Conflicts, Economic Crises, and the Impact of Climate Change: Comprehensive Investments from Germany Bolster Resilience in the Sahel Region

Joint press release from UNICEF, WFP and GIZ

With the commencement of the 2024 General Assembly of the Sahel Alliance, presided over by Development Minister Svenja Schulze, the cooperation between the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in five countries of the region enters a new phase.

The initiatives of the so-called Sahel Resilience Partnership (SRP) target communities in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, aiming to empower people in a region marked by climate extremes, conflicts, and poverty. The Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) plans to initially provide 130 million euros, enabling UNICEF, WFP, and GIZ to expand and intensify their joint efforts. This will help millions of people in the Sahel better withstand multiple crises. By 2027, the program aims to reach around 8 million people in 6,000 village communities and reclaim 450,000 hectares of barren land.

This partnership is tackling the root causes of the crisis in the Sahel region: helping villages to become self-sufficient in food production, ensuring that children can return to school and get meals at school, and giving young people prospects for employment and income. Experience shows that this type of support works, and many villages are no longer reliant on external aid during crises.”

Svenja Schulze, German Federal Minister for Development

The SRP not only contributes to combating hunger and the climate crisis but also creates livelihoods and opportunities for many young people, empowering them as agents of change and contributing to stability in Europe’s neighborhood. The three partners will invest more in local food systems and improve access to social services. New elements to strengthen peaceful and inclusive coexistence, which also serve conflict prevention, are crucial in this fragile region.

To build the resilience of communities to shocks, we need cross-cutting solutions that focus on restoring ecosystems, supporting livelihoods, and ensuring access to social protection. Thanks to Germany’s contributions and political leadership, we can now scale up our successful complementary programmes. We are committed to enhancing collaboration with governments and partners to create sustainable solutions to hunger supporting regional stability, and eventually break the cycle of crises.”

Margot van der Velden, WFP’s acting Regional Director of Western Africa

The drastic effects of climate change exacerbate existing conflicts over resources such as water, food, and land in the region. In the past five years, the number of food insecure people in the Sahel has almost tripled to 11.6 million. Children are particularly affected, with 17 million cases of malnutrition among children under five. The large-scale joint programmes make a significant contribution to fighting hunger and promoting climate protection by making barren soils usable again through simple and local agricultural methods – since 2018, a total area equivalent to over 300,000 football fields. They also help ensure that 3 million young people and women have access to education, medical care, and better nutrition, preparing them for future crises.

Thanks to long-term support, we create future prospects for young people in their own communities. Our common goal is to enable people and social services to cope with inevitable shocks and crises on their own. Our work will further improve child-focused services in areas such as nutrition, education, clean water, social protection, and health.”

Gilles Fagninou, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa

Since 2018, WFP and UNICEF, joined by GIZ in 2020, and funded from BMZ, have reached more than 4 million people in over 3,000 villages in the region. These efforts have significantly reduced the need for expensive humanitarian aid over time. Studies and evaluations have also shown that resilience measures have strengthened social cohesion and reduced tensions over scarce natural resources – one of the main causes of conflicts in the Sahel region.

Humanitarian aid should not be a long-term endeavor; development should prepare the future quickly: this is what we stand for. GIZ supports the local population in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Chad in improving food and nutrition security, resource management, and social cohesion. We rely on our long-standing network in the region to strengthen resilience and avoid long-term dependency on humanitarian aid.”

Petra Warnecke, Head of the Africa Division at GIZ

Key figures and previous successes of the joint programs

• 1 million people from local village communities participated in soil protection, water extraction, horticulture, composting, and infrastructure measures like road construction.
• In Niger, 80% of village communities involved in the measures no longer required humanitarian aid during the lean season.
• 290,000 hectares of land were restored, 2,230 hectares of gardens were created, and 560 wells and 1,740 ponds were established or rehabilitated to boost food production and improve incomes.
• Over 32,500 young people engaged in youth-led initiatives for social cohesion and peace.
• Over 2 million children and women benefited from malnutrition prevention measures; more than 1.2 million children under five were treated for malnutrition.
• 900,000 schoolchildren received nutritious meals in over 2,900 schools; school attendance for teenage girls was promoted through take-home food rations, scholarships, or school packages.
• 210,000 boys and girls attend safer schools, and over 193,000 boys and girls received support for distance learning when schools were closed or they were displaced.
• 386,000 community members gained sustainable access to clean water and engaged in community hygiene measures.