UNCCD Laments Hitches In GGW Projects Despite $19 bn Funding

BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja 

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has disclosed that implementing the Great Green Wall (GGW) projects in the Sahel, considered as one of the harshest regions on earth is cumbersome.

This was even as the UN organ lamented that despite the $19 billion budgeted for countries in the Sahel that are inflicted with interconnected political, social, and environmental challenges, complicated its operations and made intervention more critical. 

These were part of the findings by GGW Accelerator initiative and funded by the UNCCD ahead of the countries and partners’ high level talks expected to take place in Nigeria on March 30, 2023.

The GGW accelerator was launched during the One Planet Summit hosted by French President, Emmanuel Macron in Paris in January 2021, meant to raise funds for the implementation of GGW programmes.

Two years down the line, 80 percent of the $19 billion pledged towards the GGW accelerator has been implemented across the 11 African nations that are part of the initiative.

The 11 African countries are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Senegal. 

A statement released in Bonn, Germany on Wednesday, revealed that the GGW accelerator has identified and funded 150 projects in the benefitting countries, adding that vast landmass along the corridor have been restored by local communities. 

"The Great Green Wall Accelerator has put in place a robust quality assurance and monitoring framework, which will be made available as a digital platform for countries to keep track of progress on the ground," the report added. 

It identified that institutional weaknesses due to insufficient financial and human resources as well as political support for the regional and national agencies for the GGW may likely mar the  achievements of the accelerator in the longer term.

The GGW initiative is an African-led comprehensive ecosystem management and rural development programme to combat land degradation and desertification, climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty and food insecurity.