The Land of opportunities. A stable Sahel, with a population of over 300 million and a rising urbanization trend, offers immense opportunities for the global market. The Sahel, the vast semi-arid region of Africa separating the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical savannas to the south, is as much a land of opportunities as it is of challenges. Although it has abundant human and natural resources, offering tremendous potential for rapid growth, there are deep-rooted challenges—environmental, political and security— that may affect the prosperity and peace of the Sahel.

For this reason, the United Nations has come up with a unique support plan targeting 10 countries to scale up efforts to accelerate prosperity and sustainable peace in the region. (Source)

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) policy dialogue in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation took place at the stunning Bellagio Centre in Italy. The discussion theme was “A Land of Opportunities: Framing Contextual and Practical Solutions for Lasting Peace and Prosperity in the Sahel.’’ UNCCD introduced an exciting initiative aimed at reversing present trends in the Sahel, and restoring its economic, social and environmental capital. The initiative focuses on the large-scale mobilization of communities, social groups and networks to accelerate installation of clean energy, restore degraded lands and catalyse the development of rural enterprise across the Sahel belt, with a special focus on youth and women.

Ecology, Energy, Enterprise

The initiative will focus on three principal axes of activity that have the power to transform the Sahel – restoration of degraded lands and sustainable agricultural practices; provision of clean energy, and development of small- and medium-scale rural enterprise

There is a vast potential for ecological restoration to return land to productivity and to biological diversity across the Sahel, both through the recovery of degraded lands and through the spread of sustainable agricultural and livestock management practices. This process is actually already underway; millions of hectares of land have restored and regained their green cover, and, contrary to popular belief, tree cover in the Sahel has increased in recent years. The potential for spreading beneficial ecological practices on a very large scale clearly exists.

This central pillar of the initiative aims to make information and know-how about what is already working widely available across the region, and apply it to millions of square kilometres, reinforcing and expanding the Sahel’s Great Green Wall holding back the advance of the Sahara. “The initiative will ride on a wave of communication.”

Sustaining ecological progress while supporting economic development will require clean energy. Fortunately, the Sahel is blessed with an inexhaustible energy source. The region receives sunlight more consistently and with greater intensity than almost anywhere else on earth. In fact, the solar energy falling on the Sahel would be enough to meet the energy needs of the entire planet. And yet a high percentage of the Sahel’s rural communities have no access to modern energy at all.(Source)

If we can change the narrative, it can spark raised ambition, action and investment from political leaders, businesses and investors – not just for the Great Green Wall but also for other people- and nature-positive developments, delivered in partnership with local communities and based on the needs and knowledge of the region.

The Great Green Wall is an amazing project. It is showing that we can reverse the damage humanity has done to the planet by deploying integrated solutions that tackle climate change, nature loss and land degradation at the same time. It is showing that we live in an era of hope as much as an era of despair at the state of our climate. If the international community gets fully behind this initiative and starts to implement others like it, we can transform our world. (Source)

The race to restore 100 million hectares of Africa’s Great Green Wall begins

More about the Great Green Wall, publications and articles, media and news articles from our library collection.

NEW : Cost-benefit analysis published in Nature Sustainability shows average return of USD 1.2 for every USD 1.0 invested in the land restoration project, despite harsh climatic conditions.

Africa’s Great Green Wall (GGW) programme to combat desertification in the Sahel region is not only crucial to the battle against climate change but also makes commercial sense for investors .

For every US dollar put into the massive effort to halt land degradation across the African continent from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, investors can expect an average return of USD 1.2, with outcomes ranging between USD 1.1 and USD 4.4, the analysis finds.

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# The Great Green Wall at UNFCCC COP 26 - Latest references compiled by UNCCD library
# The Great Green Wall at One Planet Summit 2021 - Latest references compiled by UNCCD library
# Drought, desertification and regreening in the Sahel
# The Sahel has potential, but is bound by a vile narrative
# Sahel, one of the world’s youthful region
# UN support Plan: "Sahel, Land of Opportunities"
# # Turning dry Sahel into land of opportunity
# Presentation of the United Nations Support Plan for the Sahel
# The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative as an opportunity to enhance resilience in Sahelian landscapes and livelihoods
# Sustainable International Agriculture (SIA) 2019 Conference | Sahel, a land of agricultural opportunities and challenges
# To develop the Sahel sustainably, the constraints must be turned into opportunities
# "Marshall Plan" for the Sahel - The Sahel Alliance and what has been done so far
# Tackling the employment challenge in the Sahel by investing in food value chains
# In the Sahel, agriculture and climate change have gone hand in hand for years
# The Africa Centre for Climate and Sustainable Development (ACSD) Special Initiatives
# Leading the Way: How Africa is Establishing a 21st Century Trade Agenda.
# Energized: Policy innovation to power the transformation of Africa’s agriculture and food system
# Byte by byte: Policy innovation for transforming Africa’s food system with digital technologies