Develop Capacity to Finance Sustainable Land Management in the Sahara and the Sahel

A regional workshop will be hosted by The Republic of The Gambia from 9 to 13 July 2012 to design innovative resource mobilisation strategies for the African Union’s Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI).

This is an opportunity for stakeholders to share their experiences and identify priority actions aiming at mainstreaming the GGWSSI into national development frameworks and develop innovative approaches to resource mobilisation through partnerships.

The five-day workshop brings together national and local country representatives from Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan and The Gambia, UNCCD and GGWSSI experts, partner organisations, regional actors, development banks as well as Civil Society Organisations involved in the Initiative.

The African Union’s GGWSSI offers an important opportunity to increase resources aiming to fight desertification and drought. It contributes to the overall development of the region. Investing in Sustainable Land Management (SLM) helps achieve economic growth, poverty reduction and rural development. Despite the clear benefits, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) underlines the significant financing gap between current investments in land in National public expenditures and investments needed to address desertification.

The capacity building workshop intends to develop resource mobilisation strategies for the GGWSSI. South-to-South and decentralised cooperation, private investments and partnership building present largely untapped opportunities for the GGWSSI implementation.

A similar workshop was held in M’sila, Algeria in April 2012 for the French-speaking countries. The participants expressed general satisfaction for the outcomes of the workshop, in particular regarding the quality of the knowledge exchanged. They also stressed the importance of an integrated approach for the implementation of the GGWSSI. These workshops of the African Union in support of the GGWSSI are funded by the European Union and co-organised by the FAO and the Global Mechanism (GM) of the UNCCD.