Three Ways to Address the Climate and Humanitarian Crisis in the Central Sahel

A new report from the International Rescue Committee

Photo by Michel Isamuna on Unsplash

By Ciarán Donnelly

There is a climate and humanitarian crisis in the Central Sahel region—and more often than not, these two crises are linked. Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso are riven by a multifaceted emergency of violent conflict, weak governance, and economic collapse. More frequent adverse weather events add to and fuel these compounded crises —  and setback after setback makes it ever harder for people to survive, recover, and adapt.

In a new report from the International Rescue Committee, Climate and Humanitarian Crisis in the Central Sahel, we find that policy decisions taken over centuries until today have resulted in the systematic economic neglect and political marginalization of the peripheries of these states. Political decisions routinely preference economic development in capital regions at the expense of outer-lying communities, concentrating resources and investments in the capitals and failing to diversify the economy. This served to p…