Deputy Minister Bernice Swarts: Southern African Great Green Wall Initiative (SA GGWI)

Opening remarks by the Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Honourable Bernice Swarts at the Southern African Great Green Wall Initiative (SA GGWI) - regional capacity building workshop

Date: 28 April 2026
Time: 14h00-15h00
Venue: The Capital on the Park, Sandton, Johannesburg

Programme Director,

Global Mechanism of the UNCCD,

SADC Secretariat,

African Union Commission,

Conventional Focal Points,

Representative from Ministries of Finance, Agriculture and Environment

Africa Development Bank,

Climate Investment Funds,

The Global Environment Facility,

The Government of Luxembourg,

The European Union

Distinguished guests and delegates from the SADC member states,

Donors, Partners and UN agencies present,

Ladies and gentlemen.

Allow me to warmly welcome you to this important regional workshop on SADC Great Green Wall Initiative that will equip national and regional stakeholders with the technical capacity to design, secure financing, and implement investment-ready and gender-responsive nature-based solutions projects and programmes.

I am pleased to confirm that many faces here are not new to me as I had an opportunity to meet with them in 2025 here in Johannesburg when we hosted phase 2 of the Global Land Degradation Neutrality target setting programme of the UNCCD. By that time, we welcomed you in our capacity as the G20 Presidency, today I welcome you in our capacity as the Interim SADC Chair. The outcomes of this workshop should underscore the need to mobilize additional and innovative resources to support the SADC member states and its partners in accelerating actions and interventions on the ground to implement the Southern Africa Great Green Wall Initiative (SADC GGWI) and synergies with other environmental issues.

Chair, it is prudent that we extend our appreciation and gratitude towards the SADC Secretariat and the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD for the successful organisation of this workshop. I would like to sincerely thank our partners and relevant organisations for your continued support towards the implementation of the SADC GGWI, and we hope that you will continue to support the projects and programmes developed under the GGWI National Action Plans. We therefore greatly appreciate this support and dedication to the UNCCD processes and beyond.

Ladies and gentlemen, as and when we discuss our SADC GGWI, we need to engage the African Union, there are many opportunities and lessons to learn from Sahel and Sahara GGWI, we look up to the AU to continue advocating and championing Africa's agenda towards the implementation of this important Convention.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the implementation of the SADC GGWI should also contribute to our shared vision as contained in Africa Union Agenda 2063. Regional integration over the years have proven to attract large-scale projects and programmes investments. For this reason, I therefore would like to urge the SADC Member States with all the partners to ensure that the implementation of this initiative attracts funding at all levels. One of the priorities to us as SADC Region is to ensure successful implementation of the GGWI in a way that it addresses land restoration, rehabilitation, biodiversity conservation whilst enhancing the livelihoods of vulnerable communities.

The ambition of the SADC GGWI is to restore degraded landscapes, strengthen climate resilience, protect biodiversity, and transform livelihoods at scale. This ambition comes with a significant financing requirement which is mandatory to member states, partners and organisations present here today. The target to mobilise approximately USD 27 billion for implementation of this initiative by 2030 underlines the vulnerability of the SADC region on environmental degradation.

Distinguished guests, the issue of resource mobilisation must remain central to our deliberations throughout this workshop. Across the SADC region, governments are operating under increasing fiscal constraints. Public resources alone are insufficient to meet the scale of investment required. This reality compels us to fundamentally rethink how we finance development, moving from reliance on traditional funding streams towards diversified, innovative, and catalytic financing approaches.

To strategic partners, donors, development banks and United Nations Agencies, lets rally behind the Partnership for Project Preparation (PPP), led by the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD as this is a platform that will bridge the gap between national priorities with global expertise while fostering alignment across the Rio Conventions. The PPP has the potential to transform policy ambition into investment-ready programmes and projects while tapping into private sector financing.

Emphasis should therefore be on building a strong pipeline of bankable, investment-ready projects and programmes. This includes strengthening our capacity to quantify the economic, social, and environmental returns of Nature-based Solutions, structuring blended finance instruments, and de-risking investments to attract private capital. Initiatives such as the SADC Great Green Wall Accelerator, the Greening Dryland Partnership, and the Gender-transformative Resilience to Drought in Southern Africa project demonstrate that progress is possible when technical, financial, and political resources are aligned. There is an urgent need to leverage regional assets, such as transboundary initiatives in the Zambezi Watercourse, to attract large-scale, programmatic financing from global climate and development funds.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this workshop is therefore not just a technical exercise, it is a strategic intervention to bridge the gap between national plans and investable opportunities. It is about equipping all of us, policy makers, financiers, and practitioners, with the tools to design, package, and present projects that can attract and sustain investment at scale for the implementation of the SADC GGWI.

As Interim SADC Chair, South Africa calls on all stakeholders present here today to use this platform to deepen collaboration, accelerate pipeline development, and unlock innovative financing solutions that match the scale of our shared ambition. The pressures on our fiscus demand that we act boldly, collaboratively, and with a clear focus on leveraging every available resource. We need to move from commitment to capital, from plans to pipelines, and from ambition to implementation.

Member states, allow me to highlight that the UNCCD COP17 is just a few months from now and will be hosted by Mongolia from 17 to 28 August 2026. The upcoming COP is very critical for the African Region, particularly on drought and resources mobilization issues. At COP16, you will remember that we have adopted a procedural decision to allow continuation of negotiations at COP17. Allow me to indicate that, despite the divergence views that emanated from the Tafaul processes, the adopted procedural decision remain the first point of our negotiations. Let me remind you as Member States and negotiators that, there is only two options on the table that Parties will continue to deliberate on which are legally Binding Protocol on Drought and Global Framework on Drought Resilience. The Africa Position has not changed, and this is what as the SADC member states we should continue to push. You will recall that negotiations on drought under the UNCCD started in 2015 and it's been 10 years without reaching any consensus. The AMCEN which was held in July 2025 held in Nairobi nominated South Africa as Africa's Champion on Drought consensus, I led those discussion supported with other member states and the mandate given by the AMCEN is in line with the African position. As the region that is continually affected by the impacts of drought, we need to advocate for the adoption of the process towards the development of an integrated instrument to manage drought under the UNCCDS. As this collective, I urge all of you to show a united front at COP17.

As I conclude, I now wish member states in this room the best as they deliberate on the agenda items. Please remember that the outcomes of this meeting will determine our effective engagement towards the implementation of the GGW and its outcomes that our Member States must implement going forward.

I thank you!

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