The Great Green Wall, an ambitious pan-African project designed to restore degraded land across the Sahel region, is facing a significant funding shortfall and is unlikely to meet its ambitious 2030 completion goal. This news comes from Alain Richard Donwahi, president of the most recent UN summit on desertification.
Launched with great fanfare in 2007, the Great Green Wall envisions a restored landscape stretching for 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) across the width of Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. This ambitious project aims to revitalize degraded land and boost the economies of some of the world’s poorest countries bordering the Sahara Desert, including Ethiopia, Mali, and Sudan.
Progress Stalled by Funding and Coordination Hurdles
Despite some progress – 30 million hectares (74 million acres) of land have been restored, creating 3 million jobs in the process – the project is only 30% complete. Donwahi attributes this slow progress to two key challenges: a lack of funding and difficulties with coordination between the eleven participating African countries.
Funding is a major hurdle. Estimates suggest the project needs at least an additional $33 billion to achieve its 2030 target. While international donors pledged a significant sum of $19 billion at a 2021 summit, so far, only a fraction – $2.5 billion – has materialized. Furthermore, the lack of a centralized monitoring system makes it difficult to track how these funds are being used across the various countries involved. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to ensure the pledged funds are being directed towards the Great Green Wall initiative itself.
Renewed Efforts Needed to Combat Desertification
Donwahi is using the upcoming World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought in Bonn, Germany as a platform to call for renewed international support for the Great Green Wall project. He emphasizes the urgency of addressing desertification, not just for Africa but for the entire world, as climate change continues to accelerate.
“For too long, desertification and drought have been seen as problems exclusive to Africa,” Donwahi said. “However, with climate change intensifying, desertification is a growing threat to the entire world. It’s a problem we all need to confront.”
Donwahi believes that reaching the project’s ambitious goals will require increased investment from a wider range of sources. This includes not only continued support from international donors but also greater involvement from the private sector and the participating African countries themselves.
Time Running Out for the Great Green Wall?
The news of the funding shortfall and the unlikelihood of meeting the 2030 goal casts a shadow over the future of the Great Green Wall project. The coming months will be crucial. Furthermore, the upcoming Bonn conference presents an opportunity to reignite international support and secure the additional funding needed. However, without a more coordinated approach and a significant increase in financial resources, the dream of a restored Sahel region through the Great Green Wall may have to be significantly scaled back or delayed.
Source: ReutersÂ
