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Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to this non-statutory meeting of the Great Green Wall. And thank you for joining.  Friends,  The Great Green Wall is arguably one of the most inspiring Land Restoration Program in the world. By its ambition, its size, its institutional set up with a dedicated  Heads of State Summit, Ministerial Conference and Agencies (national and regional). It is politically endorsed by the continental body and is therefore institutionally hooked to the African Union. The political support it has makes it unique and inspiring. Even more inspiring when one thinks that in the Sahara and the Sahel, we have one of the harshest ecological conditions, coupled with a very challenging socio-political and security situation. This makes it even more compelling. A new departure was given in 2021, at the One Planet Summit in Paris, with USD 19 Billion pledged by donors and technical support offered by Partners. This meeting will be an opportunity for us to get some updates as to what has worked; and what has not; what needs to be fixed? Both Governments, Donor Agencies and Partners? It is refreshing to know that much progress has already been made, while we still have a long way to go to achieve our ambitions. We will hear more in a short while from different speakers. It is equally encouraging to see, despite all the constructive criticism, that the Great GreenWall is inspiring action in other parts of Africa, and elsewhere in the world. The Southern Africa region (SADC) is busy preparing a similar program The Middle East Green Initiative (which also covers parts of Africa) has already received its first funding of USD 2.5 B from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia An Eastern Africa corridor may be developed soon Other similar initiatives under the umbrella of the African Union’s NEPAD are also ongoing such as the AFR100, which we salute It seems the movement of large-scale land restoration is unstoppable, as these provide multiple benefits and respond to various Sustainable Development Goals. Before I go any further, let me recognize few leaders that are in the room and give them the floor for their opening remarks and their blessings: To officially open the meeting, please welcome the Nigerian rotating Presidency of the Great GreenWall. We have the honor of welcoming Minister Mohammed H. Abdullahi, Chair of the Council of Ministers of the Great GreenWall. We are also honored to have with us Her Excellency Ms. Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy, and Agriculture of the AU Commission Ms. Inger Andersen J’aimerai maintenant partager avec vous quelques avis et recommandations générales qui découlent de nos observations et de nos interactions avec tous les acteurs au cours de deux dernières années. Ces commentaires n’altèrent en rien l’authenticité et la pertinence du programme de la Grande Muraille Verte, bien au contraire. 1.   Financement : sur les USD 19 milliards annoncés il y a deux ans lors du One Planet Summit à Paris, 80% des fonds sont déjà programmés, répartis en 150 projets dans le pipeline. 4 milliards restent encore à programmer. Nous notons cependant un déphasage entre les attentes des acteurs nationaux de la Grande Muraille Verte et cette première liste de projets. En effet, la majorité de ces projets étaient déjà planifiés avant le One Planet Summit; par ailleurs, certains de ces projets ne sont pas situés dans les zones d’intervention prioritaires de la Grande Muraille Verte. Ce déphasage peut être corrigé s’il y a une meilleure coordination au niveau national par les ministères chargés de l’ordonnancement. C’est à cet effet que nous saluons la présence parmi nous de ministres de l’Economie. Nous saluons aussi la mise en place dans beaucoup de pays, de coalitions nationales, qui sont des structures intersectorielles de coordination. La coordination doit idéalement se faire depuis l’amont, c’est-à-dire la planification, et doit bien entendu se poursuivre au moment de la mise en œuvre. Par ailleurs, plusieurs agences nationales de la Grande Muraille Verte expriment leur volonté d’être mieux impliqués dans la mise en œuvre des projets portant le label de la Grande Muraille Verte afin de jouer leur rôle de coordination et de suivi, afin d’être en mesure de rendre compte à leurs autorités nationales. Il serait intéressant d’avoir des opinions sur ces questions et surtout de clarifier, dans chaque pays, les procédures de planification et d’exécution des projets. Les structures gouvernementales officielles, adéquatement recalibrés, doivent être aux commandes. 2.  