As a collective platform for the circum-Saharan countries, the Great Green Wall for the Sahel and the Sahara Initiative (GGWSSI) is a powerful tool to boost the implementation of the Rio Conventions; it is a potential catalyst for the various initiatives in the region, can strengthen regional frameworks for sustainable rural development, and harmonize and optimize the mobilization of resources to the benefit of the drylands.
In this context and following the success of the workshop that targeted GGWSSI stakeholders from Francophone countries (M'sila, Algeria, 2-6 April 2012), the Global Mechanism (GM), the Gambian Ministry of Forestry and Environment, the African Union (AU) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are organizing a similar workshop for Anglophone countries, from 9 to 14 July, in Banjul.
The five-day workshop will bring together: national and local country representatives from, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan and The Gambia; sub-regional organizations; regional development banks; technical and financial partners; and civil society, with the overall objective of enhancing capacity to develop resource mobilization strategies for the secure, sustainable implementation of the Great Green Wall in line with the GGWSSI Regional Harmonized Strategy (RHS).
The workshop will analyse the concepts of the RHS in depth, and will support the stakeholders in identifying innovative resource mobilization approaches that are relevant for their national contexts - including South-to-south Cooperation and microfinance for sustainable land management (SLM).
Specific focus will be placed on the complementarity of continental, sub-regional and national financing mechanisms and the need to develop partnerships involving both state and non-state stakeholders, at regional, national and local levels for the successful implementation of the GGWSSI.
By the end of the workshop, participants are expected to have appropriated the tools they need to:
- Understand the financial instruments available in the region, and the existing development planning frameworks;
- Identify resource mobilization opportunities for the implementation of programmes and projects in the context of the GGWSSI in the Anglophone African countries;
- Better understand the innovative sources of financing and the crucial role played by state and non-state actors in implementing the GGWSSI, in order to identify successful partnership opportunities;
- Mobilize targeted financial and technological resources at national, bilateral and multilateral levels, and develop integrated investment frameworks; and
- Design action plans and integrated development projects for the implementation of the GGWSSI at the local and national levels.
For more information:
Ms Inès Chaâlala, Liaison Officer on the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative
Tel. +39 06 5459 2647
i.chaalala (at) global-mechanism.org
