Study on humanitarian and stabilisation action in the Central Sahel

Strengthening coordination and safe spaces for humanitarian and stabilisation action in the Central Sahel

Objectives of the project

Stabilisation raises multiple questions for the numerous actors involved. It raises concerns about relevance and efficiency of political approaches (which side to support, who to negotiate with and for what), as well as concerns about unwanted consequences. These factors are also relevant for the humanitarian sector.

The main objective of this project is to enable active dialogue between stakeholders based on common understanding of the context and the various perspectives, around the questions “what went wrong, what went right? Is there anything that could have been done differently?”.

To achieve this, several studies have been carried out to:

• Better understand the different processes and contextual evolutions that can impacts international stabilisation efforts and strategies.
• Understand and analyse perceptions and attitudes towards stabilisation actors/project in the Central Sahel and the consequences for humanitarian action (for both humanitarian actors and beneficiaries).
• Explore the condition that support better co-existence of stabilisation and humanitarian responses among stakeholders and thereby maintain added value of both approach.

Geographical analyses proposed

The geographical coverage of the study includes Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania, Senegal and countries of the Gulf of Guinea.

This resulted in:

• the production of three stand-alone papers (non-public documents):

• • Study n°1 on Mali & Burkina Faso:

In Mali and Burkina Faso, armed groups destabilising presence and actions could not be controlled, why? Why international support to efforts to control / stabilise these situations has failed so far? What has been the consequence for humanitarian actors?

• • Study n°2 on Niger & Mauritania:

Taking as examples Niger and Mauritania, undertake an analysis of apparently successful experiences where the mix of national and international efforts apparently succeeded in stabilising the situation. How did humanitarian aid and stabilisation efforts managed to “co-exist” in these situations?

• • Study n°3 on Senegal & Ivory Coast:

Taking the example of Senegal and exchange with a limited number of stakeholders in Ivory Coast, analyse how national policy and international aid (humanitarian and development aid) actors have designed their efforts to contain instability from neighboring Mali. 

• a synthesis report, which allow the dissemination of the main findings of the research study to a wider audience.

The main conclusions of this work are therefore disseminated through the synthesis report, which are being presented during the first quarter of 2025 in Paris, Brussels, London, Dakar and probably Berlin, in a restricted forum to an audience of professionals concerned with these issues, both institutional and operational.

A session open to the public is being organised as part of HNPW 2025 (Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks) on 26 March 2025 in Geneva, in English. For more information on the Round table “Humanitarian and stabilization actions in sahel: challenges, difficulties and prospects”, click here!