In the Sahel, limited assets and access to markets, compounded by frequent shocks, make it difficult for many—especially youth and women—to access productive jobs, diversify their income sources, or progress toward self‑reliance. Adaptive social protection (ASP) can boost jobs and employment by empowering poor and vulnerable people to climb the ladder of economic opportunity: stabilizing consumption, investing in nutrition and health, acquiring new skills, and making investments that support more productive work and livelihood diversification. ASP interventions generate economy-wide gains in addition to strengthening pathways to employment and autonomy for the poorest, with growing evidence showing strong impacts on productivity and resilience across the Sahel.
Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program
Impacts on the Economy, Productivity and Self-Reliance
© World Bank
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Providing resources to the poor and vulnerable sets off strong positive economic chains, well beyond the initial beneficiaries
When they benefit from ASP programs, households dedicate these resources to purchasing food, education, healthcare, or services; investing in durable goods or productive assets; as well as honoring commitment to local networks. A beneficiary farmer in Chad might hire laborers to increase production in his cassava field, buy tools from market traders, or source seeds from national suppliers. These purchases benefit traders, laborers engaged in local farms, shops, workshops, and service providers; people beyond the program’s beneficiaries. Producers respond by working more, hiring more, and sourcing more. They then spend their own increased earnings in the same markets. Each transaction extends the chain. This is why productive safety nets can lift entire local economies, not just individual households that receive direct support from the program. Further afield, local exchanges link to district markets, and those in turn connect to national supply chains, turning a single transfer into a wider web of economic gains.
To understand these spillovers effects, the LEWIE methodology traces how money moves through the economy (directly and indirectly) and how each round of spending fuels the next. Put simply, it measures the chain reaction set off by each dollar transferred. Evaluations across Africa consistently demonstrate strong results – with safety nets resulting in 133–250 percent increases in local revenues per dollar invested. In Senegal, preliminary results suggest that investments in the national safety net program (PNBSF) led to increases of 151 percent in the local economy. Overall, the PNBSF can be credited as being responsible for about 13 percent of the reduction in extreme poverty observed between 2011 and 2019 in the country. In Burkina Faso, every FCFA invested generated 1.7–2 FCFA in local income, after a single round of impacts. In Chad, spillover effects of a low-cost economic inclusion intervention showed that households who live near beneficiaries experienced better food consumption (about a 9 percent increase) and increased savings (savings group participation rising from 30 to 40 percent), which highlights how they benefitted indirectly from the program.
Overall, IMF evidence shows redistribution is not only equitable, but it also boosts macroeconomic performance: when the income share of the poorest 10 percent increases, national growth strengthens; whereas when more gains accrue to the richest 20 percent, growth was weaker. And research so far has confirmed there was no significant price inflation when programs were implemented in areas with functioning markets; instead, markets became more dynamic (see also this overview from IFRPI or brief from UNICEF).
When programs that work for building the resilience of the poor and vulnerable also work for the local and national economy, it’s a double win: a productive investment with a high return on investment on both fronts.
Last Updated: Feb 28, 2026
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A smart combination of measures to address multiple constraints and unlock economic potential at scale
Across the Sahel, poor and vulnerable households navigate structural conditions that make economic progress extraordinarily hard, and more so for youth and women: highly variable climates, limited markets and infrastructure, limited financial and productive assets, the psychological toll of persistent poverty which erodes aspirations, and almost no access to formal employment. Most households rely on subsistence farming or small, low-return activities in agriculture or small trades, often without the capital, skills, or connections needed to grow. Social norms that discriminate or exclude, geographic isolation, and exposure to shocks further restrict people’s ability to take risks or diversify.
Economic inclusion interventions have shown positive and sustained impacts, and governments are increasingly investing in these ASP interventions. By tackling the multifaceted nature of poverty, they empower the poorest households to achieve meaningful and sustainable income generation — effectively helping them step onto the first rung of the ladder of opportunity. Economic inclusion interventions (also called productive inclusion, graduation or resilience programs) are often complementary to, or directly provided by, core safety net programs. These packages typically build on the regular support by layering interventions of community mobilization, individual and group training and coaching, savings and loan groups to strengthen financial literacy and foster mutual support, life skills and micro-entrepreneurship training, market access facilitation, and a productive grant that serves as seed capital for households to start or grow their income-generating activities.
