The Great Green Wall of the Sahel is an ambitious programme aimed to combat the natural challenges the region is facing. It demonstrates the will and commitment of both the people and the regional states to reject its geographic and climatic fate.
The scale of ambition is high.
Indeed, how, and above all what is the rationale behind a programme aiming to re-green an 8000 kilometres long stretch from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea? One that crosses 11 countries as diverse as Djibouti and Eritrea in the East or runs from Nigeria through Senegal and Mauritania to the West? What are the sources of funding? What level of political will and determination exist to achieve these goals?

Long time coming
The vision for this green wall has been brewing for some time. It then moved over to the front burner of the African Union’s policy in 2007. The hope was to see 100 million hectares of barren land producing once again.
Additionally, the Great Green Wall would create millions of jobs, especially in rural areas. Jobs that could meet the basic needs of young people and deter their temptation to engage in dangerous activities, such as illegal immigration, terrorism or illicit trafficking.

It also meant millions of women, who are essential producers in these rural areas, could add value to their products, thanks to improved access to electricity, in particular solar energy. The added value of coupling technology and energy would be to increase access to markets by stemming the enormous loss of agricultural produce caused by inadequate infrastructure at the processing and conserving stages.
‘More about planting trees’
While trees are essential, the Great Green Wall is more than just planting trees. Such an ambitious ecological restoration initiative can only succeed when communities find it beneficial, for instance, improving agricultural and pastoral production, transforming the rural economy and making it more economically attractive or creating the conditions for sustainability of production.