A delegation of parliamentarians from the Development Committee of the European Parliament have praised the progress at a Great Green Wall project site in Senegal’s south-west Fatick region. 

The group visited the Kaydara Farm School, in Samba Dia, on Tuesday this week as part of the follow-up of the European Union (EU) in its support to Senegal through the Great Green Wall Initiative.  

The members of parliament met with team members of the Resilience and Intensive Reforestation Project (RIPOSTES) which is implemented by the Senegalese Agency for Reforestation and the Great Green Wall (ASERGMV) with the technical support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The EU has co-invested EUR 6 million in RIPOSTES.

On behalf of the visiting parliamentarians, Catherine Chabaud said "it is an honour to visit the Kaydara agro-ecological school farm, supported by the EU through its RIPOSTES programme. The training of young people in agro-ecology has multiple benefits: the protection of the environment by local communities, the fight against desertification, poverty and rural exodus, the strengthening of food resilience and the economic development of the territory... Europe has a lot to learn from this model".

Gouantoueu Robert Guei, FAO Sub-regional Coordinator for West Africa and Representative in Senegal, praised the fruitful partnership between FAO and the EU. He highlighted the contribution of the RIPOSTES project to the objective of regreening Senegal, in particular through the promotion of the creation of ecologically resilient and community-based green hubs in the arid and semi-arid areas of Senegal.

Oumar Abdoulaye Ba, Director General of ASERGMV, said that the Integrated Great Green Wall Programme (PIGMV) was part of one of the strong recommendations of the Presidential Council on the Great Green Wall, held in March 2021 in Dakar. It will eventually create 70 resilient green hubs (PVR) and 280 integrated community agricultural farms (FACI) for the benefit of more than one million direct beneficiaries, the majority of whom are women and young people. It will be built over a period of 10 years at a total cost of over CFAF 620 billion. The model focuses primarily on water and energy management for the development of agroforestry activities supported by technological innovation, scientific research and inclusive and equitable community involvement.

The Ambassador of the European Union to Senegal, H.E. Jean-Marc Pisani, praised the quality of the partnership between the European Union and Senegal, a partnership that is expressed in concrete terms in this RIPOSTES programme, he said.

Dethie Diouf, Director of Cabinet of Cheikh Kanté, Minister to the President of the Republic in charge of the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE), stressed the importance of the contribution of the RIPOSTES project to the achievement of the objectives of the Great Green Wall, and welcomed the EU's decisive commitment alongside other development partners to the implementation of Senegal’s Green PSE.

The RIPOSTES project is working towards promoting holistic and integrated governance of natural resources and contributing to the ownership and optimisation of local resilience dynamics; strengthening the restoration and rehabilitation of agrifood systems and promoting a sustainable land use system through a landscape approach to Sustainable Land Management (SLM), with a view to contributing to carbon sequestration and the improvement of ecosystem services; and capacity building by creating sustainable opportunities for the valorisation and development of non-timber forest products value chains and by promoting public-private partnerships (PPP).