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To strengthen partner coherence in the Sahel, there needs to be a focus on (1) identifying opportunities to better target fragility root causes and (2) leverage emerging and inclusive evidence bases. UNISS along with the thematic, demographic, and geographic priorities captured in the UN Support Plan and corresponding theory of change together have the potential to be a blueprint for transformational change in the Sahel. Going forward, the UN and partners need to ensure that they systematically guide efforts to strengthen partner coherence to work and learn more effectively together across sectors in the HDP-N. Particular attention will be afforded to two interrelated areas. First, a focus on identifying opportunities to better target and measure fragility root causes to help mitigate and prevent conflict and forced displacement. Second, leverage this common emergent and inclusive evidence base to (a) better target those most vulnerable groups and areas more efficiently and effectively; and (b) forge and incentivise innovative partnerships and a shared learning architecture between the UN, government authorities, civil society, and the private sector to support a gradual shift from short term funding to longer term sustainable financing models. Date - 12 May -2023 #Fragility #Conflict #Forced #Displacement #Partnership #Evidence #Leverage

Due to various siloed initiatives in the Sahel region, more cooperative, coherence, and linkages regarding programmes and data are needed to assist vulnerable groups Despite the over 17 different coordination initiatives across the Sahel region and the importance attached to working coherently together across sectors in the HDP-N as being a prerequisite to prevent conflict in the region, UN and partner efforts still often occur in silo from one another. More effort is needed to strengthen policy and programme linkages and coherence of partner efforts. This is predicated on more efficient data collection and sharing systems that in turn will enable improved and inclusive targeting of vulnerable groups and areas that suffer disproportionately from the effects of conflict and forced displacement trends being exacerbated by climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. This is in line with operationalising the following principles underpinning our collective work: do no harm, leave no one behind, and human rights-based approach principles. Date - 12 May -2023 #Partnership #Efficiency #Linkages #Coordination

To increase resiliency and prevent only ad-hoc responses to crises, it is critical to identify, adapt and implement risk management practices In times of uncertainty, we need to shift from focusing only on trying to predict the future, to also trying and collectively shaping a future based on shared priorities and a robust learning architecture. To confront, adapt and mitigate risks successfully, it is essential to shift from unplanned and ad-hoc responses when crises occur, to more proactive, systematic, and integrated risk management practices that are hard-wired into our new ways of working together differently. This requires we also strengthen our collective understanding of what the various risks and sources of resilience are, and how to measure them together. Date - 12 May -2023 #Uncertainty #AdHoc #Crisis #RiskManagement #Resilience #Mitigation

To increase resiliency and prevent only ad-hoc responses to crises, it is critical to identify, adapt and implement risk management practices Both monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and Big Data approaches face structural deficits related to a lack of focus on the end user or beneficiary. Unchecked, there is a danger that this will further exacerbate the levels of mistrust in fragile contexts. To be of use in fragile contexts, Big Data approaches need to help M&E try to recapture the essential element that is being lost between organisations and governments working in fragile contexts and the beneficiaries of their work, i.e. trust. Big Data are often characterised by the so-​called 3Vs, i.e., (i) the volume of data, (ii) the variety in types of data, and (iii) the velocity at which the data is processed. However, in fragile contexts it is becoming increasingly clear that the one common challenge facing both M&E and Big Data is that of validation. Any attempt to enhance M&E with Big Data approaches will therefore require a stronger focus on beneficiary validation through feedback loops that consistently secure beneficiaries’ participation. Date - June 2016 #Uncertainty #AdHoc #Crisis #RiskManagement #Resilience #Mitigation

Further electricity generation is needed in the Sahel to better place the region on a low-carbon development pathway There is a seemingly direct relationship between the production of electricity and development. In the Sahel, the amount of electricity generated and the penetration of that electricity is increasing, but not fast enough to match demand nor in a manner that sets the region on course for a low carbon development pathway. Every ten years, the amount of renewable electricity is doubling, but the amount of fossil fuel generation is quadrupling. As a result, the percentage of renewable energy in the energy mix is diminishing, and Sahelian states remain dependent on fossil fuel–generated electricity for 75 per cent of their needs. Source: This graphic was developed by OAM Consult based on data by the World Bank, 2021. Currently, Sahel countries are following the traditional carbon-intensive method of development, insofar as their GDP growth is occurring in line with growth in carbon emissions. To begin the decoupling process, a wide range of interventions are needed, from intensifying climate-smart agriculture and furthering the structural evolution of the economy towards industry and services, to speeding up the energy transition process by switching to cleaner fuels and improving efficiency. Whether or not the Sahel will be able to begin the decoupling process depends on the level of ambition of the region and the support it receives. To get ahead of the increase in demand and to outpace growth in fossil fuel energy, investments in renewables will need to expand. This expansion can occur with both on-grid and off-grid electricity, but both need to go to scale to reduce cost and improve reliability, especially around built-up areas such as cities. The region additionally shows potential for the exploitation of civil nuclear energy as a regional, multi-country approach, allowing the diversification of energy sources, the creation of high-skilled jobs and potential for a technological catch up. Date - 12 May - 2023 #Sahel #Electricity #Renewable #Carbon #Energy #Fossil Fuel

