Working together for a prosperous and peaceful Sahel
UN SUPPORT PLAN FOR THE SAHEL
The overarching goal of the UN Support Plan for the Sahel is to scale up efforts to accelerate shared prosperity and lasting peace in the Sahel countries and the region at-large by implementing priorities to achieve the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the African Union Agenda 2063
The UN Support Plan for the Sahel targets 10 countries and covers the period 2018-2030. The Plan has been designed to support the implementation of the priorities identified to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
Developed to stimulate a coherent and coordinated approach aimed at greater efficiency within the framework of the United Nations integrated strategy for the Sahel, this strategy is at the centre of the international response to the Sahel in accordance with resolution 2391 (2017) 1 of the United Nations Security Council.
The Support Plan aims to improve coordination and strengthen collaboration with partners in the region; including national and regional institutions, bilateral and multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society organizations. Women and young people are targeted as a priority by all fields and interventions.
It focuses on strengthening governance, improving security and resilience, as well as promoting a more integrated approach to address the link between humanitarianism, security and development.
The Sahel, the vast semi-arid region of Africa separating the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical savannas to the south, is as much a land of opportunities as it is of challenges. Although it has abundant human and natural resources, offering tremendous potential for rapid growth, there are deep-rooted challenges—environmental, political and security— that may affect the prosperity and peace of the Sahel.
The support plan highlights the enormous opportunities in the Sahel and its vast assets in natural resources, energy, tourism and culture; and is aimed at mobilizing public resources and triggering private investments in the 10 countries in support of ongoing efforts and initiatives by governments, international and regional organizations, and other partners, is built around the following six priority areas:
SIX PRIORITY AREAS
UNISS has defined a strategic approach for the Sahel based on its objectives and its comparative advantages including: neutrality, commitment to sustainable human development, its role in coordinating the interventions of Development partners, its presence in all the countries of the region and its organisation based on knowledge network.
CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION
Promoting cross-border and regional cooperation for stability and development
PREVENTION AND SUSTAINING PEACE
Preventing and resolving conflicts and building peace; preventing violent extremism and crime; and promoting access to justice and human rights
INCLUSIVE GROWTH
Promoting inclusive and equitable growth and increasing quality access to basic services
CLIMATE ACTION
Building resilience to climate change, improving management of natural resources, and decreasing malnutrition and food insecurity
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Promoting access to renewable energy
WOMEN & YOUTH
Empowering women and youth for peace and development
OBJECTIVE
To identify strategic priority areas with strong multipliers that harness the potentialities of the region and address the critical challenges facing the Sahel. Under each priority areas, transformative interventions will be developed to trigger funding and investments, both from public and private sources.
UNITED NATIONS SUPPORT PLAN FOR THE SAHEL
Women, youth and job creation will cut across all priority areas and interventions, aiming at strengthening governance, improving security and building resilience, as well as promoting a more integrated approach to address the humanitarian-security-development nexus as a strategy to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
With 64.5% of the population being below 25 years, the Sahel is one of the world’s most youthful regions. Therefore, investments in education and vocational training could yield huge demographic dividends. The Sahel is also endowed with enormous renewable energy potential; it has more solar energy production capacity than other regions of the world.
Countries in the region are encouraged to adopt, with support from international partners, the necessary measures to fully implement the support plan.
The Cost of implementing the SDGs in the Sahel ($billion)
2018-2022
Private sector in most of these countries is relatively undeveloped despite vast opportunities for investments in agriculture, extractive sectors, renewable energy, communications, and manufacturing. Huge opportunities also exist in the value chains in agriculture and the extractives.
Using local content policy to promote private sector development to drive value chains in agriculture, fisheries and extractives is vital. Although FDI rose from $1.69 billion in 2000 to $8.64 billion in 2016, it was mostly in the extractive sector. Diversifying the FDIs into other sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, and communication could accelerate the transformation and inclusive development of the region. The Sahel accounted for 65 percent of the average remittances between 2010 and 2016, reaching $25 billion in 2015. More needs to be allocated to productive activities. Diaspora bond also offers good opportunity for financing development plans and programmes.
The burden of financing development is more on the poor and marginalized people of the Sahel than on the rich. An average Sahelian pays more than 55 percent of healthcare expenses compared to 14.8 percent in Europe and 37.5 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. It could be as high as 69 percent in Cameroon and 72 percent in Nigeria. High out-of-pocket expenses are often associated with high health burdens like infant, under-5, and maternal mortality deaths in the region.
Although the required investments needed for the SDGs are achievable globally, the financial capacity of Sahel countries to implement the SDGs is very limited. However, the world has a potentially huge capacity to mobilize needed resources for the Sahel.