Renforcement des institutions : Tout en saluant encore une fois la volonté politique à haut niveau, nous recommandons fortement que les institutions de mise en œuvre et de suivi de la Grande Muraille Verte soient revues et renforcés. Dans la plupart des pays, les structures nationales de la Grande Muraille Verte -tout comme l’Agence régionale- manquent de personnels suffisant en qualification et en nombre, pour pleinement jouer leur rôle de planification, de développement, de suivi-évaluation et de coordination d’un programme d’une telle ampleur et d’une telle complexité. Nous encourageons les gouvernements et l’Agence panafricaine à exécuter la décision, prise en 2021, du Conseil des Ministres de la Grande Muraille Verte. La décision commandite un audit institutionnel de la Grande Muraille Verte, pour adapter les anciennes structures (régionale et nationales) à la nouvelle configuration post-One Planet Summit. Nous encourageons également les partenaires techniques et financiers à accompagner ce processus de renforcement institutionnel, condition essentielle pour la réussite de cet ambitieux programme. 3.  Prochaines étapes : La préparation de la prochaine phase de la Grande Muraille Verte doit démarrer incessamment, pour assurer une continuité après 2025. Le budget total estimé de la Grande Muraille Verte à 2030 était de 33 milliards de dollars. Pour atteindre cet objectif, il serait judicieux de : (i) tirer des leçons de la phase actuelle (ii) procéder à la préparation de la prochaine phase et développer des projets bankables. Un tel exercice nécessite un effort conséquent dans chaque pays, mais aussi au niveau régional. Merci  

Two years on since the One Planet Summit, 80 percent of the US$19 billion pledged towards the Great Green Wall Accelerator has been programmed across the 11 African nations that are part of the initiative. However, continued political leadership and country ownership, targeted action at all levels, and strengthened institutional arrangements are required to realize the vision of this Africa-led movement.

One year into the project, the collaboration between UNCCD, FAO, Aduna, Orgiis and GLOBHE already bears fruit: individual baobab trees can be now recognized from space and a computer system has been trained to plot them on a map. In the Sahel region, where trees play an important role in fixating soils, providing a barrier to land degradation and supporting food security, the baobab is particularly valued, as its fruit not only has a variety of local uses, but can also be a viable commercial export and a source of sustainable income. An icon of the African landscape revered as the tree of life, baobabs cannot be grown on plantations. Proudly standing big and wild, each one is unique and cherished by local communities, as it provides nourishment for people and their animals. Faced with the advance of the climate change, growing energy needs, rapid urbanization and a depleting stock of seedlings that grow to maturity, these green giants need to be carefully monitored and protected. Recent advances in the spatial resolution and availability of satellite imagery have enabled the detection of individual trees from space. Using FAO’s cloud computing platform SEPAL and dense time-series approaches helps identify individual tree species through phenology, or the seasonal foliage pattern, often unique to individual species. The next challenge was pinning down the actual locations of baobab trees and “training” a classification system to extrapolate and predict the tree species associated with each tree canopy. Drone data provided by GLOBHE at a very high spatial resolution allows identification of baobabs, and the  tree locations are then combined with the phenology data to map individual baobabs over vast geographic regions. The resulting maps can be used to inform local communities of the location, number and condition of the baobabs, and enable them “to visualize and analyze high resolution satellite imagery from their mobile phones, allowing to actively monitor and protect this natural resource,” says Yelena Finegold, FAO Forestry Officer. This collaboration between global satellite data providers, drone operators, the private enterprise, the UN and local communities, including women and youth, is a major step toward improving monitoring, conservation and restoration methods in the Sahel. As the project advances toward mapping the baobabs over larger geographical areas, it can also support the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative. Better understanding of where to conserve and invest in long-term sustainable use of baobabs can promote value chain development and enable better land management decisions to monitor and safeguard these green powerhouses that provide sustenance, store water and enrich the land. image (c) MakeWaves Media

nnovators from the Great Green Wall countries are invited to apply for the DeserTech Innovation Leaders for the Great Green Wall, a new training scheme to find innovative solutions to tackle desert-related challenges.

