Building Resilience in the Sahel Programme
Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Building Resilience in the Sahel programme (2023-2027) seeks to strengthen resilience of social systems, communities, and individuals to multiple shocks and stresses
The first phase of the Building Resilience in the Sahel Programme was implemented during 2019-2023, reaching more than 3.5 million vulnerable people (including 2.7 million children) achieving and maintaining development gains before, during and after shocks.
The significant results of the first phase have contributed to the expansion and extension of the partnership with Germany in 2023, and to the launch of a tripartite partnership for resilience with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) in five countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
To effectively reduce humanitarian needs and address ongoing challenges in the Sahel, investment is needed in decentralized government services and local civil society partners.
UNICEF’s Programme contributes to three main outcomes
Outcome 1: Resilient social services
Girls and boys, women and men use sustainably accessible, equitable, and risk and conflict sensitive social services for their survival, development, protection, and transformation. This outcome involves strengthening inter-connected social systems including Health, Nutrition, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Education, Child Protection, and Social Protection.
Outcome 2: Resilient communities
Local governance is enhanced, a culture of inclusive social dialogue is strengthened, community ownership and engagement in local social development processes and humanitarian response is reinforced, contributing to more resilient communities.
Outcome 3: Resilient young women and men
Adolescent girls and boys and young women and men have increased opportunities to exercise collective and individual capabilities to cope with shocks and meaningfully participate in decisions affecting their lives.
In addition, WFP, GIZ and UNICEF contribute together to four joint outcomes within the Sahel Resilience Partnership:
1. Food Security and Nutrition
2. Climate Resilient Eco Systems
3. Resilient Social Services
4. Social Cohesion
The Sahel - Region of opportunity
The Sahel Resilience Partnership:
The integrated package
Results of the Building Resilience in the Sahel Programme 2019-2023
Between 2019 and 2023, more than 3.5 million vulnerable people (including 2.7 million children) in Mali, Mauritania, and Niger were directly supported through one or more resilience-focused interventions. These efforts were delivered via decentralized government services and community-based initiatives, even during periods of crisis and stress, as part of the Building Resilience in the Sahel programme.
The programme was implemented around these two outcomes:
- Strengthening social systems to improve multisectoral and risk-informed planning and delivery of services
- Equipping and empowering communities to prevent the effects of shocks and stresses on systems, households and individuals
The programmewas carried out in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) to develop integrated, multi-sectoral packages of support. In practical terms, this collaboration involved:
- Joint work on shared outcomes and indicators.
- Clear definition of mandates, leveraging each organization's comparative strengths.
- Geographic convergence, with partners focusing on the same communities and delivering coordinated, integrated interventions.
Key results achieved during the first phase of the Sahel Resilience Partnership in Mali, Mauritania and Niger
Immunization coverage for young children has increased
Between 2019 and 2023, immunization coverage for children improved significantly. DTP3 coverage (three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines) increased by 14 percentage points in Mali and Niger, and by 23 percentage points in Mauritania, contributing to enhanced protection against vaccine-preventable diseases.
Access to safe water has increased
Access to safe and continuous water supply improved in targeted areas, with an increase of 18 percentage points in Mauritania and 22 percentage points in Niger, supporting better health and hygiene outcomes. Over 85 percentage of households relying on these systems experienced minimal or no disruption during the 2024 floods, highlighting the climate resilience of BMZ-funded infrastructure.
Birth registration has increased by 22 to 40 percentage points within the three countries
Progress in civil registration systems led to a 22.8 percentage point increase in birth registration in Mauritania and 40 percentage points in Niger. In Mali, a moderate increase was recorded, maintaining the highest registration rate among the three countries, despite multiple external shocks.
Strengthened capacity of communities to make decisions and provide services for their local development
Local governance structures demonstrated enhanced capacity for planning and service delivery. In Mali and Mauritania, 1 in 2 community structures, and in Niger, 3 in 5, are now able to deliver comprehensive social services to their communities.
Community leadership has become more inclusive. In Niger, recent data shows that 90 percentage of village committees in programme areas now include young women and men, compared to 25 percentage in non-programme areas. Additionally, 75 percentage of recommendations from youth and civil society are being implemented by municipalities, including initiatives such as replacing climate vulnerable straw-roof schools with more durable structures.
Fostering peace and social cohesion
Community water systems have contributed to improved social relations. Reports indicate that access to shared water infrastructure has strengthened inter-community cohesion and cooperation around shared resources.
More than 132,000 young people and 200 schools participated in youth-led initiatives aimed at promoting peace and social cohesion, encouraging dialogue, civic engagement, and mutual understanding.
The programme has reduced the need for humanitarian intervention in highly affected areas, thanks to the strengthening of essential social services before, during and after shocks.
Interventions to strengthen national and decentralized systems to improve access to equitable adaptive social services across 6 social sectors.
The programme supports adaptive and adapted systems at national and local levels,
in order to provide risk-informed and child-centered social services:
Health
With community health system strengthening, health actors are supported to provide uninterrupted essential healthcare services for children and women, including immunization, prenatal and postnatal care, HIV care and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) response care
Nutrition
Eliminating acute malnutrition starts with prevention − ensuring mothers and children benefit from a package of targeted interventions that provide improved access to nutritious and safe diets and life-saving services and practices.
WASH
Constructing climate-resilience piped water supply systems, serving communities including schools and health centres with sustainable access to clean water, under the strong ownership of municipalities.
Education
Alternative and adaptive education opportunities are developed, for continuous learning during crisis. Communities and municipalities are empowered to support an equitable access, retention and protection of girls and boys in schools, and to improve services for out of school girls and boys.
Child protection
Holistic local child protection systems are promoted, and the capacities of protection actors built for the identification, referral and case management of vulnerable girls and boys and the provision of gender sensitive services for vulnerable children.
Social protection
National social protection systems are enabled to respond to shocks and provide the most vulnerable children with cash transfers and complementary services.
Interventions to strengthen community resilience through multisectoral community capacity building and engagement.
Women and men in communities are empowered to lead in the planning, implementation, management and, monitoring of prevention and response to shocks, and contribute to community-led service provision. UNICEF promotes community-based systems, interlinked with decentralized social systems. As an example, with the community-led total sanitation approach, the access rate of households to latrines has increased from 10.3% to 100% in the municipality of Bagaroua in Niger. The populations have learned good hygiene practices such as handwashing with soap or ash and water, and the cleanliness of their environment to prevent disease and the health of children. Each village has developed and implemented a monitoring plan, and community self-assessment activities, leading to providing schools with latrines (built by the people themselves) and developing community water safety plans