The Great Green Wall is a pan-African initiative to restore and sustainably manage land in the Sahel- Saharan region in order to address both land degradation and poverty. It was first envisioned in 2005 The African Union (AU) launched the initiative in 2007 under the name the Great Green Wall.

On 17 June 2010 the 11 Sahel states south of the Sahara created the Pan-African Agency of the GGW to coordinate its implementation and support resources mobilization .
The Great Green Wall initiative promises to boost food security and resilience to climate change, create thousands of jobs for the communities along the path, especially women and young people, and address urgent threats to the people of this region such as drought, famine, conflict and migration.

Major progress has already been made in restoring the fertility of Sahelian lands, according to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), one of the key partners in the initiative. Examples include:
●● Ethiopia: 15 million hectares of degraded land restored. Land tenure security improved.
●●Senegal: 11.4 million trees planted. 25,000 hectares of degraded land restored.
●● Nigeria: 5 million hectares of degraded land restored. 20,000 jobs created.
●● Sudan: 2,000 hectares of land restored.
●● Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger: about 120 communities involved; a green belt created over more than 2,500 hectares of degraded and drylands; more than 2 million seeds and seedlings planted from fifty native species of trees.

The initiators emphasize that the Great Green Wall makes a vital contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and that it is a global symbol for humanity overcoming its biggest threat: the rapidly degrading environment.
On its website, the initiative states: “It shows that if we can work with nature, even in challenging places like the Sahel, we can overcome adversity, and build a better world for generations to come.“