Baobab fruit, moringa oil and shea butter are just some of the products from Africa’s Sahel region that may hold the key to improving livelihoods, restoring degraded lands and tackling climate change. To unlock this potential of the Sahel’s natural capital and give new momentum to the Great Green Wall’s land restoration ambition, a new sourcing challenge has been launched at UNCCD COP15 Green Business Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The Sahel sourcing challenge calls on the global supply chain managers to upscale the use of sustainably produced Sahelian ingredients, such as bambara nut, baobab, moringa, gum Arabic and fonio, from the Sahel's small-scale producers as a way to create new economic opportunities for local populations. Sahel region is one of the most vulnerable places on Earth, where the temperatures are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average and where increasing desertification, drought and resource scarcity, leading to radicalization, conflict and migration. An African-led movement to inspire the world, the Great Green Wall is an epic vision to create a 8,000 km-long mosaic of projects across the continent that support land restoration, create 10 million jobs and promise a better future. UNCCD is a key partner of the Great Green Wall Initiative, working with businesses and major corporate partners to create green jobs and transform the Sahel through market-driven, sustainable ethical supply chains. “The Great Green Wall challenge has a huge potential to help combat land degradation. By creating demand for the Sahel’s underutilized ingredients, the private sector can play a pivotal role in the creation of local economic development and the subsequent environmental and social impact that new value chains will bring,” says Nick Salter, co-founder of Aduna. Aduna, together with WhatIf Foods, Unilever, Evonik, Doehler, the World Economic Forum and the Global Shea Alliance, is among the major businesses and platforms that are working on the challenge and calling on others to follow suit and work with UNCCD and Business Fights Poverty to make the challenge a world-class success. “We're looking to be not just buyers, but to support communities. Improving livelihoods and soil fertility are in everyone's best interests,” says Scott Poynton, CEO and Founder of The Pond Foundation and WhatIf Foods Partner. Follow the Great Green Wall progress on the Web, on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Excellencies, The Great Green Wall is an historic opportunity. An opportunity for the Sahel - and for each of the GGW states - to deliver something truly remarkable. A renaissance for land and the natural world.  And - just as important - true resilience and a renaissance for communities on the frontline of climate change and poverty. The GGW is an inspiration and a beacon of hope for humanity worldwide. At a time when people need inspiration and hope.  For that Excellencies, you are to be congratulated. However, projects of this ambition and magnitude do not materialize on inspiration and hope alone. They need financial support.  Good governance.  And coordinated action. The pledges made at the One Planet Summit in January 2021 totaled USD19 billion for the period until 2025.  So, while progress is there, we cannot congratulate ourselves. Hope is not yet turning into action at the scale or pace you aspire to.  Because collectively, we are struggling to turn those pledges into projects and investments.  Understandably, this is leading to frustrations. There are, indeed, lots of bottlenecks. To my mind though, two critical bottlenecks have emerged. Coordination at national level. The complexity of accessing financing – the donor system. Firstly, I am convinced genuine national ownership – led by you, your Excellencies - and a national coalition for action would make progress happen faster.  In each country, the GGW is a massive undertaking.  With the best will in the world, neither the national Agency of the GGW, as currently set up, nor a single line ministry can make all the necessary wheels turn.  At national level, a more joined-up “all of government” response is needed.  The Ministry of Planning and Development or Treasury have an important role to play.  Along with the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture, Infrastructure or Energy as technical focal points. Concerned local authorities, the private sector, civil society and research should be fully engaged.  But government – at all levels – can take steps to assume its responsibilities more effectively.  In the case of Senegal, we noted the creation of Presidential Council, led by his Excellency President Macky Sall, that is guiding and accelerating this work in Senegal.  Each country will need to establish their own institutional framework. We would however suggest you consider setting up a political oversight, close to you.   Secondly though, we would all acknowledge that the current system for accessing the pledged financing is complex and cumbersome at best. International partners are better coordinated than ever around a common results framework.  But to access the financing, currently, your officials must navigate the different processes and timelines of the ten international partners who have committed to support you.  Accessing much of the funds will take a great deal of upfront investment of staff resources and a considerable time.  With your bold and ambitious timeline, this business-as-usual approach will not work. As Heads of State and Government, you might consider requesting the simplification and streamlining of the way financing is channeled to you – potentially through a common window, joint assessment or more co-funding of projects. You may want to task your Ministries in charge of Planning or Economy to lead the Programmatic Coordination with donors. We may need to follow adequate, perhaps specific procedures. It is certainly recommended that each Government set up a robust programmatic team to unlock the financing.      Excellencies, a Sahelian renaissance awaits.  With the restoration of land and nature and the right investments for a resilient and vibrant future, we can capitalize on the inspiration and hope and the unique opportunity that the GGW offers.  Thank you.