Considering the region’s dependence on groundwater and climate change increasing both precipitation and drought, regional collaboration, including the sharing of water management best practices and technical assistance are needed to build resiliency The Sahel region uses more groundwater than is replenished. Water distribution varies dramatically between countries. Some, such as Nigeria, have an abundance of water resources, while others, such as Burkina Faso, have very little. More than 40 per cent of the water supply in Mali and Chad and 90 per cent in Mauritania and Niger comes from outside each country’s boundaries. The dependency of the region on transboundary water river systems and the fact that water use, and investments affect downstream countries create a need for an integrated regional water resource management system. The need for collaboration on water management and efficiency is heightened by climate change, demographic growth and the expansion of agriculture, which together have the greatest impact on the rising regional water stress. Water availability per capita therefore is likely to decline by 2080, putting additional pressure on the region and calling for enhanced water management on a regional level. Given that climate change will likely increase precipitation, at least in the mid-Sahel, causing rains to increase in intensity and variability, increases the need for collaboration on water use, particularly on water storage and water retention in the soil. The Sahel shows potential for an enhanced way to harvest water from rainfall, which can be used for irrigation. The region therefore needs an adapted reservoir and collection system, that notably takes into consideration the high rate of evapotranspiration and lessens the loss of water when stored. There is ample opportunity to improve an integrated regional water management system in the Sahel that can better manage water use and distribution so that future generations will have adequate water supply. This system must be based on constant development and sharing of knowledge on water governance and on the health and sustainability of groundwater. This effort needs to combine top-level inter-state collaboration on regional agreements with the strengthening of local community water management. The region could also take advantage of Saharan underground resources, which call for cooperation between states and can potentially address the demand in Sahelian countries. Organisations such as the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Cooperation in International Waters in Africa program (CIWA), funded by the World Bank Sahel Groundwater Initiative, are providing a range of technical assistance and management capacity to the Sahel region. This includes support for small-scale agricultural irrigation that improves the water retention capacity of soil and more efficient irrigation systems. The restoration of land and the creation of both small-scale and large-scale water harvesting and storage systems requires significant investment going forward. Date - 12 May - 2023 #Sahel #Water #Management #Dependency #Regional #Cooperation #Irrigation

The Global North developed using carbon-intensive modes of production and have since the 1990s started to decouple their growth from carbon emissions. However, with the current trajectories of our Earth System, the Global South - including the Sahel region - needs to leapfrog to low-carbon development if we are to achieve a safe operating space for humanity According to the environmental Kuznets curve, a hypothesised relationship between a number of environmental degradation indicators and income per capita, countries increase their level of pollution as their economies develop until they reach an income level where they begin to permanently reduce their emissions. This is due primarily to the structural shift of those economies from agriculture to industrial and then to service, but also due to production going to scale and improved efficiencies. The curve also bends because, provided there is adequate civic participation in government, as citizens climb the economic ladder, they demand better and higher-quality standards of living, including clean air and services like electricity. Most OECD countries have reached the inflection point. Most of Europe did so in the 1990s. These countries have now decoupled their modes of production from emissions and so are able to reduce carbon emissions even as their economy grows. One of the main purposes of climate financing since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 is to facilitate support from developed countries to developing countries to help them leapfrog through those development stages using low-carbon development pathways. To do otherwise would break the global carbon budget, leading to increased costs for everyone. Source: World Bank, 2021. Source: This graphic was developed by OAM Consult based on data from the World Bank and Climate Watch, 2021 Currently, Sahel countries are following the traditional carbon-intensive method of development, insofar as their GDP growth is occurring in line with growth in carbon emissions. To begin the decoupling process, a wide range of interventions are needed, from intensifying climate-smart agriculture and furthering the structural evolution of the economy towards industry and services, to speeding up the energy transition process by switching to cleaner fuels and improving efficiency. Whether or not the Sahel will be able to begin the decoupling process depends on the level of ambition of the region and the support it receives. Date - 12 May - 2023 #Sahel #Climate #Financing #Carbon #Agriculture #Emissions #Decoupling

