(sahara-sahel.org) – The gist of this edition’s texts are that in Africa’s Sahel and broader dry belt, overlapping crises—water scarcity, climate change, conflict, and high nutritional costs—are undermining food security, public health, and agricultural livelihoods. Building resilience requires integrated approaches combining infrastructure, social protection, market reforms, and a rethinking of financial and policy frameworks to ensure that rising incomes, technological adoption, and investment practices translate into equitable and sustainable improvements in well-being.
Across Africa’s dry belt from the Sahel to South Africa, water shortages are spiraling into a major crisis, warns a new CSIS report. With climate change, fast population growth, and pollution straining limited supplies, food security and public health hang in the balance. The study calls for coordinated action across institutions, infrastructure, investment, and data systems to build resilience and prepare societies for worsening droughts and floods.
The World Bank’s Productive Inclusion program in the Sahel helps poor households—especially women—turn social aid into lasting livelihoods. By combining small cash transfers with training, savings groups, mentoring, and market access, it boosts income, food security, and emotional well-being. Researchers say these low-cost strategies can reduce poverty and help communities better withstand climate and economic shocks.
A European Commission study finds that small farmers adopting climate-smart technologies in Mali and Niger often end up more food insecure. While earnings rise through increased market sales, household diets don’t always improve. The report urges a better balance between selling crops and feeding families so that rising incomes actually translate into nutritional gains.
The OECD warns that West Africa faces a “triple burden” of malnutrition—hunger, nutrient shortages, and obesity—amid high food prices. Data from 17 countries show wide gaps in diet affordability and cost by food type. Stronger price tracking and nutrition-focused policies, it says, are vital to make healthy eating feasible for more families.
A Criterion Institute study argues gender equality in finance demands a rethink of how investments are valued, not just who controls capital. It highlights Sahel Capital’s approach of grounding financial decisions in farmers’ real experiences to reshape risk and performance. This method, the report says, yields fairer results across agricultural value chains.