Honorable Ministers, colleagues, and friends. Firstly.  Thank you.  It is a great pleasure being here – even if virtually. The Sahel is seen as the crucible of existential challenges. Irregular migration, armed conflicts, non-state actors, terrorism and organized crime, as well as poverty and food insecurity. Yet amazing things can happen if we have the commitment and passion of political leaders. With faith and investment in the ingenuity of the people.  And with a bold and joint international response and actions. The Great Green Wall is such an example! True, in the back of our minds, we have always thought of the Great Green Wall as an impossible dream.    But that is no longer the case.  And we must adjust our mindsets. Slowly but surely, the Great Green Wall Initiative is regreening the Sahel; restoring degraded lands and providing decent livelihoods for its people; snaking the Sahel all the way from Senegal in the West to Djibouti in the East; restoring degraded lands and providing jobs and opportunities for millions of people in Africa. In January 2021, US$ 19 billion has been pledged at the One Planet Summit. This is a huge commitment from the international community. The partners committed themselves to work at an accelerated pace. We have collectively agreed to a harmonized results framework. National coalitions are being set up. There is a real sense of buzz about the Great Green Wall.  In Africa and around the world. And that is critical.  In a world that looks at the Sahel region and sees only despair, the Great Green Wall offers hope. In a world struggling to work out what “building back better”, or climate resilience or sustainable development or nature-based solution really looks like, the Great Green Wall makes tangible and practical sense. The concept of the GGW works because it addresses the loss of natural resources - as the root cause of a myriad of other challenges. But it also works because it is rewriting the narrative of the Sahel - restoring lost livelihoods and generating jobs and income for the people.  There is bold African leadership. There is a plan to harness the potential of the region and its people.  And the international community has rallied and is getting coordinated. The 11 GGW countries have a huge role to play, to make it happen. The good news is, it can be done. It must be done. It will be done. And today we are here to discuss how we will get it done – faster and most effectively. Pipelines of bankable projects are emerging, though I have to admit, projects are only slowly emerging. As your loyal and unwavering partner, the UNCCD is committed to help sweep away the many bottlenecks to action at the national level. More than a year has passed since the pledges were made. However, implementation remains scanty. There are multiple administrative hurdles that are slowing us down; bureaucratic issues are preventing people of the Sahel from having access to resources they badly need. These challenges must be overcome quickly, if we want to turn the tide on the vicious circle observed in the Sahel.  For long, we have been advising to bring together honorable environment with treasury and planning Ministers to unlock some of the challenges that have been observed. Indeed, we hope that countries will use an “all of government” approach to getting it done – faster and with more direct benefits to the people of the Region. Allow me to insist on the role of Ministers of Finance, Economy or Planning. The pledges made last year will be delivered with the full participation of fund authorization officers at the national level. Through an integrated approach where different sectoral departments will be brought together: from agriculture to the environment; from energy to livestock; from local authorities to civil society and research. The GGW belongs to all: youth; women; farmers and pastoralists. In short, the GGW will be achieved with the people of the Sahel. Or will never be. Thank you all for being here. Together, I am sure we can make it happen. Thank you.

