Integrated Resilience in the Sahel

Author: RBD

Over the last five years, WFP and partners have restored over 300,000 hectares across the Sahel, transforming the lives of 4 million people in 3,400 villages. This progress has improved food availability, nutrition and resilience against economic shocks – reducing the need for humanitarian assistance.

We envision a future where productive land and healthy ecosystems underpin the well-being and livelihoods of people living in the Sahel, reducing humanitarian needs.

Access to fertile land is crucial for the food security of millions of people in the Sahel, where over half the population depends on farming and herding to make a living. By addressing the root causes of hunger and malnutrition through sustainable land and natural-resource management, we aim to prevent land degradation, restore ecosystems, ensure sustainable access to water, and build more resilient communities across the Sahel. Through our collaborative efforts with governments and partners, we strive to improve food security, enhance diets and reduce humanitarian needs, impacting millions of lives across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

The region's multifaceted challenges, including conflicts, climate change and the economic effects the COVID-19 pandemic, severely impact food security and nutrition. While people living in the Sahel have contributed little to climate change, they are among those most affected by its cascading effects, such as land degradation, erratic rainfall and recurrent droughts.

Despite these challenges, the Sahel harbours enormous opportunities [Watch video here]. The region holds significant potential for ecosystem restoration, and the dividends could be immense if the very young population is provided with the necessary resources and opportunities to thrive.

WFP’s resilience efforts in the Sahel focus on sustainable land and natural-resource management. Initiatives include land rehabilitation to boost local food production, protect biodiversity and reduce vulnerability to climate shocks. Nutritious school meals enhance children's health and nutrition, enabling them to learn and perform better at school while easing the burden on vulnerable families to provide daily meals. The programme also focuses on developing local capacities and developing value chains for smallholder farmers, facilitating increased access to markets to boost incomes and create green jobs. Moreover, efforts are directed towards reducing conflict between different groups (for example internally displaced people and host communities, or farmers and herders) through asset creation, promoting improved relations and reducing prejudice. The assets built also aim to improve long-term food security. Over the past five years, WFP, along with governments and partners, has reached 4 million people across 3,400 villages in the Sahel, and rehabilitated over 300,000 hectares of land. This effort has enhanced food accessibility and promoted healthier diets, reducing the demand for humanitarian aid.

Building on these successes, WFP and our partners launched a second phase from 2023 to 2028. This aims to strengthen and scale up resilience efforts, integrate the programme with access to basic services, social protection and climate action, enhance collaboration with partners and governments, and develop evidence and knowledge based on good practices.

Greening the Sahel: Healthy ecosystems for healthy diets

What we do

Restoring ecosystems: Food Assistance For Assets (FFA) activities support communities in building assets to restore degraded landscapes, increase local food production, safeguard biodiversity and reduce vulnerability to climate shocks. For example, communities increase land productivity through transformative solutions such as “half-moon” irrigation, “zaï pits”, and stone-faced bunds. activities also encompass water harvesting, flood protection, and developing community infrastructure like roads or grain stores. Participants receive cash, vouchers or food transfers to meet their immediate food needs, while the assets built improve long-term food security, livelihoods and resilience to disasters in the long term.
Providing nutritious school meals: Nutritious school meals improve children’s health and learning ability, encourage school attendance – especially for girls by empowering them to study and discouraging early marriages and reduce the burden on vulnerable families. By linking school meals to local farmers, the programme strengthens local value chains and improves livelihoods. Additionally, it connects school meals with complementary activities, such as school gardens, installing grain mills, supporting women's groups managing herds, promoting diversified food consumption, and education on gardening, nutrition and the environment.
Tackling malnutrition: WFP and partners treat and prevent the causes of malnutrition, including and addressing underlying factors such as poor knowledge of feeding practices or limited access to basic social services. Efforts are concentrated on the most vulnerable people, targeting young children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. One way to sensitize and inform about healthy nutrition practices is through community learning and exchange groups. In these, women and children learn about nutrition, health, child and maternal feeding practices, and the preparation of healthy food based on local products.
Supporting smallholder farmers: WFP supports smallholder farmers in increasing their incomes and livelihoods, by developing value chains and market access. With assistance from WFP and partners, smallholder farmers optimize the use of assets created through Food for Assets activities and food produced from gardens and rehabilitated land. There is a focus on creating (agri-)businesses and linking farmers with markets. Farmers are encouraged to form associations, so they can negotiate better, sell more, lower their transaction costs and extend their customer base.
Capacity strengthening of government institutions: Technical assistance and capacity strengthening of regional, national and local actors helps to build resilience and support the sustainability of investments. Since the start of the scale-up in 2018, more than 20,000 people have been trained each year as part of capacity strengthening, including cooperating partners, government staff and community-based committees. In addition, over 200 students were supported, through internships, to conduct research on WFP-supported resilience activities.
Supporting people during the lean season: WFP and partners also provide lean season assistance, including the provision of food, cash or vouchers to overcome seasonal constraints during the lean season – the period when food stocks are depleted and the next harvest is several months away. Providing vulnerable communities with assistance during the lean season protects resilience gains and prevents negative coping strategies such as selling productive assets, reducing the number of meals or accumulating debt, all of which undermine resilience in the long term.

