The UN & The Great Green Wall
Changing the face of a continent
The Great Green Wall is a breath of fresh air. It aims to plant an 8000km wall of trees across the entire continent. Its goal is to prevent desertification, to provide food, jobs and a future for millions who live on the frontline of climate change – a frontline that’s advancing. This is an age of mass migration, not a crisis, and it is driven by climate change.
Can we turn fatigue into inspiration?
The Great Green Wall challenged ‘Africa fatigue’, a term that describes and cements a negative picture of investment in African development. Speaking at length to climate change and UN experts, it was clear this initiative needed great thinking to match its grand scale, sensitivity without cliché, unerring positivity and ambition.
Like the Pyramid at Giza and the Great Wall of China, the Great Green Wall is quite unlike many development projects, it is a colossal feat of human endeavour.
Growing a world wonder
The Great Green Wall will be seen from space. It will directly affect the lives of millions of people, and could change the world for all of us. With the UN, we bring global attention to the initiative and galvanise political and public action on a problem that’s getting closer and closer to all of us. ‘Growing a world wonder’ captures the scale of its impact and potential.
Taking people there
In the stories of those whose lives would be changed, we find inspiration. A bright visual language matches the project’s optimism, a fresh voice in the worn-out landscape of environmentalism. But how can we make The Great Green Wall real for people on the ground and those at a distance? With a groundbreaking VR film, ‘Growing a World Wonder’, which shows both its vast scale and an intimate narrative.
$4 billion dollars pledged
The film premieres to world leaders at COP21 in Paris and over $4 billion dollars is pledged at the event. We continue to work with the UN to see the wall grow and thrive.