The Sahel Alliance
The Sahel Alliance is an international coordination platform bringing together 27 organisations and countries.
Founded in 2017, this initiative aims to provide more and better support for development initiatives in the Sahel.
The Sahel shows a striking paradox between the wealth of potentials and yet many challenges faced by its populations. The region is rich in natural resources such as oil, natural gas, gold, phosphates and minerals, and has some of the continent’s largest aquifers, as well as surface waters such as Lake Chad and the Niger River. These resources offer tremendous opportunities for economic diversification and the development of livelihoods. In addition, the Sahel has also great potential for renewable energies, and solar energy in particular. The region can also count on the dynamism of a particularly young population with a rich cultural heritage.
Yet, the Sahel remains one of the poorest regions in the world, facing security challenges and major economic, social and environmental vulnerabilities. Fragility is particularly critical in peripheral and cross-border areas, where governments have less influence and where basic social services have little or no coverage. Pressure on natural resources is a recurring source of conflict between farmers and livestock herders. Despite rapid urbanisation, 64% of the Sahelian population lives in rural areas and depends mainly on agriculture and livestock income.
The region is also exposed to climatic and environmental hazards, with irregular rainfall, drought and recurrent flooding. In 2024, the food and nutrition situation remains extremely worrying: over 38 million people are currently experiencing acute food and nutrition insecurity in the Sahel and West Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the war in Ukraine on the global cereal and fertiliser market exacerbated economic, health and nutritional vulnerabilities.
Lastly, economies are often characterised by a largely informal labour market, narrow tax bases, underdeveloped industrialisation, and a dominant agricultural sector with little focus on processing activities.
An appropriate and effective response was necessary to ensure the lasting and sustainable development of the region.
In 2017, several development partners launched the Sahel Alliance, an international cooperation platform to provide more and better support for development initiatives in the Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad).
Since its launch, Germany, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, Canada, Denmark, the European Investment Bank, the European Union, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United Nations, the United States, and the West African Development Bank have joined the initiative as full members.
Nine countries or organisations have joined the Sahel Alliance as observer members: Japan, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, the International Finance Corporation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Ireland and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. They participate in decision-making meetings of the Sahel Alliance as well as in the work and activities of sectoral and thematic groups, including in the field in the Sahel countries. However, they do not integrate their development projects into the portfolio designated and monitored by the Alliance.
In order to provide an appropriate response to the challenges facing the Sahelian countries, the Sahel Alliance members decided to guide their work according to 4 key principles:
- Targeting actions on 5 priority sectors: education and youth employment; agriculture, rural development, food security; energy and climate; governance; decentralization and basic services.
- Mutual accountability between members and Sahelian countries on shared objectives
- Innovative and flexible approaches, adapted to the constraints and specificities of the field and a diversification of the stakeholders implementing them (NGOs, local authorities, and the private sector)
- A stronger commitment in the most vulnerable and fragile areas, through the Integrated Territorial Approach
These principles aim to improve coordination and coherence between the Sahel’s main development partners, and increase the effectiveness and impact of financed projects in order to achieve sustainable improvements in the living conditions of populations, particularly the most vulnerable.
Since the launch of the Sahel Alliance in 2017, the number of projects being implemented has tripled in volume and quadrupled in value. The growth in the portfolio is due to the continuing increase in the number of members of the Sahel Alliance. This increase also reflects a significant rise in the portfolios of most members.
In 2022, the portfolio includes 1,330 projects under implementation, worth a total of €26.47 billion.
Fields of action
In order to provide an effective and structured response to the challenges face by the Sahel countries, the members of the Sahel Alliance have chosen to concentrate their efforts on five priority sectors, which correspond with the development priorities established by the Sahel countries. The projects of the Sahel Alliance are focused on one or more of these priorities and aim to have a rapid impact on the populations.