Editorial – June 2024

Dear Madam, Sir, dear members, dear partners,

We are delighted to dedicate this latest newsletter to shock resilience. This topic is one of the key priorities of the Sahel Alliance, which was adopted in the summer of 2023 during our last General Assembly in Nouakchott. Since then, Alliance members have worked to better coordinate their efforts, particularly in terms of strengthening agricultural and food systems and supporting national social protection systems.

I invite you to read the interview with Professor Aboubacar Toguyeni, Executive Secretary of the Réseau des Universités au Sahel pour la Résilience (REUNIR – Sahel Universities Network for Resilience), who stresses the importance of collaboration between academics and international organisations to strengthen the resilience of food and agricultural systems.

You can listen to Maimouna Mbow Fam, World Bank representative in Burkina Faso, in the Salam Sahel podcast (in French), who talks about how the members of the Sahel Alliance and their partners are adapting to support resilience to shocks, particularly in the country’s most fragile areas.

In this edition, we also take a look at the main conclusions of our last Operational Steering Committee (OSC), held at the invitation of Ousmane Diagana, World Bank Vice-President for West and Central Africa, on 14 May 2024. The meeting provided an opportunity to review the progress of the Alliance Sahel joint initiatives, designed to provide an operational response to the strategic priorities agreed in Nouakchott on education, resilience to shocks and territorial development. On this occasion, a consensus emerged on the need to integrate into the Alliance’s strategic thinking and, progressively, into its field of action, the challenges posed by the expansion of the Sahelian crises to the border areas of the coastal countries, which are increasingly exposed to insecurity and the influx of refugees.

This 14th CPO marked an important step in the preparations for our next General Assembly, which will be held in Berlin on 15 and 16 July 2024 under the chairmanship of the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Svenja Schulze. This high point event for the Alliance will provide an opportunity to review our activities, to discuss regional dynamics and the modalities for renewed dialogue with our Sahelian partners, with a special focus on civil society.

Enjoy the reading,

Sincerely.

Emmanuel Debroise
Coordinator
Sahel Alliance Coordination Unit