Presentation short abstract

The paper shows how Africa’s Great Green Wall functions less as a concrete project and more as a performative narrative, rebranded into existing programs in Ethiopia. This gap between global vision and local practice reveals how environmental initiatives are reshaped in implementation

Presentation long abstract

This paper examines the implementation of global environmental initiatives into national contexts, using the African Union’s Great Green Wall (GGW) in Ethiopia as a case study. We argue that the GGW operates less as a coherent, on-the-ground program and more as a performative discourse: a powerful concept that mobilizes international consensus, secures donor funding, and legitimizes state agendas by framing restoration as a win-win solution. Through empirical investigation, we trace how this global narrative is invoked, reframed, and absorbed within Ethiopia. Our findings reveal a significant gap between the GGW's international imaginary and its localized performance. Rather than manifesting as a distinct project, the GGW was strategically folded into pre-existing government programs, such as longstanding Sustainable Land Management projects and the national Green Legacy Initiative, which were subsequently rebranded as ‘GGW activities’ to align with donor interests. This process, exacerbated by chronic funding shortfalls and fragmented governance, created a hollowed-out, patchwork assemblage. The initiative generated overlapping mandates, delayed implementation, and performativity reporting, while simultaneously legitimizing contentious local practices like land enclosures and precarious labor under the banner of restoration. By analyzing the GGW's performative implementation, this paper demonstrates that global environmental programs are rarely realized as designed. Instead, they become contested sites where global green visions are negotiated and repurposed, revealing the profound politics underlying the pursuit of ecological fixes in local realities.