Africa Gets 30% of Global Environment Fund's Money

African nations are leading the world in accessing critical environmental funding, receiving 30% of all grants from the Global Environment Facility while Asia gets 18% and Latin America 15%.

Ulrich Apel, a senior environmental specialist at the GEF, shared these numbers at the United Nations desertification conference in Mongolia this week. He was responding to questions about how African countries like Nigeria could tap into environmental funds more easily.

The news matters because Africa faces some of the planet's toughest environmental challenges. Land degradation, expanding deserts, and severe droughts threaten millions of people's food security and livelihoods across the continent.

The GEF focuses heavily on Africa precisely because of these vulnerabilities. "I don't think the problem is necessarily the accessibility of funds, because we programme all the funding that we have available," Apel explained.

The funding announcement came during Finance Day at the conference, where governments and businesses committed $1.3 billion in new financing for land restoration and drought resilience. The money will support projects across five continents.

The Ripple Effect

The GEF just unveiled a new Drylands and Drought Management program that could transform how countries prepare for and respond to drought. Running from 2026 to 2030, the program will help communities move from crisis response to proactive planning with $140 million in grants.

"Investing in healthy land and healthy people means investing in food security, climate resilience, biodiversity, water, jobs, and peace," said Claude Gascon, the GEF's interim leader.

The timing is critical. More than half of Earth's land surface consists of rangelands like grasslands and drylands, and about half of those areas are now degraded.

Between 2022 and 2026, the GEF approved 50 projects supporting sustainable rangeland management and pastoralist communities. Those projects represent over $300 million in total investment.

Looking ahead, the GEF's next funding cycle brings $3.9 billion to the table. Four major programs aligned with fighting desertification will receive more than $800 million, with drought resilience becoming more central and measurable than ever before.

For communities across Africa's drylands, this wave of funding could mean the difference between watching their land turn to desert and building a sustainable future.