In his UN Security Council briefing on 17 December 2019, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNOWAS, highlights that regional organisations remain “our first counterparts for conflict resolution in the region.” Discussions at the ECOWAS and G5 Sahel summits highlighted the “undeterred regional solidarity, and the commitment to bring this violence to an end. The Security Council’s support to the region cannot falter at this juncture,” he declared. 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 food economy has particularly strong potential to accelerate job creation, and should therefore attract greater policy attention. In order to unleash this potential, the food sector needs appropriate strategies, investments and policies. “This involves endorsing three key principles: 1) Moving beyond agriculture and rural areas; 2) Taking spatial factors into account; and 3) Dealing with informality, aiming for inclusiveness,” explain Léopold Ghins and Koffi Zougbédé from the Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat (SWAC/OECD) in an article published on the OECD Development Matters blog. Read on