Billions of dollars have been poured into the African Green Wall project designed to stop land degradation and desertification. But the arid truth is that only 30% of targets have been met.
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00:00Africa's Great Green Wall.
00:02It is supposed to be a beacon of hope, standing as the largest living structure on our planet,
00:08spanning 8,000 kilometers across Africa.
00:12It holds the promise of a new era, one of sustainability and economic growth.
00:17The idea?
00:18To stop the spread of the desert, restore 100 million hectares of infertile land, bind
00:24250 million tons of carbon and create 10 million green jobs by 2030.
00:31However, Africa's Great Green Wall is not without its challenges.
00:35It is running dry on crucial resources, money, engagement and time.
00:41Welcome to the flip side.
00:43Seventeen years since its implementation in 2007, only 30% of the project has been completed.
00:50The project was estimated to require at least $33 billion to achieve its 2030 target.
00:57International donors pledged some $19 billion in 2021, but by 2023 only $2.5 billion had
01:05materialized.
01:06Was Africa's Great Green Wall an expensive pipe dream?
01:10And should it be carried on at all?
01:13We have a missing link, which is the dialogue with civil society organizations.
01:19I think they are the labor force in the implementation of the Green Green Wall.
01:24They need means, they need to be supported, they need also national policies that encourage
01:32them, that enable them to do what they have to do.
01:36Yet, it's not all bleak.
01:39Considerable strides have been made with almost 18 million hectares of degraded land restored
01:44so far.
01:45However, progress is undeniably slow, the results are now rather frustrating and the
01:51spending exorbitantly high.
01:54Should the project be continued or is it time to look for new solutions?
01:59This is not acceptable at all.
02:01We are too slow and in between, in the meantime, land is degrading more and more.
02:09People are suffering, water, water stress, drought is occurring in these areas.
02:17So what does it take to keep the dream of Africa's Great Green Wall?
02:22Every African, every African should take the Great Green Wall as a flagship program, as
02:27a program that everybody will be involved.
02:31Under which conditions is the project doomed?
02:34This initiative, if we combine it with politics, then we will bury it.
02:40It's beyond the politics.
02:41For the dream of Africa's Great Green Wall to survive, it is crucial to involve every
02:47African, regardless of their location or status in this project.
02:51A united approach from both the public and private sectors is essential.
02:55It is important to foster a common understanding that this Green Wall will eventually benefit
03:00each and every one.
03:02This collective effort is the only way that Africa's Great Green Wall will still be
03:07able to blossom.
03:08And that is the flip side.