Over the next five years The World Bank, an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries, wants to invest over $5 billion throughout the next five years in the drylands of Africa.
“Restoring natural ecosystems in the drylands of Africa benefits both people and the planet,” said Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
This portion of money will be used to make improvements in a number of areas, including restoring degraded landscapes, improving agriculture productivity and promoting livelihoods across 11 African countries, stretching across a large proportion of land from Senegal to Djibouti.
The money will also be used for the following initiatives:
- It will support biodiversity, agriculture, community development and food security.
- Landscape restoration, building on the current work in line with the Great Green Wall initiative. Over the past eight years investments in land restoration from the World Bank have reached over 19 million people and placed 1.6 million hectares under sustainable land management.
- More job opportunities will be created.
- There will be a focus on access to renewable energy across 11 countries of the Sahel, Lake Chad and Horn of Africa.
- Support towards resilient infrastructure and rural mobility.
“This investment, which comes at a crucial time, will help improve livelihoods as countries recover from COVID-19 while also dealing with the impact of both biodiversity loss and climate change on their people and economies,” said Malpass.