Dear friends, colleagues, and partners of the Sahel, in 2021, the question of empowerment and building resilience was top on our collective agendas, including the United Nations. This involved largely initiatives that prioritized protecting important sectors and the people, especially Sahel’s most precious demographic dividend – the youth. As women and youth remain a core priority of our Sahel Strategy, the United Nations throughout 2021 implemented a plethora of actions and accelerated existing initiatives with a goal to achieving this thunderous agenda.

This 4th edition of the Griot – our quarterly UNISS newsletter, the last edition for 2021/ and early 2022 therefore captures the remarkable work of the UN in the Sahel in youth and women. In this edition, you would discover with delight all the strides that have been recorded including our continuing efforts to deliver on UNISS. And without hesitation, it is my remit to duly acknowledge, commend, and to applaud us all, for our collective and meaningful strive to directly accompany the youth and women agenda under the UNISS Umbrella. As the African proverb states, “if you want to travel fast, go alone but if you want to travel far, go together”. In the Sahel, we have resolved to travel on the UNISS journey together and to collectively lend our support to the people of this region filled with a true promise of growth, peace, and stability.

Dear readers, on this note, I warmly invite you to proceed to read about the impactful work being done which captures several contributions of young people in the Sahel, in the journey of transforming the region, which again is still a work in progress, but nonetheless, a notable one.