World Water Forum: AFD Ready to Support the Great Green Wall (Responsible)

Thursday, March 24, 2022 at 7:50 p.m.

Dakar – The French Development Agency (AFD) is ready to support the Great Green Wall (GMV) initiative, said Gilles Cleitz, director of climate change and natural resources.

“We express our strong commitment to the development of the Sahel and especially the Great Green Wall,” Kleits said during a panel discussion on “Sustainable Management of Aquatic Circles at the Center of Acceleration of the Great Green Wall.”

This expert discussion is part of the 9th edition of the World Water Forum, which has been held in Diamniadio since Monday, entitled “Water Conservation for Development”.

He recalled the “very strong commitment” of the AFD to the future development of the Sahel and especially the Greater Green Wall and its acceleration.

He pointed out that his organization has been funding the Great Green Wall for the next few years, with the aim of “mobilizing (…) donors under the inspiration of the Sahelian countries”.

“It’s about plants, planting trees, but also activities and fields like employment, training, agriculture.”

“The AFD reaffirms its strong commitment to be one of the many donors at the table with 600 600 million over the next 5 years to fund all of these efforts,” he underlined.

“We hear all efforts from villages and regions. I think the big question that arises is to find the connection between the financial chain and its use on the ground for people.

“We are thinking about agriculture and agro-ecological development. Nevertheless, at this time we are particularly committed to the issue of food insecurity, which is knocking on our doors in a very violent way, ”he underlined.

He considers agricultural water and grazing water management to be “a very important factor and an important issue for France, through the AFD, to listen to Sahelian actors”.

A question of “finding the right solutions” to “evaluate production techniques that make it possible to save water and reclaim the soil,” the manager added.

“I think agricultural water management is a major issue at the center of water management, so (…) integration among the cast and fertility is absolutely important in the surrounding villages.”

According to him, “there are technical possibilities and we are really working together to change them.”

“The African Great Green Wall initiative is really at the heart of Sahel’s future and donors are on your side for this initiative, which, in our opinion, goes from the soil to the region,” he said.

“GGW is not only a tree, but a well-thought-out agricultural development at the ecological level (…) that brings employment and well-being to the people,” he declared.

The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel, commonly referred to as the Great Green Wall, is the African Union’s primary effort to combat the effects of climate change and desertification in Africa.