GREAT GREEN WALL FOR THE SAHARA AND SAHEL INITIATIVE

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GREAT GREEN WALL FOR THE SAHARA AND SAHEL
INITIATIVE

• The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel
• A General Overview
• Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• May 5, 2009
• By
• African Union Commission

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Brief History Of Green Belts / Walls in Africa

• The idea of initiating a green belt was born well
  before the United Nations conference on combating
  desertification (Nairobi, 1977). Already there
  were green belt projects and similar activities
  in Africa for decades, for example
• Biological fixation of coastal dunes in Morocco
  (1915)
• The Green belt project in Niamey (1965)
• The Green barrier project in Algeria (1971)
• The Green belt project in Nouakchott (1975)
• The Green Belt for Nigeria

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Why the renewed focus on Great Green Wall for the
Sahara Initiative (GGWSSI)?

• Rio family of Conventions.
• Climate change
• Desertification
• Biodiversity
• Land tenure and demographic changes
• Poverty alleviation
• Increased deforestation
• Food insecurity
• MDG goals

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Overview of GGWSSI

• In July 2005, President Olusegun Obasanjo of the
  Federal Republic of Nigeria, proposed the
  establishment of a Green Wall for the Sahara
  Initiative at the Fifth Ordinary Summit of the
  African Union (AU).
• The Heads of State supported it and requested the
  Chairperson of the African Union Commission to
  facilitate the elaboration of a concept paper.

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Overview of GGWSSI

• A concept paper was subsequently developed and
  launched during the Food Security Summit held in
  Abuja, Nigeria on 7th December 2006.
• The Summit in January 2007 adopted a Declaration
  and Decision on it, urging the Commission to
  proceed with facilitating the implementation of
  the concept, and
• A Plan of Action to adopted by AU Summit in
  January 2009.

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Scope

• Sahara-Sahel Countries
• Algeria Burkina Faso Cape verde Chad
  Djibouti Egypt Ethiopia Erithrea Guinea
  Bissau Libya Mali Mauritania Niger Nigeria
  Saharawi Arab Republic Senegal Somalia Sudan
  The Gambia and Tunisia.

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Goals and Objectives

• Bringing together relevant actors within a
  framework to address desertification and
  environmental degradation through inter-related
  and coordinated set of activities
• To improve the livelihoods of the inhabitants of
  the Sahel-Sahara zones
• Enhancing environmental sustainability
• Controlling land degradation
• Promoting integrated natural resources
  management
• Arresting the advance of the Sahara Desert
• Conserving biological diversity and
• Contributing to Poverty Reduction  

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Expected Outputs

• In the short-term, the Initiative could
• Enhance policy harmonization
• Create awareness and thus get the wider public
  involved in a sustainable manner
• Create alternative livelihood systems for the
  populations affected and create wealth

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Expected Outputs contd

• In the long-term, it could
• Arrest soil degradation
• Slow the advance of the desert frontier
• Reduce poverty amongst the participating
  populations
• Ameliorate climatic conditions within the Wall
• Contribute to climate change adaptation and
  mitigation
• Conserve biodiversity
• Produce a publication on lessons learnt.
• Increase land productivity and food production

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Implementation Modalities and Approaches

• The Initiative will have several dimensions which
  are complementary and mutually reinforcing.
• Enhancement of existing knowledge, and capacity.
• Resource mapping (biodiversity, soil and water)
• An institutional survey to identify the various
  institutions with various capabilities to work on
  the different dimensions/aspects of the project
• Lessons learned from previous projects would be
  incorporated in the initiative.
• Initiative to be mainstreamed in countries
  national development plan / strategies (e.g. in
  the PRSP documents).

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Implementation Modalities and Approaches (contd.)

• Except where Transboundary issues are concerned,
  the initiative would be implemented at the level
  of individual countries.
• This therefore places special importance on
  indigenous knowledge, the development of local
  capacity and the promotion of synergistic actions
  of local bilateral, multilateral interventions.

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Implementation Modalities and Approaches (contd.)

• Initiative would be linked to multilateral and
  bilateral agencies
• ECOWAS Environmental Programme under the purview
  of the Permanent Inter-State Committee for the
  Control of Drought in the Sahel (CILSS).
• Environment Initiative of NEPAD The United
  Nations conventions UNCCD, UNFCC and CBD.
• TerrAfrica Sustainable Land Management
• Africa-EU strategic partnership on Climate Change

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Institutional Arrangements

• Steering Committee of Ministers
• Technical Committee of MS Experts
• National Committees
• Sectoral institutions
• Local Committees
• Coordination by AUC, CEN-SAD Secretariat and
  Senegal

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Funding Arrangements

• National budgetary provisions
• Dedicated Trust Fund
• Multilateral and bilateral assistance

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Implementation Challenges

• Sheer size of the area to be managed, compounded
  by the weak institutional frameworks at both
  regional and national levels.
• Transhumance activities of livestock herders as
  they may interfere with reforestation and
  rehabilitation/development activities in the
  rangelands.
• Land tenure systems (which lands to be planted?
  Who owns what land?).
• Management of access to services and products
  accruing from the Initiative.
• Need for extensive investment to build local
  capacities.
• Climate change and variability (droughts and
  flood).
• Resource mobilization.

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Overcoming/minimising the challenges contd

• Public/private partnership
• Phase-wise implementation,
• Joint development and submission of regional
  programme proposals for resource mobilisation
• Mainstream the roles of females and the youths in
  the programme implementation
• Integrate the Great Green Wall activities in the
  national development planning processes e.g. the
  PRSPs

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Way forward

• Review of the past green belt projects
• Identify and implement procedures for
  transferring existing green belts to the local
  communities.
• Continue to develop local capacities for
  effective management.
• Consolidating and scaling-up existing green belts
  where feasible.
• Mainstream the gender dimension into the
  Initiative.
• Integrated approach - rangeland component, soil
  water management and rural development.

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Way forward (contd.)

• Regional cooperation and experience-sharing
  networks focusing on
• Consultations on approaches and modalities for
  implementing the national components.
• Joint global evaluation of achievements in the
  last decades, the results of which should be fed
  into the development of new technical and
  economic packages of implementation.
• Training and experience-sharing including field
  training which should capitalise on the countries
  positive results.

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GGWSSI- a shared ResponsibilityThank you!