches
The Initiative will have several dimensions which are
complementary and mutually reinforcing.
 Enhancement of existing knowledge, and capacity.
 Resource mapping (biodiversity, soil and water)
 An institutional survey to identify the various institutions
with various capabilities to work on the different
dimensions/aspects of the project
 Lessons learned from previous projects would be
incorporated in the initiative.
 Initiative to be mainstreamed in countries national
development plan / strategies (e.g. in the PRSP
documents).

Approaches (contd.)
Except where Transboundary issues are
concerned, the initiative would be
implemented at the level of individual
countries.
– This therefore places special
importance on indigenous knowledge,
the development of local capacity and
the promotion of synergistic actions of
local bilateral, multilateral
interventions.

Approaches (contd.)
 Initiative would be linked to multilateral and
bilateral agencies:
– ECOWAS Environmental Programme under the
purview of the Permanent Inter-State Committee for
the Control of Drought in the Sahel (CILSS).
– Environment Initiative of NEPAD The United
Nations conventions; UNCCD, UNFCC and CBD.
– TerrAfrica Sustainable Land Management
– Africa-EU strategic partnership on Climate Change

Institutional Arrangements
 Regional Steering Steering Committee of
Ministers
 Technical Committee of MS Experts
 National Committees
Sectoral institutions
Local Committees
 African Union Commission ,
General Coordination, Advocacy, Resource
mobilization, Partnerships,
 Pan African Agency, implementing arm
Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

Funding Arrangements
 National budgetary provisions
 Dedicated Trust Fund
 Multilateral and bilateral assistance

Implementation Challenges
 Sheer size of the area to be managed, compounded by
the weak institutional frameworks at both regional and
national levels.
 Transhumance activities of livestock herders as they
may interfere with reforestation and
rehabilitation/development activities in the rangelands.
 Land tenure systems (which lands to be planted? Who
owns what land?).
 Management of access to services and products
accruing from the Initiative.
 Need for extensive investment to build local capacities.
 Climate change and variability (droughts and flood).
 Resource mobilization.

Overcoming/minimising the challenges
cont’d
 Public/private partnership
 Phase-wise implementation,
 Joint development and submission of regional
programme proposals for resource mobilisation
 Mainstream the roles of females and the
youths in the programme implementation
 Integrate the Great Green Wall activities in the
national development planning processes e.g.
the PRSPs

Way forward
 Review of the past green belt projects
 Identify and implement procedures for transferring
existing green belts to the local communities.
 Continue to develop local capacities for effective
management.
 Consolidating and scaling-up existing green belts
where feasible.
 Mainstream the gender dimension into the Initiative.
 Integrated approach - rangeland component, soil &
water management and rural development.

Way forward (contd.)
Regional cooperation and experience-
sharing networks focusing on:
– Consultations on approaches and modalities
for implementing the national components.
– Joint global evaluation of achievements in
the last decades, the results of which should
be fed into the development of new technical
and economic packages of implementation.
– Training and experience-sharing including
field training which should capitalise on the
countries positive results.

GGWSSI- a shared Responsibility
Thank you!
ZIKOMO KWAMBIRI

The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel: A General Overview

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