The Great Green Wall is one of the most ambitious climate initiatives on the planet—a visionary pan-African effort to combat desertification, build climate resilience, and create economic opportunity across the Sahel region. In this In Focus: Radical Repair conversation, The World Around’s executive director Beatrice Galilee speaks with Elvis Paul Tangem, coordinator of the Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI), about the scale and scope of this transformative project.

Since its launch in 2005, the initiative has brought together 35 countries to implement sustainable land management, agroforestry, smart agriculture, and renewable energy transitions across Africa’s drylands. Tangem shares the program’s goals, its progress, and its urgent relevance in a time of escalating climate crisis. He also addresses the stark global imbalance between the regions most responsible for emissions and those experiencing the most severe consequences. “This is a clarion call,” Tangem says, “to understand that the impacts of climate change cannot be ignored.”