Emerging evidence underscores the critical role of psychosocial support in these packages. With support from SASPP, rigorous evidence generation shows that combining traditional economic components with well‑designed psychosocial interventions can unlock more durable pathways out of extreme poverty. By addressing both capital constraints and psychosocial barriers such as aspirations, confidence, and stress, these integrated approaches deliver stronger and more cost‑effective impacts, reinforcing the case for embedding psychosocial components in government‑led economic inclusion programs.
Furthermore, adapting ASP programs and systems to better serve mobile populations is of great significance to improving economic outcomes in the Sahel. In addition to adjustments mentioned on our Welfare, Resilience and Social Cohesion page, adapting content and delivery of economic inclusion interventions to the realities of populations that move might call for prioritizing skills that can be easily used in localities of destination (since skills narrowly tailored to rural livelihoods may have limited value to participants who will likely migrate to urban areas) or for supporting investments that can move with people, for program participants that envisage mobility in the near future. One of the strengths of the economic inclusion packages is their flexibility, that is their ability to adapt to the specific constraints and aspirations of its participants.
Last Updated: Feb 28, 2026
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ASP economic inclusion interventions are impactful, sustained, and cost-effective
SASPP has contributed to one of the richest evidence bases for ASP in low-income and fragile settings while supporting over 200,000 people (78 percent of which were women) and their households. Interventions have demonstrated that they can work at scale using regular government implementation mechanisms. Governments are embedding productive measures in their ASP systems—Chad is including them in its planned national productive safety net program; Mali is rolling out a jobs and productivity component for women and youth; Mauritania is broadening its coverage; and Senegal is scaling the Yokk Koom Koom model nationwide. These diverse pathways reflect national priorities, but all rest on the same strong evidence: productive inclusion works, it is cost-effective, and it is scalable through national systems.
Evidence is compiled from a strong portfolio of pilots, impact evaluations, and process reviews across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. While impacts varied by context, the results are compelling. A critical aspect is that these impacts are sustained over time: results were still present 18 months after program completion in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger, and 36 months after completion in Senegal (results for Chad were measured using shorter evaluation window).
Resilience and
consumption gainsIncome
diversificationBusiness
ownershipAcross Chad, Mauritania, and Niger, household consumption increased by 8–15 percent. This increase is sustained day after day and helps household improve their nutrition, health, education, and living conditions. Both participation in savings group and beneficiary savings also grew. Households invested significantly in non-agricultural activities, helping reduce their dependence on agriculture and better withstand climate shocks. In Niger, for instance, revenues increased substantially (by up to 107 percent, see Figure below), with impacts particularly strong for off-farm businesses, indicating expansion into non-agricultural livelihoods and sustained 18 months after the intervention.
In Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal, a much larger share of households owned a business after the program: about 10 to 18 more households out of every 100. Investments grew most in Senegal (+US$71/year), followed by Mauritania (+US$34) and Niger (+US$13), with little change in Burkina Faso (where effects were stronger on savings, due to a context marked by high insecurity).Women’s Empowerment and Social Cohesion Cost
Effectiveness
Program
Optimization78 percent of participants were women, who reported greater decision-making power and expanded aspirations. Programs also improved psychosocial well-being, mental health, sense of worth, quality of intrahousehold relationships, and community trust, especially in rural Niger.
Programs cost between US$250–$575 per beneficiary, far below more elaborate models deployed in other regions, yet direct impacts exceeded costs within 18 months in Niger and Senegal. Consumption impacts alone were 1.2–2.1 times higher than costs, showing strong returns on investment. Additional impacts on productive assets and local economies further enhance these returnsPsychosocial components that promote community awareness and life skills significantly boosted impacts, with particularly high returns in Niger and Senegal—highlighting the need to address both financial and psychosocial constraints. With ASP, Sahelian countries are creating the infrastructure for resilience, skills, and jobs helping people climb the ladder of opportunity and shaping a more inclusive future.
Last Updated: Feb 28, 2026
