01/01/2019-31/12/2019 Agro-pastoral mediation in the Sahel region NARRATIVE REPORT 1 January to 31 December 2019 Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue 114 rue de Lausanne CH 1202 Geneva Tél : +41 22 908 11 30 www.hdcentre.org June 2020 Page 1 out of 8 01/01/2019-31/12/2019 1. Evaluation of the implementation of the activities of the action and of the results In the Sahel, agropastoral activities are highly dependent on climate variability. As a result, agropastoralists are constantly looking for strategies to enable them to effectively adapt their production systems to climate change. In recent years, politico-military crises and the occupation of certain areas by violent extremist groups have greatly disrupted traditional animal movements and caused a crisis of confidence between pastoral and agro-pastoral communities sharing the same geographical spaces and resources and have resulted in an increase in violence By the end of 2019, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) was supporting a network of 961 community mediators spread across 58 border communities in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger in their efforts to resolve conflicts over access to natural resources. This network of mediators resolved 105 micro-conflicts and facilitated the return of 229 head of cattle, two plots of land and two motorcycles to their owners. This work reflects the project's objective to prevent the transformation of micro-conflicts into inter-community conflicts that could be triggered by armed groups operating in the Sahel region. Denmark and the European Union also fund the agro-pastoral mediation programme implemented by HD with the support of the Netherlands. While this report focuses on the activities carried out in the intervention areas funded by the Netherlands, some references are made to the programme as a whole to facilitate understanding. 2. Results and activities Having identified the communes of intervention, and finalised the recruitment and training of the project team, HD then conducted the following activities: Specific objective 1. Structure and support nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary mediator networks in order to prevent and manage conflicts related to the exploitation of natural resources. A.1.1. Conduct of the baseline study1 HD conducted a first baseline study in the following regions: - Burkina Faso: Boucle du Mouhoun, North, East and Sahel region (from 25 March to 19 April 2019) ; - Mali: Mopti, Ségou, Tombouctou, Gao and Ménaka regions (from 28 March to 20 April 2019) ; - Mauritania: Hodh El Chargui (from 10 to 25 April 2019) ; - Niger: Tillabéry and Tahoua region (23 march to 15 April 2019) ; - Chad: Kanem and Lac region (13 to 30 April 2019). A second baseline study was conducted in the following regions: - Burkina Faso: Sahel and East regions (17 to 27 December 2019) ; - Mali: Mopti, Gao, Ségou, Koulikoro, Kayes and Sikasso regions (from 17 November to 31 Decembre2019) ; - Mauritania: Hodh El Garbi, Assaba and Guidimagha region (from 16 to 31 December 2019) ; - Niger: Tahoua region (from 26 December 2019 to 2 January 2020). These two studies were conducted in 105 communes (51 in Mali, 13 in Niger, 24 in Burkina Faso, 12 in Mauritania and 5 in Chad) and through individual or group interviews. Interviews, each lasting an average of one day, brought together homogeneous or mixed groups of community representatives (pastoralists, farmers, fishermen, young people and women). A total of 143 collective interviews were 1 Both baseline studies were carried out with cost- sharing with Denmark and the EU June 2020 Page 2 out of 8 01/01/2019-31/12/2019 facilitated (67 in Mali, 23 in Niger, 31 in Burkina Faso, 12 in Mauritania and 10 in Chad) and 1991 individuals were consulted (888 in Mali, 275 in Niger, 445 in Burkina Faso, 263 in Mauritania and 120 in Chad). The baseline study enabled HD to: a. Identify future community mediators who will form the networks: 1738 community mediators were identified. b. Identify conflicts related to the exploitation of agro-pastoral resources (water points, pastures, salt lands) or theft of livestock. A total of 473 conflicts were identified under the following categories: Categories of conflicts Fishermen Farmer - Breeders - Breeders - Fishermen - Fishermen - Natural Livestock Countries Farmer Farmers Breeders Farmers - Breeders Fishermen Various ressources* theft Total Burkina Faso 25 36 5 4 1 36 9 5 121 Mali 44 88 27 5 1 36 9 210 Mauritania 9 27 11 11 7 1 66 Niger 7 11 6 2 5 31 Chad 4 15 11 15 45 Total 89 177 49 7 4 2 99 40 6 473 * if all the conflicts mentioned above also concern natural resources, the category natural resources includes conflicts whose protagonists are diverse and cannot be reduced to one of the defined categories. It should be noted that out of the 473 conflicts, 134 are considered complex by the communities (45 in Mali, 7 in Niger, 36 in Burkina Faso, 25 in Mauritania and 21 in Chad). Either because of the involvement