This book looks at how people in the semi-arid conditions of the Sahel cope with their harsh environment. It draws on four years of field research with farmers in the Sahelian region and builds on work with these communities over several decades. Reporting on studies of four village communities, it shows how people work to achieve sustainable livelihoods and emphasises that there can be development without disaster.

This book explains the structure and geographical and organisational mobility of criminal and migratory movements in the Sahara and the Sahel with a view to helping establish better development strategies for the region.

Long on the margins of both scholarly and policy concerns, the countries of the West African Sahel have recently attracted world attention, primarily as a key battleground in the global 'war on terror'. This book moves beyond this narrow focus, providing a multidimensional and interdisciplinary assessment of the region in all of its complexity. The focus is on the six countries at the heart of the Sahelian geographic space: Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad. Collectively, the chapters explore the commonalities and interconnections that link these countries and their fates, while also underscoring their diversity and the variations in their current realities. The Sahel today is at an important crossroads, under multiple pressures of diverse kinds: environmental, political, demographic, and economic, as well as rapidly changing social and religious dynamics. It is also marked by striking dynamism and experimentation, drawing on a long history of innovation and cultural transfer. In many ways the Sahel is today on the cutting edge of grand natural experiments exploring how humans will adapt to climate change, to technological innovation, to the global movement of populations and the restructuring of world politics, to urbanization, social change, and rapid demographic growth, and to inter-religious contact. The region is a weathervane on the front lines of the forces of global change. In nine thematic sections, the chapters in this book offer holistic analyses of the key forces shaping the region. Including scholars based in Africa, Europe, and the United States, the authors represent an exceptional breadth and depth of expertise on the Sahel.

Offers unique insights into the inner workings of jihadist organisations over the past three decades in North Africa and the Sahel.

This groundbreaking volume examines the extraordinary artistic and cultural traditions of the African region known as the western Sahel, a vast area on the southern edge of the Sahara desert that includes present-day Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, and Niger. This is the first book to present a comprehensive overview of the diverse cultural achievements and traditions of the region, spanning more than 1,300 years from the pre Islamic period through the nineteenth century. It features some of the earliest extant art from sub Saharan Africa as well as such iconic works as sculptures by the Dogon and Bamana peoples of Mali. Essays by leading international scholars discuss the art, architecture, archaeology, literature, philosophy, religion, and history of the Sahel, exploring the unique cultural landscape in which these ancient communities flourished. Richly illustrated and brilliantly argued, Sahel brings to life the enduring forms of expression created by the peoples who lived in this diverse crossroads of the world.

The Sahel region is nowadays facing many challenges, including insecurity, rising extremism, lacking of economic prospects and decent employment opportunities, besides also experiencing poor access to education, vocational training and overall basic services. Youth are among the most vulnerable group in the region, and although youth population is expected to grow, if employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for youth remain limited, young people will continue to remain in a vicious cycle of food insecurity and deep poverty. This case study outlines how the project "Building resilience in the Sahel region through job creation for youth", strengthened the capacities of rural youth in their entrance in the agrifood system adopting green practices, while also empowering the national institutions tasked in supporting them. The case study also provides all the lessons learned throughout its implementation as well as details of the project’s evaluation.

The crisis in the Sahel is serious and multidimensional, and if it continues unabated it could have consequences far beyond the region. As the states of the region are too poor and weak to deal with this on their own, international support is needed. the current international emphasis on the G5 Sahel should change from a focus on more 'boots on the ground' to support for the development agenda of this embryonic international organisation. The Sahel needs a functioning regional framework and the G5 Sahel has some potential; but the only way to harvest this potential is to help fine-tune it to address the underlying causes of conflict. Improving security conditions in the Sahel is absolutely essential; but neither the inhabitants of the region nor the external stakeholders will find security exclusively through military means. The correct priorities must be set. And at the heart of this there must be an improvement in living conditions and a new system of governance that makes it much less possible for jihadist insurgents to appropriate local land-rights conflicts.