The Sahel is at the center of one of the world’s fastest-growing displacement and protection crises. In 2022, 30.4 million people required life-saving assistance; these numbers are rising due to displacement, conflict, and food insecurity. These issues are aggravated by the presence of non-state armed groups and government forces operating within the same operational environment, including the Wagner group. National governments in the Sahel have also been influenced by anti-terrorism agendas, often to the detriment of humanitarian access. For instance, compliance concerns regarding Burkina Faso’s cash assistance program in ‘hard to reach’ areas, humanitarian organizations are struggling to find an alternative aid delivery modality.
The question of how bureaucratic and administrative impediments manifest in this region begs a discussion on the roles of different stakeholders facilitating humanitarian assistance. This panel will examine the successes and challenges of how international politics, national governments priorities, and humanitarian interests intersect, and what efforts to implement the humanitarian-development-peace nexus means for the future of humanitarian action in the Sahel.