The UNCCD is partnering with GLOBHE on the use of innovative technology to better assess tree populations along the Great Green Wall GLOBHE is a drone service company that provides earth observations for a sustainable future, deploying drones through local operators to collect high-resolution data, which helps  organizations and researchers to plan and action at the right place, at the right scale and at the right time. The joint project with UNCCD will focus on combining macro satellite data with high-resolution micro data from drones to accelerate the verification of tree species in Northern Ghana, supporting the implementation of the Great Green Wall, an African-led movement to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land, sequester 250 million tons of carbon and create 10 million green jobs by 2030. Baobab is the icon of the African landscape, revered as the tree of life that provides essential shelter, produces nutrient-dense fruits and stores water from the rainy season for the dry season. They can live up to 3,000 years, growing to 50 meters in circumference and reach up to 30 meters high.  We, at GLOBHE, are proud to be part of this unprecedented initiative with the UNCCD and its partners. By improving the understanding of tree populations, stakeholders will be in a position to accelerate the development of sustainable business models that directly benefit local communities. We love these types of initiatives that put drone technology to good use for both the people and the planet  –  Arnaud Henneville-Wedholm, Head of Sales & Business Development at GLOBHE  image (c) MakeWaves Media

As rich in culture, music and inspired people as the Sahel itself, the UNCCD event at Expo Dubai 2020 “Spotlight on Africa | Spotlighting the Sahel: Climate-Resilient Solutions towards achieving Food Security” marked a big step toward changing the world’s perception of the region. Rather than an area hindered by civil unrest and economic turmoil, the positive narrative of the Sahel’s showcases its potential: the abundance of natural resources, infinite deposits of renewable energy and the youngest population in the world. Along with a strong momentum for positive change, Sahel faces major development challenges, including the pressing need to adapt to changing climate and create opportunities for the new generation. In his opening remarks, the UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw highlighted that the potential of the Sahel to overcome these hurdles lies in the abundant resources including vast landscapes waiting to be restored to productivity. Sahel’s natural endowments offer immense potential for economic diversification, value-chain development and livelihoods. And its population is the youngest in the world – a challenge that can be turned into an opportunity. — UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw The event at Dubai Expo placed youth, women and smallholder farmers, herders and social entrepreneurs at the center of the conversation on the challenges and opportunities facing the Sahel. It featured initiatives that are accelerating socio-economic growth and enabling shared prosperity in the Sahel, such as Great Green Wall, to find solutions to address food security and climate change in the Sahel, including in implementing the Agenda 2030. Reflecting on the progress of the Great Green Wall Initiative, the participants agreed that it has far surpassed its initial vision of planting trees, becoming a platform that translates positive thinking into actions. The restoration of 20 million hectares of land in the Sahel, creation of 350,000 jobs, training of 10 million people on sustainable ways to manage the land and water and subsequent mobilization of nearly 20 billion hectares to move forward has inspired action at the local level. Harnessing indigenous knowledge and creating diversified value chains have been emphasized as essential to supporting the future progress of the initiative. The event showcased successful green entrepreneurs, many of them young women, who are convinced that in the Sahel, all the opportunities the youth needs exist at home. From agroforestry to producing eco-friendly coffee alternatives, the Sahel is awaiting young hands to revive the land, mine its “green gold,” drive climate action and achieve zero hunger. Performances of Sahelian visual and music artists, including the Malian singer and UNCCD Land Ambassador Inna Modja, have also made the event very memorable. Inna shared what motivated her to travel along the Great Green Wall and meet with communities engaged in land restoration: “I am awed by the ambition of the project and what it can achieve. The Great Green Wall is the future. We sow the seeds in this lifetime, so that the future generations can reap the harvest.” The event was co-organized by UNCCD and the African Union in association with the United Arab Emirates Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. Learn more: Watch the recording Land and the Sustainable Development Goals Achieving Land Degradation Neutrality Great Green Wall Accelerator

The Great Green Wall is a symbol of hope in the face of one of the biggest challenges of our time – desertification. Launched in 2007 by the African Union, this game-changing African-led initiative aims to restore Africa’s degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in one of the world’s poorest regions, the Sahel. Once complete, the Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet – an 8,000 km natural wonder of the world stretching across the entire width of the continent.