This four year FAO-led programme (2024 to 2027) supports local communities in six African countries to accelerate progress towards the goals of the AFR100 Initiative, under which 34 African countries have committed to restore at least 100 million hectares (ha) of degraded land and forest by 2030. The countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Togo and the United Republic of Tanzania.
Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with a total budget of EUR 40 million, the programme focuses on:
- restoring degraded landscapes through local community action
- providing financial and technical support to local communities including Indigenous Peoples and smallholder forest and farm producers
- strengthening governance for sustainable land management
- creating green jobs and promoting value-added businesses in the restoration sector, with a strong focus on women and youth.
The programme aims to empower local communities, smallholder forest and farm producer organizations and Indigenous Peoples to lead restoration efforts by providing them with direct financial and technical assistance.
It will enable communities to build capacity to monitor, report and communicate restoration progress and build resilience to climate change by improving water management and food security, reducing carbon emissions and protecting ecosystems.
It will also improve livelihoods by supporting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to drive economic growth through training and knowledge sharing, business incubation and innovative financing models.
The programme is a multi-partner effort led by FAO in collaboration with the AFR 100 Secretariat which is hosted by the African Union Development Agency - New Partnership for Development (AUDA-NEPAD), the World Resources Institute (WRI), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the governments of the six participating countries.
The programme will build on several years of work by the FAO-led Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) and Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism (FLRM) with smallholder farmers and forest producers to link forestry and agriculture, restore degraded landscapes and increase rural livelihoods. It will be implemented on the ground by national partners with technical support provided by FAO teams.
