Editorial – May 2021
Madam, Sir, dear members, dear partners,
Since 20 April, all eyes have been on Chad, following the death of President Idriss Déby Itno. We extend our deepest condolences to the Chadian people and assure them of our solidarity and support in facing the country’s development challenges. The Alliance members are currently financing more than 80 development projects and programmes in all regions of Chad, including the most peripheral ones, for a total commitment of 1.4 billion Euros.
We have decided to highlight several emblematic projects in this newsletter. Among them, the N’Djamena water and sanitation project (PEAN), which has enabled 200,000 inhabitants to benefit from improved access to water and sanitation. The testimonies of the beneficiaries and our partners can be seen in our latest video report. You can also discover the progress of the G5 Sahel Emergency Development Programme (PDU) in Niger in text and images: in the Tillabéri region, 2,100 new households have been provided with drinking water, 216 public latrines have been built and 8 pastoral cemented wells were rehabilitated. While these advances in development are encouraging, the recent events that have struck the region must encourage us to continue to strengthen our efforts. They also prompt us to pay increased attention to the challenges of conflict prevention. This is the purpose of the high-level meeting organised by the World Bank on 9 April 2021 on the occasion of its Spring Meetings. During this meeting, the G5 Sahel Ministers and the members of the Sahel Alliance stressed the importance of prevention, as conflicts are spreading to areas that had previously been spared. An investment that is not only necessary but also profitable: it is estimated that US$1 invested in prevention can help save between US$2 and US$7 in the long term.
In 2020, our first General Assembly had already recommended the promotion of a specific mode of intervention for areas at risk, both crisis and prevention areas, in order to respond to the most urgent needs of the population and to address the root causes of fragility: the Integrated Territorial Approach (ITA). This coordinated, multi-sectoral approach, adapted to the specificities of each territory identified within the framework of in-depth, shared diagnoses, articulates the logics of prevention, consolidation and security. The dynamic has taken shape: in each G5 country, priority areas have been selected with the authorities, while operational planning processes, taking into account the mapping of the actions of the various stakeholders at the level of each territory, supported by local development plans and backed up by adapted operating methods and measurable success indicators, are now underway. The next Operational Steering Committee (OSC) of the Alliance will dedicate a significant part of its agenda on 2 June to the implementation of the ITA and the presentation of the tools and mechanisms developed for its implementation. This 6th OSC will also focus on the priorities of the dialogue between the G5 Sahel and the Sahel Alliance and the challenges of climate change in the Sahel.
Allow me to conclude by recalling the importance of mutual accountability as a central pillar of our partnership with the G5 Sahel. Several mechanisms have already been created to increase information sharing on the funding, implementation and results of Sahel Alliance projects. They have been enhanced by an interactive database that allows all our members to access a whole range of information on projects, by country, by sector, by organisation, by nature. All these tools will, so I hope, enable us to consolidate our partnership in the service of the populations of the G5 Sahel and to adapt our interventions to their needs.
Enjoy your reading,
Adrien Haye
