The Impact of Cross-border Transhumance on Sustainable Peace and Development in West Africa and the Sahel

 

Joint ECOSOC-PBC Meeting on Transhumance in the Sahel
The Impact of Cross-border Transhumance on Sustainable Peace and Development in West Africa and the Sahel

Carla Mucavi, Director, FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York

 

Madame President, Chair, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

For millions of people across the Sahel transhumant pastoralism is a way of life. It also enables them to cope with difficult and erratic climate conditions.

Pastoral communities are however among the hardest hit by acute hunger and malnutrition – their mobility and access to vital natural resources is increasingly squeezed by a fast-changing climate, new competition over resources leading to local-level conflicts, and broader conflict dynamics.

Many are forced to adopt negative coping mechanisms like selling off their livestock assets, which ease food insecurity in the short term but leave them more vulnerable in the long run.

The link between food security and local-level peace is clear in many parts of the Sahel, in the context of a changing climate, chronic poverty and the actions of non-state armed actors. Current food insecurity and malnutrition are both a consequence and a factor of conflict and violence.

FAO’s experience in the Sahel (and across Africa’s drylands) has shown that livelihoods can be an excellent entry point for addressing inter and intra community conflicts that are linked to natural resources.

In the Sahel, we are working closely with G5 Sahel, CILSS, ECOWAS, as well as with local and national institutions, including the UN System, to address the vulnerability of pastoral communities.

We are doing this through livelihoods interventions that seek to meet immediate needs, build resilience and contribute to enhancing local-level peace processes and easing social tensions.

And the Peacebuilding Fund has been a major support of our ongoing efforts.

FAO encourages partners, Member States and international and regional organization to ensure focused support to pastoralist communities, and to recognize the enormous potential Transhumance offers as a means to address recurrent food crises and support Sustainable Peace and Development in West Africa and the Sahel.