To increase low-carbon pathways in the Sahel, the UN and national partners need to create the conditions and capacity for climate financing Our research shows that implementing the Sahel countries and their littoral neighbours’ climate finance ambitions to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change is estimated to cost an estimated USD 305 billion towards 2030. However, while commitments made by the regions’ own national governments amount to just USD 26 billion, commitments by Western donors and international financial institutions reached just USD 23.5 billion between 2015 and 2019. This leaves a staggering 85 per cent gap (USD 279 billion) in financing the green transition in the Sahel and broader West African region towards 2030. Thus, to create low-carbon pathways, climate finance received in the region will need to grow exponentially. While the Sahel region account for less than 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and are among the world’s most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, they received only 4 per cent of global climate financing between 2015 and 2019. Source: This graphic was developed by OAM consult based on OECD DAC climate-related development finance statistics, 2021. The good news is that levels of climate finance to the region have increased exponentially between 2015 and 2019 (from USD 3 billion per year to USD 5.5 billion per year, see figure above). These levels are projected to further increase, as most bilateral and multilateral development actors are growing their shares of finance earmarked for climate adaptation and mitigation. To accelerate climate finance to the region, the UN, donors and international financial institutions needs to work with national authorities and partners to create the conditions and absorptive capacity for the required financing. Snapshot: Overview of climate finance modalities i. Unconditional national budgets under the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs); ii. Bilateral overseas development assistance (e.g., earmarked ODA from bilateral donors); iii. Multi-donor international funds (e.g., earmarked ODA through multilateral development banks); iv. International investment funds (e.g., GFC); v. Carbon markets (e.g., clean development mechanisms (CDM) or voluntary carbon markets); vi. Private sector (e.g., small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)); vii. Private foundations (e.g., Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Date - 12 May - 2023 #Partnership #HDPN #Silo #Sharing #Root #Cause #Collective

Despite increasing levels of official development assistance to the Sahel, food insecurity rates, conflict levels, and forced displacements are increasing in the region. Faced with a population expected to double by 2050 and temperature increases rising 1.5 faster than the global average, a dramatic increase in climate finance is needed to prevent further escalation of the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel It is becoming more evident that despite increasing levels of Official Development Assistance (ODA) directed towards the Sahel, the humanitarian situation in the Sahel is getting worse. Although ODA increased 45 per cent between 2016 and 2019 (US$ 4 billion), governance indicators are decreasing. In addition, the amount of people experiencing acute food insecurity increased by 129 per cent (4.2 million people) while the amount of conflict events increased by 320 per cent (4.823 events). Furthermore, the amount of forced displacement increased by 103 per cent (3.6 million people) between 2016 and 2020. These negative trends are further projected to deteriorate caused by rapid population growth (expected to double by 2050) and the effects of climate change. The Sahel is already experiencing temperature increases 1.5 times faster than the global average. In response to these trends, the number of people in need across the Sahel are increasing while humanitarian response plans remain underfunded. In fact, in 2020 alone there was a 56 per cent humanitarian funding gap. The underlying drivers of poverty, food insecurity, conflict and forced displacement in the Sahel such as a lack of local governance (including natural resource management and access to land), low education rates, poor access to health, as well as a lack of jobs and livelihood opportunities are often overlooked by actors across the Humanitarian, Development, and Peace- Nexus (HDP-N). Instead, more attention is given to the symptoms such as food insecurity, forced displacement, and conflict. The effects of climate change on these parameters are often reductionist, establishing direct causal links between a changing environment and food insecurity, conflict, and forced displacement, rather than a risk enhancer of their underlying drivers. Acknowledging the latter will help donors direct more climate finance towards the drivers of fragility rather than its effects. Date - 12 May - 2023 #Sahel #Conflict #RootCause #Poverty #Forced #Displacement #ClimateChange #HDPN

