Government leaders, forestry experts, environmental researchers, and international development partners gathered at the Nexus Hotel in Addis Ababa for a high-level consultation. Co-organized by the Ethiopian Forestry Development (EFD) and the Landscape Alliance (CIFOR & ICRAF in Action) through the EU-funded Knowledge for the Great Green Wall Action (K4GGWA) programme, the event focused on operationalizing the National Coalition.
Opening the workshop, H.E. Ato Kebede Yimam, Director General of the Ethiopian Forestry Development, emphasized Ethiopia’s responsibility as a leading stakeholder:
“The pan-African Great Green Wall Initiative is the single largest pledge of our continent to combat desertification. As the largest stock-taker of this initiative, Ethiopia should champion its pledge, to which end establishing the coalition is a crucial milestone.”
Discussions centered on establishing practical mechanisms for coordinated planning, unified monitoring, knowledge management, and gender mainstreaming within the GGWI framework.
Tackling Project Fragmentation
For over a decade, dryland restoration across the Horn of Africa has faced persistent bottlenecks, including:
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Overlapping institutional mandates and disjointed NGO activities
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Siloed, opaque funding streams and short project cycles
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Inconsistent monitoring, reporting, and evaluation standards
The newly proposed unified platform is designed to resolve these inefficiencies, converting international climate pledges into measurable, ground-level landscape impacts.
Key Pillars of the New Strategy
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Single Accountability Framework: Consolidates reporting under regional digital monitoring systems (like the Great Green Wall Observatory) using unified Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as survival rates, water table recharge, and green job creation.
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Blended Resource Mobilization: Pools donor funds, international climate finance, and national budgetary allocations rather than forcing individual organizations to compete for isolated grants.
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Livelihood-Centric Restoration: Expands beyond basic tree planting to emphasize high-value dryland economic species (such as Boswellia papyrifera), enabling rural communities to generate sustainable income while protecting forest cover.
