From food made with overlooked native plants to handbags crafted from wild grasses—and even a simple rope tool to prevent wildfires—community-driven innovation is reshaping how land restoration takes root across Africa’s drylands. These are among the latest projects supported by the Knowledge for Great Green Wall Action (K4GGWA) Innovation Facility, which took centre stage on Desertification and Drought Day as organisers launched a new call for proposals.
Ten new laureates—selected from more than 600 applicants—are piloting ways to restore degraded land and improve local livelihoods across the Sahel. Their ideas range from converting invasive species into compost to designing fire prevention tools for herding communities. All are rooted in the realities of the drylands and aim to support both people and ecosystems.
“Innovation is working very well for transforming local products,” said Christian Rasmussen from the European Union Delegation (EUD) in Niger, speaking in Niamey during an official EUD celebration of Niger’s Innovation Facility Laureates. The event was part of a broader hybrid gathering held on 17 June 2025 to mark the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought and highlight the longstanding partnership between Niger and the European Union.
EU delegation from the Republic of Niger participating in a hybrid webinar intervention at their official K4GGWA Innovation Facility Award ceremony. Photo by CIFOR-ICRAF
Earlier that day in Nouakchott, Mauritania, another EUD event recognized K4GGWA Innovation Laureates, including a local start-up turning an ecological problem into an economic opportunity. “We specialize in converting typha, an invasive plant species, into compost and biochar,” said Djeinaba Camara, co-founder of Typhinity. “Our project turns a major issue into an economic opportunity.”
Since its launch in 2023, K4GGWA has supported knowledge-sharing and experimentation linked to the Great Green Wall—a pan-African vision to halt land degradation and re-green the Sahel. The initiative offers grants of up to USD 10,000 to individuals and small businesses testing land restoration ideas that can scale and deliver value to rural communities.
That includes efforts like Zamany Accessories, a social enterprise creating handbags and totes from wild plants. “The objective now is to have more women involved and improve our production,” said director Mariama Daouda Illiassou, who hopes to expand the company and create more alternative income streams for rural women.
Women-led initiative in Senegal. Photo by Regreening Africa / CIFOR-ICRAF
Work supported by the Innovation Facility spans the 11 countries of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW): Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan. It also includes seven additional countries undertaking related work with EU backing: Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Ghana, South Sudan, Somalia and The Gambia.
What began as an ambitious plan to plant an 8,000-kilometre green belt from Senegal to Djibouti has evolved into a broader effort to restore land through multiple approaches—rejuvenating forests, farmlands and pastures to strengthen ecosystems and livelihoods. With more than 135 million people in the region depending directly on the land, mostly through subsistence agriculture, these efforts are urgent.
Another laureate, Sahara Sahel Foods, is tapping into neglected edible plants such as hanza, a bitter berry with deep nutritional value. Once known mainly as a famine food, hanza is now being transformed into more palatable products that support food security and conserve endemic species.
“Our specialty lies in working with indigenous plants that are often overlooked or disregarded because they can be thorny, shrivelled or not particularly attractive,” said director Josef Garvi.
Abakar Mahamat Zougoulou, scientific and technical director of PAGGW, echoed the value of locally grounded, low-tech innovations. “The spirit of the Great Green Wall initiative is about active, voluntary participation of our grassroots populations,” Zougoulou said in a video address.
One such low-cost innovation came from Niger’s Adamou Youssoufou Malam Issa, a forestry agent who developed the “rayon éleveur”—a rope circle cleared around a fire to prevent wildfires from spreading. “This money will be solely dedicated to the fight against wildfire,” Issa said on receiving his award.
The spirit of the Great Green Wall initiative is about active, voluntary participation of our grassroots populations.
The tool’s value, however modest, speaks to a larger truth: innovation doesn’t need to be complex to spark change. However, for these ideas to have a lasting impact, they require more than funding—they need political will. Colonel Ibrahim Abdou, Director-General of Niger’s Great Green Wall Agency, called for grassroots solutions like this to be taken seriously at the policy level.
“If we create an initiative but it’s not included in policy documents—and if there isn’t the will to support it—it will be in vain,” Abdou said. He also emphasized the importance of knowledge sharing and local leadership in sustaining restoration efforts.
The message resonated throughout the K4GGWA event: communities are not waiting. Across the Sahel, people are planting trees, reviving forgotten crops, building businesses, and defending the land they depend on. Their efforts may be small in scale, but taken together, they are shaping a powerful response to a changing climate.
“We need action, we need delivery, we need implementation… and happy International Day to Combat Desertification,” said FAO’s K4GGWA co-lead Moctar Sacande, urging innovators and partners to renew efforts to restore and reforest land sustainably. “I think we are winning the war.”
For Mieke Bourne, the Centre for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF)’s co-lead for the initiative, the momentum is real. “Programs like K4GGWA are meant to support the efforts already happening on the ground,” Bourne said. “And as you can see, they are making an impact.”
Acknowledgments
The Knowledge for Great Green Wall Action (K4GGWA) initiative is a joint effort by CIFOR-ICRAF and FAO, with support from the European Union. The K4GGWA Innovation Facility operates across 18 countries to promote sustainable land management, support community-led solutions and strengthen knowledge exchange for restoration in the Sahel and Horn of Africa.
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