Within the framework of the Regional Sahel Pastoralism Support Project (PRAPS), CILSS will launch a professional master’s in pastoralism in January 2017 at the Agrhymet Regional Centre, based in Niamey, Niger. Agrhymet has had years of experience training officials from the Sahel and West Africa. Read on

According to the 2016 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), governance in Africa has overall slightly improved over the past decade but the security situation has clearly become worse: two out of three Africans live in a country where safety and the rule of law deteriorated over the past ten years. This is particularly the case in Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Chad. Overall, the ECOWAS area is the second best-performing African region, after southern Africa, having recorded the largest increase in its average score (52.4) for overall governance. Read on

The Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat (SWAC/OECD) was invited to a workshop of the West Africa Division’s Governance Working Group organised by the Swiss Co-operation Office in Mali on 28 July in Bamako. This provided an opportunity to share SWAC’s experiences and the results of its work on cross-border co-operation in West Africa. Read on

Experts of the regional system for the prevention and management of food crises (PREGEC) met from 9 to 10 June in Abidjan to take stock of the food and nutrition situation in the region at the beginning of the lean season. They also discussed the prospects for the 2016-17 agro-pastoral campaign. The prognosis made at their last meeting in April was confirmed: the food and nutrition situation is satisfactory except in the Lake Chad Basin, which hosts a large number of displaced persons and refugees. Read on