On 30 August, the CILSS Agrhymet Regional Centre celebrated the fourth edition of its master’s programme in food and nutrition security. Twenty-five students, including four women, graduated in Niamey, Niger. The majority of students benefitted from a scholarship within the ECOWAS-sponsored Support Program for Food and Nutrition Security in West Africa (PASANAO). Read on

Held under the patronage of the Commissions of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), the Food Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA) gathered from 10-12 April 2017 at the OECD headquarters in Paris. Participants analysed the food and nutrition situation and made recommendations, particularly focused on mobilising further urgent and co-ordinated assistance to affected populations in the Lake Chad basin. Read on

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

The latest report on the status of African elephant from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that some 111 000 elephants in Africa disappeared between 2006 and 2015. IUCN attributes this sharp decline to the expansion of ivory poaching on the continent, particularly in southern Africa. The situation in West Africa is unique since the sub-region, home to less than 3% of the total number of African elephants, is the only one with an increase in population between the 2006 and 2015 censuses. Read on