The need for innovative financing to break the recurring recruitment cycles and use of children by armed groups The reintegration of child soldiers is key to achieving lasting prosperity and peace in conflict-affected societies. Unfortunately, just a small percentage of children exiting these armed elements receive the 3-5 years of support experts say are needed in order to regain their lives in society and thrive. Immediate and longer-term investments must be made in supporting children and communities to provide urgent humanitarian and development assistance, as well as tackle the root causes of recruitment and re-recruitment to break and mitigate the vicious cycles that expose children to continued violence. Yearly humanitarian funding for child reintegration has increased by USD 80 million since 2016. Although a positive trend, child reintegration needs are increasing at a much faster pace than current funding. In fact, humanitarian appeals supporting the umbrella “child protection” list of needs, under which child reintegration traditionally sits, increased by USD 317 million yearly. As such, the gap between growing needs and current levels of funding has grown to a sheer 75 percent funding gap in 2021. Similarly, although there is a continued and projected uptick in child reintegration needs across the countries on the CAAC agenda, available peace funding for child reintegration activities is diminishing and has done steadily so since 2012. Moreover, addressing growing child reintegration needs in isolation is clearly not enough. Our research has identified nine drivers or root causes of the recruitment and use of children by armed groups. 33 percent of these drivers are projected to be exacerbated by climate change. Interestingly, there is a strong negative correlation between the increasing performance of indicators related to these drivers and the levels of child recruitment and use. These trends are stronger in countries more affected by violence as well as in countries in lower income brackets. As such, to effectively break the cycles of recruitment and re-recruitment, the international community needs to deliberately target the root causes of these trends, thereby also stemming the increasing humanitarian needs. In turn, this requires more predictable, long-term, and sustainable finance across the humanitarian, development, and peace nexus to provide a continuum of care for these children. It also implies a shift towards more innovative financing instruments beyond humanitarian and peace funding. Innovative financing sources are all increasing and show high potential through blended financing modalities to address the alarming shortfall in humanitarian financing. Between 2017 and 2021, development, peace, and climate financing have all seen an uptick in available resources (+72, +124, and +4 per cent). These longer-term financing instruments have the potential to provide longer-term sustainable financial sources to plug the increasingly yawning reintegration financing gap while simultaneously tackling the longer-term drivers of child recruitment. Although several examples exist of partners blending innovative financing resources to bridge the current humanitarian funding gap, much more innovation is needed to close the gap and effectively break the cycles of recruitment and re-recruitment. An event to keep an eye out for this year is the Financing Innovation Forum organised by the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG-CAAC) and the World Bank. The forum will bring together a wide range of stakeholders to explore new modalities and mechanisms for innovative financing towards child reintegration. Date - 12 May - 2023 #Children #armed #conflict #CAAC #children #armedforces #armedgroups #CAAFAG #aid #innovative #financing #modalities #child #recruitment

