Advancing Regional Climate Action

Mrs. Vicky Athanase; Inner Islands Manager, recently took part in the Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI) validation workshop, hosted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in collaboration with the FAO Subregional Office for Southern Africa and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), in Pretoria, South Africa.

The GGWI is a landmark African-led initiative that seeks to restore degraded landscapes across the continent, while addressing the urgent challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification.

“One of the biggest challenges we face is that projects often run for two or three years and then stop, with no long term follow up. This initiative aims to establish long-term financing through a unified regional approach”, stated Mrs. Athanase. “As a small state, many of the original components were focused on desert regions, so our role was to adapt certain components in order for seychelles to benefit rather being placed in categories that do not reflect our realities”.

Building on discussions from the December workshop, participants worked to refine the draft regional proposal, ensuring alignment with national and regional priorities. The workshop’s goal was to provide further technical inputs and validation from SADC Member States ahead of the initial submission to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in February 2026.