This op-ed, published on the IPI Global Observatory, by Jorge Moreira da Silva, OECD director of the Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD) and Eric Rosand, director of the Prevention Project and Brookings non-resident senior fellow, calls upon governments and development partners to develop a new approach to development that prioritizes prevention. A stronger focus on prevention will require “a much more coherent effort among political, security, development, humanitarian and peace actors—recognizing that the challenges in fragile contexts are too big and too complex for one set of actors to tackle alone,” explain the authors. Read on

Following a last-minute postponement, Nigeria’s general elections were eventually held on 23 February. Incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari was re-elected in the first round for a second four-year mandate with 55.6% of votes (15.2 million people). His closest rival, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar gained 41.2% of votes (11.3 million people). Abubakar rejected the results released by the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), denouncing the vote as a “sham election” and setting up a legal team to challenge results. Read on

The UK's new Joint Sahel Department is now operational. It brings together the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID) and oversees UK diplomacy and development policy, relationships, funding and activity in the Sahel. Officials from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Home Office will also join the department. The Joint Sahel Department works closely with the UK’s embassies and offices in Bamako, N’Djamena, Niamey and Nouakchott. Read on

The five heads of state of the G5 Sahel countries - Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger - gathered at their 5th summit on 5 February in Ouagadougou, following a series of expert and ministerial meetings. The rotating presidency was officially transferred from Niger to Burkina Faso for a one-year mandate. Despite efforts to quickly scale-up the joint military force’s operations, the situation in the Sahel remains highly unstable.What did this summit achieve? Read on