The CILSS Regional Agrhymet Centre celebrated its 11th graduating of class of senior hydrological technicians with a ceremony on 29 October 2019. Twenty-nine senior experts completed the training, including three women. Agrhymet has trained more than 1 500 experts since its creation. It currently runs six master’s programmes and several technical degrees for under-graduate students. Read on

Livestock experts from across 17 countries of the ECOWAS-UEMOA-CILSS area gathered from 7-10 October 2019 in Accra at the 6th high-level meeting on the theme, “Peaceful transhumance and livestock mobility in the Sahel and West African coastal countries.” Civil society organisations approved a joint position statement with key recommendations on how to develop the livestock sector and pastoralism in the context of rising insecurity in the region. Read on

Alain Antil, a researcher from the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), provides an interesting analysis of the root causes of insecurity in Sahelian countries. While the areas affected by violence in the Sahel continue to expand, socio-economic and demographic trends further exacerbate existing fragilities, especially in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. “Far from being able to deliver basic services or even the most rudimentary infrastructure, the states no longer even fulfil their sovereign functions: security, justice... Other actors have taken over and exercise a sort of shared governance,” Antil explains. Read on

The most recent West African Paper, prepared by Daniel Eizenga, research fellow of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, offers a broad overview of the current security-development situation in the Sahel. It analyses three central themes - poverty, migration and conflict - adopting a historical perspective to examine long-term trends in the region. The paper includes an analysis of the costs of security-based solutions. The author recommends paying continued attention to the political and economic ramifications. Read on