Model for integrated action and partnerships

Programme Outcomes

Improved food consumption and resilience against shocks: Evidence suggests that the Integrated Resilience Programme is helping to reduce humanitarian needs over time, and is cost-efficient. Households participating in the programme have improved food security and resilience against seasonal challenges, reducing their dependence on aid. According to Government of Niger targeting and analysis, approximately 80 percent of people assisted by WFP and living in regions classified as extremely food-insecure did not require humanitarian assistance during the 2022 and 2023 lean seasons. This translates into an overall saving of US$ 54 million in the Government’s National Response Plan.
Better access to natural resources: Monitoring and evaluation shows increased agricultural production and diversified crops, while satellite analyses confirm more than a 50 percent rise in vegetation (as seen through the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). These improvements stem from land-management practices introduced by the programme. A study by AGRHYMET Regional Centre in Niger also underscores a carbon sequestration potential of 6 tons per hectare annually, through land rehabilitation. Based on the land restored so far, Niger could achieve 60 percent of its CO2 reduction goals by 2030. The Integrated Resilience Programme not only supports local livelihoods but also contributes significantly to global climate mitigation.
Strengthened social cohesion in conflict-affected areas: Over 60 percent of restored land has been dedicated to pastures, mixed tree-pasture systems and forage production, fostering cooperation between herders and farmers and reducing resource conflicts. A joint study with IFPRI highlights how WFP's efforts in Niger and Burkina Faso have strengthened social cohesion by creating dialogue spaces, addressing conflict drivers over land and water, and empowering women and youth. Monitoring surveys confirm these activities have eased tensions over natural resources, especially between displaced and host populations, farmer and herders. In Chad, a decentralized evaluation shows that WFP’s resilience programmes boost food production and diversity, build solidarity and improve access to credit – benefiting food security and livelihoods.
Improved access to basic social services, markets and education: Resilience interventions have greatly improved access to basic services, markets and education. Household surveys show a drop in crisis and emergency coping strategies, from 22 percent in 2018 to 16 percent in 2022. Extreme measures, like selling the last productive livestock or property, also decreased from 16 percent to 7 percent across the Sahel region. By 2022, 81 percent of households reported better access to markets, health, education, water and sanitation services. The school feeding programme has significantly boosted attendance and performance. In Niger, dropout rates in schools with WFP-supported meals were 7 percent lower in 2021 compared to schools without canteens. The programme also supports gender equality by encouraging parents to send girls to school. In Mali, 80 percent of households with children in school canteens plan to let both girls and boys finish school, compared to 60 percent in households without this support. In addition, WFP provides attendance-based cash grants to adolescent girls in school-feeding programmes. In Niger, girls receiving these grants had a 63 percent exam pass rate, compared to 50 percent for those without.

Our partners

The integrated resilience programme aligns with national and regional development goals, prioritizing local solutions and good practices. Key ministries and technical services are involved at every stage, with support from UN agencies, NGOs, and other partners to address community needs beyond WFP's scope. WFP has also built partnerships with regional organizations like ECOWAS, and CILSS, contributing significantly to UNISS and the Great Green Wall Initiative.

The growing challenges to people’s livelihoods in areas like the Sahel region, mean there’s a need for skilled local professionals who can understand complex livelihood systems and develop, carry out, and monitor effective plans for better land management and stronger local food systems.

To help meet this need, WFP’s Integrated Resilience Programme helped establish the Sahel University Network for Resilience (REUNIR), which now includes six universities in five countries. This network promotes knowledge-sharing, supports resilience training, innovation and field research and the creation of a new generation of experts in land restoration, ecosystem health, food systems, and related areas.

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Greening the Sahel: Healthy ecosystems for healthy diets

What we do

Restoring ecosystems

Providing nutritious school meals

Tackling malnutrition

Supporting smallholder farmers

Capacity strengthening of government institutions

Supporting people during the lean season

Model for integrated action and partnerships

Programme Outcomes

Improved food consumption and resilience against shocks

Better access to natural resources

Strengthened social cohesion in conflict-affected areas

Improved access to basic social services, markets and education

Our partners