The Blue and Green economies can serve as the foundations for Sahelian development, particularly with the Blue ensuring the environmental sustainability of Coastal areas and livelihoods, and the Green providing low-carbon, resource-efficient, and inclusive economic growth In the path toward development in the Sahel region, it is fundamental to build enduring foundations on which the region can thrive; therefore, economic growth must be propelled through sustainable paths. Blue and green economies can be those foundations. The former guarantee “low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive” economic growth, and the latter ensure the environmental sustainability of coastal areas and oceans while promoting “economic growth, social inclusion and the preservation or improvement of livelihoods”. Agriculture is a key area vulnerable to climate change. Yet there are many opportunities to implement nature-based and sustainable solutions for long-term sustainable growth and resilience. Experts estimate that sound agriculture practices could unlock an extra US$2 trillion in rural growth, especially in Africa where agriculture is “likely to be the main source of people’s livelihoods for the next several decades”. Nature- or climate-based solutions play a multifaceted role in mitigating and adapting to climate change ruptures, protecting biodiversity, and improving living standards and well-being. They are based on working with and enhancing nature rather than imposing engineered solutions, and their proponents aim to work inclusively with local communities from the bottom up, with a focus on the more vulnerable members, for sustainable long-term solutions. Strategies include the management and protection of ecosystems, the incorporation of green and blue infrastructure, and the application of ecosystem-based principles to agricultural systems. Nature-based solutions have a significant potential in the Sahel due both to the region’s rich biodiversity and its vulnerability to development pressures, political instability, organised wildlife crime, poverty, and climate change. Within the wider sustainable development framework, agroforestry appears as an important nature-based intervention, with several successful examples across the Sahel region. In Burkina Faso, the Gazetted Forests Participatory Management Project for REDD+, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), sought to help reduce deforestation and forest degradation in order to reinforce forests’ carbon sequestration capacity thanks to improved governance, environment-friendly local socioeconomic development and sustainable management of forest resources and wooded areas while reducing poverty in rural areas. In Chad, the Restoring Ecological Corridors in the Mayo-Kebbi Quest, Chad, to Support Multiple Land and Forests Benefits – RECONNECT, funded by the Global Environmental Facility, has through sustainable natural resource management, especially of forest resources, sought to reduce CO2 emissions through carbon sequestering, maintaining ecosystem services and enhancing soil productivity to increase sustainable use of natural resources by local communities. In Mauritania, the “Renforcement de la résilience des communautés aux effets néfastes du changement climatique sur la sécurité alimentaire en Mauritanie” sought to strengthen the resilience and food security of agricultural, pastoral and agro-pastoral communities vulnerable to climate change by implementing actions to combat desertification and soil degradation and improve community members’ standard of living. Blue economy – the efficient management and sustainable exploitation of resources in oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers – has the potential to contribute up to US$1.5 trillion to the global economy. The Sahel region is rich in rivers, lakes, floodplains, and deltas such as the Senegal River, the Inner Niger Delta, and the Lake Chad Basin. These are highly productive and biologically diverse ecosystems, fed by seasonal floods. They play a crucial role in local economies. Millions of people depend on the vitality of these wetlands, whose outputs of fish, cattle, and crops such as rice are directly proportional to the flood extent. During the dry season, wetlands attract pastoralists and act as a buffer against droughts for very large areas of the region. However, these water resources are becoming increasingly scarce due to insufficient natural resource management and unsustainable use, exacerbated by climate change. According to Wetlands International, there are significant economic costs to losing Sahelian wetlands as evidenced by the impacts of dams in northern Nigeria, on the Senegal River, and in Guinea and Cameroon on communities whose land- and water-based livelihoods have been disrupted. Employing climate finance to implement blue economy projects throughout the UNISS region will help leverage growth in the blue economy and thus economic transformation. It will not only help restore and harden these blue ecosystems against the effects of climate change, but it will also strengthen the resilience of the population dependent on the waters for their livelihoods. Furthermore, blue economy initiatives targeting vegetated coastal ecosystems, specifically mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and salt marshes can help mitigate climate change through carbon sequestration. This process is also termed ‘blue carbon’. UNEP has partnered with Wetland International to form BLiSS – an initiative to revive and safeguard the Sahel region’s rivers, floodplains, lakes, deltas, and ponds in an effort to improve water and food security and build resilience for communities. BLiSS engages with the African Union through the Great Green Wall Initiative and CARE. The collaboration bridges the restoration of wetlands and drylands through community-based actions using local approaches and upscaling existing efforts. By the end of 2030, the goal is to safeguard 20 million hectares of Sahelian wetlands and restore at least six major systems to improve the livelihoods of 10 million people across the Sahel. Date - 12 May - 2023 #Carbon #Forest #ClimateChange #Water #Ocean

While there are limited incentives to bridge silos among HDP-N partners and high risk in the region, the risk of inaction in the Sahel will only continue to worsen the region’s development Recent reviews of lessons learned all point to the need for a shared management and learning architecture that goes beyond the internally focused M&E frameworks in play. Whereas M&E is traditionally focused on internal learning and accountability within a given project/initiative ecosystem, Adaptive Management and Learning focused on supporting external communication and coordination. It is focused on collecting and analysing information to incentivise continuous learning and collective decision-making among the broader community of practice in contexts that are in constant transition such as the Sahel operating environment. This is achieved through collecting and sharing information generated from the broader community of practice in support of collective learning and action beyond the limited scope of a project ecosystem. Adaptive Management and Learning is not about changing collective goals during implementation. Rather, it is about changing the paths employed to achieve the collective gaps in response to changes in a given operating context. Adaptive Management and Learning focuses on ways to systematically capture and share emerging best practices by policy, program, and research engaged in the humanitarian, development, peace-nexus (HDP-N) with a view of strengthening inter-agency collaboration to tackle collective priorities such as tackling root causes and responding to their effects in the HDP-N. The adaptive management approach - presents opportunities to improve development programming in the Sahel. Overall, this approach allows partners and authorities to rapidly grasp the evolving situation in a precisely defined geographical setting, and to deepen the knowledge on populations, contexts, and potential conflicts. Adaptive practices allow for the maximisation of programming efficiency, allowing for transformational change in the Sahel to happen. Strengthening agency and data-centric approaches – Adaptive Management and Learning approaches revolve around a continuous reassessment through learning loops, a centralised and consistent data and knowledge management is required paired with constant touch points among collaborating implementing partners. The shared data system would allow partners to easily identify evidence-based best practices and incorporate them into the learning process and would support a common engagement of stakeholders on different levels and through different sectors. By promoting such multi-actor programming, the adaptive management approach subscribes to the Delivering as One principle and promotes finance modalities that bridge and go beyond the HDP nexus, together with developing ownership on a national, regional, and local level by involving interested authorities and communities. Date - 12 May - 2023 "MEAL "Communications #Coordination #Sharing #Adaptive #Management #Data