of armed groups, political interests or the influence of actors residing outside the communes of intervention, the community representatives believe that they are not able to resolve these so-called complex conflicts by themselves and have requested support from HD. Finally, the restraint shown by some participants in the baseline study meetings suggests that new conflicts will be mapped as the project is implemented and the participants gain confidence. c. Identify corridors, major livestock markets and strategic resources in the lean season: country data are included in each country report and will be updated as needed and based on interactions with other actors in the field. This data will be fed into policy dialogue on natural resources management as appropriate. d. Begin the inventory of local natural resources management conventions as well as customs and habits: the country data are included in each of the national reports and will be completed later for a specific publication on the subject in accordance with the objectives of the project. e. Identifying other structures operating in the target municipalities: the summary table, based on the information provided by the local authorities and community representatives, is attached to this start-up report for the use of the Netherlands. HD also exchanged with FAO, Terre des Hommes and Acting for life about possible future collaborations. f. Gather community perceptions on a number of issues of interest to the project: country data are included in each of the national reports and regional values are provided in an annex to each of them. g. Verify the relevance of the communes of intervention. June 2020 Page 3 out of 8 01/01/2019-31/12/2019 The conduct of the two baseline studies resulted in a detailed analysis (one report per country and a synthesis report) available in the annex (see Annexes 1 to 5 for the national reports and 6 for the synthesis). At the end of the baseline studies, HD defined the final list of intervention communes (see Annex 7) and carried out their mapping (see Annex 8). A 1.2. Setting up and supporting the structuring of the networks The networks of community mediators are constituted on a communal basis, meaning a group of two to three communes based on geographical criteria and the existing social and socio-economic relations between them. The networks are composed of community leaders identified during the baseline study and confirmed by the community according to the following steps: Designation of leaders from the list identified during the baseline study: according to the 4 inclusion criteria defined by HD (geographical, socio-professional, sociotechnical, gender), the leaders of each commune, with the support of the local authorities, designated 15 leaders out of the 30 pre-identified. The 15 leaders per commune were invited to the workshop to set up the network, consisting of 30 members for networks with two communes and 45 for networks with three communes. The presentation of the objectives, project activities and the roles of the networks: After their designation, the leaders were invited to a meeting to set up the network. The ceremony started with the presentation of the leaders and the project team presented the project content, the roles and responsibilities of the network and the representatives to the leaders; The establishment of the network management committee and the appointment of representatives: Based on their experiences from local associations, the leaders presented the positions of the management committee whose positions were allocated by consensus (president, treasurer ...). Depending on the number of communes in the networks, the number of posts was fixed (6 posts for networks composed of 1 to 2 communes and 9 posts for networks composed of 3 communes). After the identification of the posts, always according to the criteria of inclusiveness, each commune appointed three leaders and a representative to represent it at the committee level (This representative serves as the memory of the network and the point of contact for HD, and must therefore know how to write in French, Arabic and another local language.). After this designation, the project team withdrew from the room to let the leaders create the network management committee. Between the 1st of July and the 31st of December 2019, 30 networks were set up following the procedure above (4 of which financed by the Netherlands). Nevertheless, in some communes the activities could not take place as planned due to insecurity. The majority of our intervention communes are border communes where the States have little presence, a situation that often pre-existed the security crisis that is currently shaking the Sahel and further increases the level of insecurity in the intervention communes. This is particularly due to regular clashes between the security forces and armed groups, or between certain communities whose conflicts over natural resources have been instrumentalised by armed groups.