Africa's Great Green Wall unlikely to meet 2030 goal

Africa's ambitious Great Green Wall project, designed to restore degraded landscapes and boost economies across the continent, is facing severe financial constraints and is unlikely to meet its 2030 completion goal. This update comes from Alain Richard Donwahi, the president of the most recent UN summit on desertification.

Launched in 2007, the project aims to restore 100 million hectares of land along an 8,000-kilometer (5,000-mile) corridor stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. This initiative targets some of the world's poorest countries bordering the Sahara Desert, including Ethiopia, Mali, and Sudan. However, the project is currently only 30% complete.

"It is an understatement to stress that we are not in line with our common objective to complete by 2030," Donwahi remarked. He will be seeking renewed support for this landmark project during the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought in Bonn on June 17.

The project faces significant hurdles, particularly in terms of financing and implementation. Coordinating efforts across the 11 African countries involved has proven difficult due to the absence of a centralized monitoring strategy. Additionally, many of these countries have been plagued by humanitarian crises such as military coups, wars, and Islamist insurgencies in recent years.

According to a 2020 progress review by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the project needs at least an additional $33 billion to achieve its 2030 target. International donors pledged around $19 billion at a 2021 summit, but by March of last year, only $2.5 billion had been received, with the remaining funds expected by the end of 2025. Donwahi noted that these pledged funds are dispersed across various projects, not all of which are dedicated to the Great Green Wall.

The difficulty in tracking the allocation and use of these funds has been a significant obstacle. To address this, an 'observatory' will be launched in June to monitor financing and progress. However, it remains uncertain where the project will secure the billions still needed to stay on track. Donwahi emphasized the necessity for increased investment from international donors, the private sector, and the participating Green Wall countries.

Despite these challenges, the project has made some progress, creating 3 million jobs in the restoration of approximately 30 million hectares (74 million acres) of degraded land, an area roughly the size of the Philippines.

With climate change intensifying, Donwahi stressed that desertification and drought are global issues, not just African problems. "For too long, desertification and drought have been considered African problems," he stated, highlighting the need for broader international engagement and support.