Archipel&Co working with Davos on the Great Green Wall.

With the World Economic Forum, Regenopolis
Sahel Region

As part of its support to the Great Green Wall, the World Economic Forum asked Archipel&Co to understand local agro-ecological issues and find solutions for developing value chains that meet the economic, social, geopolitical and environmental challenges of the Sahel.

L'Épopée - Archipel&Co

Africa's response
to climate change

Initiated around fifteen years ago by the African countries of the Sahel, the Great Green Wall is a project that aims at simultaneously restoring soil ecology and developing local land.

Its ambition for 2030 is to restore 100 million hectares of land over an 8,000-kilometre strip south of the Sahara, stretching from Senegal to Djibouti and including nine other countries.
Protecting resources, combating deforestation, ensuring food security, promoting the autonomy and viability of local agro-economic activities, stemming the risks of conflict: all these objectives are interconnected. African politicians, local development players, international organisations, multinational companies: all these protagonists work together at the crossroads of complex economic, social and environmental issues. Among them is the World Economic Forum, which in January 2020 launched the 1t.org platform to accelerate the restoration of natural ecosystems. Its approach is to mobilise the private sector and create and facilitate partnerships in key regions.

Archipel&Co

Archipel&Co, called on for its "Nature-Based Solutions" expertise

A twofold mission: identify sectors and consolidate partnerships.

First stage: to identify with precision the non-timber forest product sectors that are beneficial to local economic players, biodiversity and climate balance, and capable of responding to societal challenges. Second round: create public and private partnerships to set up and develop these activities.

From macro to micro, a two-stage methodology.

Firstly, Archipel&Co carried out a macro-economic study to identify the most suitable sectors from a shortlist of around thirty, based on more than 100 criteria. For example :

  • Economic criteria: the sector's potential for exports and the domestic market, and the potential for creating local processing activities,
  • Environmental criteria: capacity to restore soil, resilience to human and biological threats, impact on biodiversity,
  • Social criteria: income generation, female employment rate, risk of tension between communities, nutritional qualities, etc.

In all, a database containing almost 2,000 items of information, the result of fieldwork carried out in 5 countries and orchestrated by our local expert partners, has been used, together with extensive computer modelling, to select priority sectors, particularly in the food and cosmetics markets.

  • African baobab (adansonia digitata): fruit powder (superfood) and cosmetic oil from the seeds
  • Moringa (moringa oleifera): leaf powder (superfood) and cosmetic oil from the seeds
  • Desert date palm (balanites aegyptiaca): cosmetic oil
  • Shea: butter from the seeds (cosmetics and food)

Secondly, Archipel&Co co-published with 1t.org a major report, released on September 2022, outlining a programme of strategic actions to mobilise and engage stakeholders at all levels.
Conducted with 10 NGOs (on good reforestation practices), 30 SMEs (on local production/distribution issues) and 30 major international companies (on export opportunities), the agenda sets out to support the cooperation of the various players via the 1t.org platform around large-scale public-private partnerships, with the help of an understanding of each player's offer and needs.

Archipel&Co

Archipel&Co, at the heart of the action, with a marketing and sales support programme for local SMEs and cooperatives.

The report announces the following actions:

For a favourable economic context:

Strengthening and streamlining the governance and participatory processes of the Great Green Wall, providing access to finance for SMEs and removing barriers to entry to international markets arising from complex standards and regulations are among the first work objectives of the consortium and its partners.

For quality and quantity of supply:

Enabling the structuring of markets for quality supply, investing in research and development to demonstrate the benefits of resources from its value chains, supporting the development of a critical mass of SMEs and supporting partnerships between the latter and buyers/distributors are among the actions in which Archipel&Co is actively involved.

Increasing demand and product awareness.

Creating demand for and raising awareness of products from the selected sectors, and enhancing the creation of local value for SMEs and communities through the creation of brands are among the marketing challenges that Archipel&Co is tackling.

Archipel&Co has set up the GoodBridge programme to provide coherent and effective support for the marketing and sales of these products. This marketing and sales support package is targeting SMEs and production cooperatives in the selected sectors.

Explore results of our work