Where Climate Change Is Reality: Supporting Africa’s Sahel Pastoralists to Secure a Resilient Future

One morning in February, in Kaffrine Region, Senegal, Kaffia Diallo emerged from her tent. She is happy; her new grandson was born just two days earlier. “A beautiful baby,” she said, “although I wish he weighed a little more.”

Following tradition, they will wait seven days before giving him a name. Surrounded by their herds of cows, sheep and goats, Kaffia helped her daughter with the birth in their tent in the middle of the brush, far from the closest medical center. This is nothing new for Kaffia. She comes from a family of livestock herders who seasonally move their herds from one place to another, along with some 800,000 herders in Senegal and millions of others throughout the Sahel.

“When our animals have eaten all of the available grasses, we move south, sometimes as far as the Gambian border,” explained Kaffia, her eyes weary and her face weathered by years of relentless sun, wind and dust.

It is a months-long journey that pastoralist populations often take with several families. When the first rains return in June, they head back north. But as Kaffia explained, “This year, as the grasses became scarce earlier, we had to head out in October.”

Here, climate change is not an opinion, it is a reality. The rainy seasons are growing shorter and the dry seasons are longer, sometimes lasting up to nine months. The drought in 2010 was particularly arduous. In Niger, it is estimated to have killed more than 4.8 million head of cattle, roughly 25% of the herd, representing a loss of more than $700 million for the country’s economy.

While this coexistence is generally harmonious and is part of a win-win ecological cycle, it can also be a source of tension. Water has become increasingly scarce and farmers are expanding their fields as the population grows, encroaching on pastoral regions and transhumance corridors.

“Migrant herders are arriving earlier and earlier, before the end of our harvests and sometimes the animals destroy our fields,” said Hamadj Barry, mayor of a village near the Kaffia family encampment.

PRAPS: A project benefitting millions of pastoral and agropastoralist families

Despite the challenges, the situation has been peaceful in Hamadj’s village for some time now. Herders and villagers have learned to listen to one another and engage in discussion to find solutions.

“We welcome the herders and show them where they can set up their encampment,” explains Hamadj, who is also the head of a dialogue committee that promotes social mediation. “We also make them aware of their rights and their obligations.”

[tweetquote:[tweetText=In each of these countries, PRAPS has made it possible to establish rules for managing the areas primarily dedicated to pastoralism.,tweetData=WorldBank,tweetHash=]]This includes essential infrastructure established around water points, such as reception zones for the pastoral herders, pasture for the livestock, vaccination stations, livestock markets, fodder storage warehouses, and shops managed by women. A president oversees the system and various village committees responsible for managing this infrastructure.

“One of the things that has most changed our lives is the training provided by water and forestry officials for combating brushfires,” explained Hamidj. “It is a transmission of knowledge that we will keep forever.”

Greater resilience and better living conditions for pastoralists

“When PRAPS was set up in 2015, there was a great deal of conflict,” said Maty Ba Diao, regional project coordinator for the CILSS. “This project has helped increase the resilience of pastoral families by enabling them to express their needs, providing them with essential services and infrastructure, and giving them the tools and knowledge they need to manage this grazing land themselves on a sustainable basis.”

Between 2015 and 2020, PRAPS helped establish and improve the management of more than 5 million hectares of pastureland, 181 water points, and 66 cattle markets, while delineating1,414 km of transhumance corridors. It also supported the economic activity of 20,700 people, 88% of whom were women.

The PRAPS in Action