Conflict Prevention in the Sahel EMERGING PRACTICE ACROSS THE UN by Adam Day and Jessica Caus Adam Day / Jessica Caus Adam Day is the Head of Programmes and Jessica Caus is a Research Assistant at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research. The project has been carried out with the support of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. The authors would like to thank the following UN colleagues for their support and review of this paper: Agnese Spiazzi, Andres Figueroa Davila, Franceso Galtieri, Romano Lasker, Ayham Ahsan al Maleh, Frederik Matthys, and Jago Salmon. ISBN 978-92-808-6511-0 © United Nations University, 2019. All content (text, visualizations, graphics), except where otherwise specified or attributed, is published under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial-Share Alike IGO license (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). Using, re-posting and citing this content is allowed without prior permission. Citation: Adam Day and Jessica Caus, “Conflict Prevention in the Sahel: Emerging Practice Across the UN” (United Nations University: New York, 2019) Contents Executive Summary ������������������������������������������������� 1 Introduction .............................................................. 2 I. The Risk Landscape in the Sahel ������������������������ 4 Insecurity and Violent Extremism Transnational Criminal Networks Transhumance and National Boundaries Socio-Economic Trends Population Displacement Climate change as an amplifier of risks Chronically weak governance Conclusion - a complex system of conflict risks II. Emerging Practice �������������������������������������������� 16 A. Regional and local conflicts – the case of Burkina Faso B. Farmer-Herder Conflicts – the case of Nigeria C. Cross-border conflicts – funding and political engagement D. Funding modalities III. Conclusions and Recommendations ���������������� 28 Executive Summary reventing violent conflict is a central The paper has three parts: (1) an overview goal of the United Nations and a clear of the risk landscape in the Sahel; (2) a study P priority for Secretary-General António of emerging practice by the UN, with a Guterres. It is generally recognised that for particular focus on the UN’s presence in prevention to be effective, the UN must act Burkina Faso, transhumance in Nigeria, cross- earlier, often in non-mission settings where border approaches across the region, and the UN is led by a Resident Coordinator channelling funding resources; and (3) a set of (RC). Recent reform of the UN Development conclusions and recommendations covering System has been geared at making the RC the following areas: system more capable of addressing prevention challenges, including by aligning political, • Supporting the role of the development and humanitarian work of the Resident Coordinator UN. In the context of these reforms, the Sahel • The need for localised risk presents an immediate challenge, given analysis and response the inter-related security, humanitarian and political risks facing the region as a whole. • Protecting the Peace and In recognition of these risks, the UN has Development Advisor position prioritised the Sahel, undertaking a wide array • Leveraging Headquarters of new initiatives, channelling resources, and Engaging with the regional offices working in innovative ways with a range of • partners in the region. • Developing regionally-based action plans This policy paper was developed to directly • Understanding and harnessing support the UN’s understanding of the financial resources situation in the Sahel, and of the ways in which the UN system in non-mission settings • Addressing the challenge of can better respond to current and emerging cross-border programming risks. Acknowledging that the UN reforms • Incorporating a political-economy lens are still in early phases of rollout, the paper into analysis (the crime “blind spot”) identifies emerging practice in the UN’s Addressing the issue prevention efforts across the Sahel. It finds • of security services that, while often the UN plays a minor and/or supporting role in conflict prevention, some of • Treating elections as a form the new approaches arising from the reforms of early warning have enabled potentially greater impact and • Bridging the centre/periphery divide certainly stronger synergies that could be further leveraged into even more effective • Utilizing adaptive management responses in the future. techniques in prevention programming Introduction reventing violent conflict is a core each country is unique, conflict dynamics goal of the UN and a stated priority of across the Sahel tend to be transnational and P Secretary-General António Guterres. It inter-dependent, from the criminal networks is widely acknowledged that for prevention to that spread across the region and beyond, to work, the UN will need to act earlier, to address transhumance patterns that ignore national conflict risks before they escalate. The front boundaries, violent extremist groups operating line of prevention, therefore, will be in non- on a global scale, large-scale population mission settings, countries where the UN movements, and the acute impacts of climate presence is led by a Resident Coordinator (RC) change.3 Weak governance capacities and who coordinates the efforts of the UN Country long-standing patterns of corruption, patronage Team (UNCT). Over the past three years, the and predation mean that the state response to UN has undertaken a series of reforms, one conflict risks is often insufficient, or at times of which has been to make the RC system exacerbates tensions. more independent, politically empowered, and able to address prevention challenges In recognition of these risks, the UN has alongside broader efforts to implement the prioritized the Sahel in several important ways. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Joint Steering Committee on Humanitarian As of January 2019, RCs report directly to and Development Collaboration has placed the the office of the Secretary-General and are Sahel at the top of its agenda; the UN Office expected to bring together the UN’s peace, for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) development, human rights and humanitarian has engaged intensively in several Sahelian priorities into a coherent strategy.1 The RC countries; and the Executive Committee of reform is part of a broader effort to make the the Secretary-General has taken dozens of political, development, and humanitarian decisions on the Sahel in the past year alone. approaches of the UN more aligned and more The publication of the UN Support Plan for the regionally-driven. Sahel in 2018 reflects a serious effort to scale up development and humanitarian efforts in The Sahel region presents the most immediate the region, with a clear intention of reducing and acute test of the reformed UN system. the risks of conflict-driven human suffering.4 Stretching from sub-Saharan Senegal to And in September 2019, the Secretary-General northern Ethiopia,2 Sahelian countries issued new instructions for the reinforced are some of the most fragile in the world, coordination and implementation of the characterized by a combination of poor recalibrated Sahel strategy, including regional governance and exposure to cross-border cooperation, capacity building, resource criminality and trafficking that are extremely mobilization, and advocacy/communication.5 difficult to address with traditional tools. While Introduction 2 This policy paper was developed to directly research are: How can RCs work with UN and support the UN’s understanding of the situation other actors to play an effective prevention in the Sahel, and of the ways in which the UN role? What approaches/strategies work in system in non-mission settings can better identifying risks, carving out political space for respond to current and emerging risks.6 The preventive action and obtaining key resources starting point is a recognition that the UN’s to respond? What partnerships, including with failures and shortcomings are often well- other UN entities, UN regional offices, national known, but the many ways in which the UN and local actors, contribute to resilience? How successfully averts crises, builds prevention can Member States better support the UN in capacities, and helps reduce risks are often non-mission settings, including financing, ignored in public reporting. This leads to a lack political support, and bilateral engagement with of understanding by the UN and its partners affected countries? as to what works in conflict prevention, minimizing the scope for effective, evidence- Based on an in-depth literature review, access based policies. In 2018 the Centre for Policy to internal UN documents, and interviews with Research at UN University responded to this a wide range of UN leadership in the field shortcoming and conducted a series of case and Headquarters, this paper contains three studies examining conflict prevention by the RC parts: (1) an overview of the risk landscape system, offering broad lessons for non-mission in the Sahel; (2) emerging practice of conflict settings.7 These were designed specifically to prevention in the Sahel; and (3) conclusions support the roll-out of the RC reform process, and recommendations for the UN and its offering evidence-based recommendations partners going forward. for the newly configured field presences. The intended audience for this paper is UN Building on this work, the present project policymakers, UN agencies in field locations, will examine emerging practice in the Member States looking