Background of the Platform

The Great Green Wall (GGW) is an Initiative launched by the African Union in 2007. Since it was launched, civil society actors have organised several meetings in order to know more about the initiative and find ways and means that can help them contribute and strengthen their effective participation in the implementation of the initiative. The first meeting was a workshop held in Ouagadougou in October 2012 on the appropriation of the initiative, then the conference of Dakar in 2016 on the Harmonised Strategy of the Initiative of the Great Green Wall.

The last meeting was the forum of the Great Green Wall and Civil society held in July 2018 in Ouagadougou. It gathered more than hundred participants from Africa, Europe and America and was the occasion for Civil Society to recommend the establishment of a platform of Non State Actors (NSA) in order to enhance the participation and visibility of all actors contributing to the implementation of the GGW.

SOS SAHEL NGO was given the mandate to conduct the process of the establishment of the platform and ensure its coordination.

The platform is animated by SOS SAHEL International France

SOS SAHEL was created in Senegal in 1976 following the period of the extreme droughts of 1970s. The ONG intervenes today in 11 countries in the Sahel region, from Senegal to Djibouti. Its mission is to improve the food and nutrition security of the Sahel rural communities.

The platform is supported by the Agence Française de Développement as part of the programme convention that started in 2018.

... with the assistance of IUCN

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a union of members composed of governments and civil society organisations. Created in 1948, the organisation provides state, private and non-governmental organisations necessary knowledge and tools for the progress of human, and makes sure that economic development and conservation of nature are in harmony.

IUCN supports the platform through its worldwide Drylands Initiative, thanks to funding from GEF/UNEP,

... and the Initiative of the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel

The Great Green Wall is an African partnership aiming to stop and reverse the trends of land degradation in the arid and semi-arid areas. The Initiative is a high level political commitment of African leaders and brings a contribution to the achievement of the 2063 Agenda. The coordination of the Initiative, based at the Commission of African Union in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia, aims are to coordinate, harmonise actions and mobilise resources for the Great Green Wall.

Mission of the platform

The platform was launched in January 2020. Its mission is to enable partners supporting the objectives of the GGW to:

  • Bring themselves closer to each other;
  • Show their contributions and approaches;
  • Interact and strengthen their synergies and partnerships.

What the platform proposes

The platform is a tool to the service of all the partners working to reach the objectives of the Great Green Wall. It combines a set of interactive web and mobile telephony tools that enable to:

  • Provide visibility to partners in the field;
  • Show the importance of their achievements and financial supports;
  • Link themselves with institutions by giving them the possibility to localise themselves and localise other partners;
  • Better coordinate partners and enhance synergies;
  • Offer more mechanism of information sharing, consultation, dialogue, a better organisation between civil society actors;
  • Facilitate access to public information, documents of reference of all level from regional to local (policies, strategies, local development Policies, Communal Development Policies, Regional Development Policies) in order to work on reliable basis;

Keep the memory of what has been done in order to learn from the past and better anticipate.

The platform is consultable by all the partners with free access, in English and French. Some spaces will be opened for dialogue between member partners of the platform, with minimum authentication. Users will be able to contribute to the content of the platform on the basis of a further authentication.

The animation of the platform is ensured in each country by one or several volunteer focal persons, co-opted within organisations based on their wish. The regional team of SOS SAHEL based in Dakar will ensure the regional coordination and data updating.

What the platform shows

The platform is organised around the following categories based on which online searches are carried out.

Countries

It is about the country members of the GGW in West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa and Northern Africa. Access to data about actors will also be possible through a regional map.

Partners

This is about organisation categories (associations, farmers’ organisations, national and international ONGs, networks, local governments, businesses from private sector) having each a particular contribution to the Great Green Wall. Each organisation presents its areas and themes of intervention, contributions in terms of provided financial volumes, number of beneficiaries by type, results in terms of land and natural resources rehabilitation (forest, humid areas), technical and financial partners. The Platform creates links with partners’ web sites.

Achievements

Achievements are related to actions in line with the Great Green Wall thematics carried out by partners. There are also the impacts of achievements that will also be presented by actors.

Announcements

This is about events related to the Great Green Wall or offers that partners will be able to share.

Resources

Resources are related to the documents that partners will be able to post under different formats (not more than 5Mb). A document must be related to a thematic of the Great Green Wall, particularly strategies, local development Policies, Communal Development Policies, and Regional Development Policies.

Discussions

This is about a tool that will enable registered users on the platform (partners, focal persons, experts, administrator) to communicate, dialogue, discuss and share data on a specific subject related to a given thematic of the Great Green Wall.

Themes

Themes are related to the domain of action of the Great Green Wall in which partners work. The themes are as follows:

  • Improvement of the social conditions of populations (basic social services, nutrition, etc.);
  • Improvement of food production conditions (agriculture, rural economy, job, energy, land issue, infrastructures);
  • Climate change: Adaptation, mitigation ;
  • Environment: Conservation of ecosystems, management of natural resources ;
  • Governance, local and community development.