A new US$78 million programme aims to restore more than 270,000 hectares of degraded land and improve livelihoods for five million people across nine African countries participating in the Great Green Wall initiative.
The Global Environment Facility is providing the grant, while the United Nations Environment Programme will implement eight of the programme’s ten projects and coordinate regional delivery. The participating countries are Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, according to UNEP’s announcement on 6 October.
The programme focuses on restoring landscapes and supporting livelihoods in the Sahel, where land degradation, drought and climate pressures affect agriculture, pastoralism, water resources and food security. Co-financing from other partners brings the initiative’s total resources to more than US$500 million, UNEP said.
The work is intended to support restoration at scale while improving coordination between national projects. Activities vary by country and include land rehabilitation, forest management, wetland and forest-corridor restoration, and support for women-led enterprises. Nigeria is among the participating countries, with projects planned in Kebbi State.
Delivery will matter more than the headline figure
The funding creates an opportunity, but the environmental and economic impact will depend on whether projects restore land in ways that local communities can maintain. Transparent tracking of hectares restored, survival of vegetation, livelihood gains and community participation will be important measures of progress.
For African economies, land restoration is not only a conservation issue. Healthy soils and resilient landscapes support farming, livestock, water security and rural income. The programme’s value will ultimately be judged by the durability of those benefits and how well the participating countries convert funding into measurable results.
Source: United Nations Environment Programme, 6 October 2026.