GEF commits US$78 million for land restoration and livelihoods across nine Great Green Wall countries
The Global Environment Facility has pledged $78 million to support land restoration and livelihood improvement across nine countries in Africa's Great Green Wall. The project aims to restore 270,000 hectares of land to combat desertification and environmental stress.
Why it matters
This initiative addresses the urgent climate and humanitarian challenges in the Sahel region, where land degradation is fueling displacement and food insecurity.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has committed US$78 million to support a new programme to restore degraded land and improve livelihoods across nine countries along Africa’s Great Green Wall. The initiative will target landscape restoration and livelihood support in the Sahel and parts of the Horn of Africa, with implementation support provided by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
UNEP will implement eight of the programme’s ten projects and coordinate delivery across participating countries. The programme aims to restore more than 270,000 hectares of degraded land and support improved livelihoods for 5 million people, including more than half women.
The Great Green Wall spans drylands from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa and is designed to combat desertification, land degradation and drought. According to UNEP, the Sahel—the semi-arid belt south of the Sahara—is warming about 1.5 times faster than the global average.
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