Ending the everyday emergency. Resilience and children in the Sahel

This report, a joint initiative by Save the Children and World Vision, aims to assess progress, lessons learned and challenges in promoting resilience in the Sahel, with a particular focus on the effects on child undernutrition. The report is based on direct interviews mainly conducted in Burkina Faso and Niger, with international NGO humanitarian and development practitioners, researchers, donor representatives of the European Commission and US Agency for International Development (USAID), government officials and UN agencies. There are six sections to this report. This first section provides the background, objective, and methodology for the study. The second is a brief overview of the 2012 Sahel crisis, outlining how it differs significantly from earlier crises in 2005 and 2010. The third section assesses the reasons why efforts to promote resilience in the Sahel have not yet proven effective. The fourth section is the body of the report. It analyses the positive changes and strategic opportunities for each of the major ‘pathways' for strengthening resilience in the Sahel, and for breaking the hunger cycle. Particular attention is given in each instance to how the chronic crisis of child malnutrition can more effectively be addressed. Section 5 deepens the analysis of the institutional challenges to be overcome for a more comprehensive and systematic approach to resilience. The final section offers recommendations for the way forward.

 Save the Children, World Vision - July 2012