By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
The Representative of the Africa Development Bank, AFDB , Arona Soumare said the Bank would work with Great Green World GGW to garnered resources towards ending natural disasters in Africa
He said the funding will help design a new policies to support the implementation of its programme.
Soumare made this known at the on going 8th Ordinary session of the Council of Ministers of the Great Green World members countries holding in Abuja .
He said AFDB mandate was to support the continent to work for better wellbeing of the people.
“We have to mobilise funding and work together as a partner to support this important process.
We have a commitment as a Bank to increase our support as we pledge at “One Planet summit”in 2021.
“Most of the partners have also pledged and to foster support for the implementation of the Great Green Wall and if we work together we can support the GGW programme.”he said.
He explained how committed bank is to foster effort to fight desertification in the GGW plan, support countries and partners to improve ways of doing business.
Speaking at the session, the Executive Secretary, of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Mrs Birgui Lamizana, said the UN was committed to make the $19 billion pledges by donors a reality for implementation it was critical for selected states to ensure cooperation locally and internationally.
Lamizana stated that, the funds for countries are released to the Ministries of Finance, which may implement the Great Green Wall programme without the knowledge of the agency established for the same purpose.
“This robs off on the cohesion expected in project implementation”.
She also emphasized on how intra-state partnership was important.
Lamizana disclosed that the ‘one earth summit held in January 2021 witnessed $19billion pledge by contributing nations to boost the implementation programme in the areas.
She said: “You are aware of the One Planet summit pledge at one planet summit in January 2021, $19 billion has been pledged. But it is a pledge.
“So what we are doing at UNCCD is really to help the country and support them to mobilize these funds, and working also with the financial partners so that the pledge won’t remain at the pledge, but to turn these pledges into a concrete action on the ground.
It was for the successful access to the funds and efficient implementation that has informed the UN call for a harmonized approach by the countries locally and internationally.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of the Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall, Dr. Ibrahim Said noted that the Initiative was one of the most ambitious cooperation tools for solving the environment challenges of the Sahelian strip.
“This initiative is both a challenge and an opportunity, given the multiple environment and ecological issues that are becoming increasingly important and that demonstrate the need for a pooling of resources and joint efforts by countries without which we cannot succeed individually,” .
He said since inception the agency has focused on the establishment and consolidation of the institutional, legal and organisational bases of the regional and national structures, the development of a strategic framework and implementation action plan and the mobilisation of financial resources.
Dr Said said; “Established on 17 June 2010 in N’Djamena, Chad, the Pan African Agency for the Great Green Wall has just completed its first decade 2010-2020.
The analysis of this five-year period highlights a set of achievements and constraints that need to be addressed.”
He said the project would help constitute, work and bring about corporation for countries to handle environment challenges in the region and also bring different strategies actions plans that would help agency to mobilize resources.
“The overall objective will be to be a decisive step in the operationalization of the Great Green Wall through concrete achievements with high added value and a perfect visibility on the populations and a significant contribution in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” Dr Said stressed.
He however urged the technical Committee to treat all documents presented with diligence and make proposals that would facilitate decision-making by the Council of Ministers.
“For this meeting of the Technical Committee of Experts, various documents are submitted for your consideration. In this context, I urge you to treat them seriously. Since January 2021 and the advent of the One Planet Summit, we are re-assured by the long-awaited support and mobilization of resources by our Technical and Financial Partners,” Dr Said added.
Similarly, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment, Engr. Hassan Musa,said mobilization of resources for Pan Africa Great Green World(PAGGW) will build resilience of Sahelian people.
Engr. Musa represented by Director Press of the ministry, Saghir el Mohammed said, there is a need to come up with a well-articulated and actionable strategies for mobilization of these pledged financial resources at the end of this technical session.
He said the recognition of the paucity of financial resources for the implementation of the Great Green Wall initiative led to several billions of US Dollars pledged by a coalition of Technical and Financial Partners (TFPs) at the 4th Edition of the “One Planet Summit” on Climate Change and Biodiversity held in Paris, France on 11th of January, 2021.
“The pragmatic efforts of GGW member countries to access these financial resources so pledged by the (TFPs) require necessary evaluation .
“I sincerely believe, this would be the centre-stage of the deliberation of this technical committee of experts”.
He explained that, if this is done, the development of impact and transformative programmes and projects will absorb the mobilized resources.
“It would no doubt build the resilience of the Sahelian people”.
He stated the need for mobilization of financial resources to actualize the vision of the Great Green Wall is glaring.
“Poor financial provision and mobilization has been a major obstacle to the effective and impactful implementation process of the activities of the laudable Great Green Wall Initiative in virtually all the participating member states”.
The Perm Sec pointed out that,” it will be a painful and futile exercise if initiatives conceived are documented on paper without a matching financial and articulated human resources provided so as to concretize these initiatives through impactful actions”.
Meanwhile, the Senior Programmme Officer West African Regional Office of African Union Development Agency( AUDA-NEPAD,Ambassador Amadou Diallo, pointed out the importance of meeting saying the technical committee and technical partners are here to talk on how to mobilize resources to achieve the implementation of programmme.
“ We started this meeting 10years ago and we have recorded successes in the implementation in countries like Nigeria, Senegal, Ethiopian among others countries.
He added that, our aim is to restore dry lands,many of such countries have restored lands and have planted millions of trees.
“ We are restoring 100million hectares of land and creating 10 million jobs,”he said .
Diallo pointed out that, the management of water is key and it our focus. We have to dig the ground to plough the water so as to generate income through the process.
