Why Sahel’s Great Green Wall is a non-starter: International funding often prioritises ‘Western imaginary of Africa’

Why Sahel’s Great Green Wall is a non-starter: International funding often prioritises ‘Western imaginary of Africa’

Originally conceived by Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s late revolutionary leader, the Great Green Wall was launched in 2007 by the African Union. Its goal: to slow desertification in the Sahel region by planting a “wall” of trees 8,000 kilometres long and 15 kilometres wide – from Senegal to Djibouti.

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$6.5 billion lined up for Great Green Wall initiative in the Sahel region

$6.5 billion lined up for Great Green Wall initiative in the Sahel region

Barely hours after 100 actors from Africa and Europe signed a charter in support of pastoralism and livestock development in the Sahel, the African Development Bank unveiled plans to raise $6.5 billion to fund the region’s Great Green Wall Initiative. The funds will mitigate losses wrought by the coronavirus in...

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