The African Development Bank, AfDB, on Monday pledged to assist in mobilising $6.5bn in five years, to advance the Sahel region’s Great Green Wall Initiative.
The bank made this commitment during a forum hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales in the margins of the One Planet Summit.
Nigeria, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Sudan have been identified as intervention zones of the initiative.
AfDB said the fund would be made available through a range of programmes such as the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), among others
Multilateral development partners joined the bank in pledging funding for the African-led initiative that aims to rejuvenate life in Africa’s current desert landscapes, providing food security, jobs for African in the Sahel region.
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The AfDB’s President , Akinwumi Adesina said informed delegates that the Great Green Wall was part of Africa’s environmental defence system—a shield against the onslaughts of desertification and degradation.
According to him, the future of the Sahel region depends on the Great Green Wall saying without the Great Green Wall, the Sahel region may disappear.
“As we rebuild from the coronavirus and its impacts on our world, we must recalibrate growth. We must prioritise growth that protects the environment and biodiversity, and we must de-prioritise growth that compromises our common goals,” he added.
Addressing the summit virtually from Abidjan, Adesina Climate change has led to extreme temperatures, fluctuating rainfall and drought in the Sahel, a region that is home to 250 million people living in ten countries.
The Great Green Wall’s plan is to plant an 8,000 km long and 15 km wide mosaic of trees, grasslands, vegetation and plants across the Sahara and Sahel that can restore the degraded lands and help the region’s inhabitants produce adequate food, create jobs and promote peace in the region.
The bank has said it had made the Sahel region a top priority for investment and mobilising new sources of finance to advance Africa’s climate opportunities, including the AfDB’s African Development Bank’s Desert-to-Power programme to build the largest solar zone power in the world.
The programme, according to the statement, will provide electricity to 250 million people in 11 Sahel countries and help protect the Great Green Wall.
It explained that over the next five years, Desert-to-Power aims to make available $2bn for identified project opportunities for the Great Green Wall Initiative.
Pledges from others during the meeting, include €1bn of new financial and technical support to back sustainable agriculture, clean energy, water, infrastructure and private sector financing in 11 Sahel countries from the European Investment Bank and €600m from the Agence française de dévelopment (AFD).
