Staying engaged in the Sahel: SNV convenes practitioners in The Hague

The central Sahel is facing an acute convergence of pressures: deepening fragility, accelerating climate stress, displacement, and a shifting geopolitical and security environment that shapes what is possible on the ground. Around four million people have been displaced across the region, and with more than 80 per cent of the population relying on agriculture for their survival, climate shocks and insecurity strike directly at livelihoods. The World Bank projects that by 2030, two thirds of the world's extreme poor will live in settings affected by fragility, conflict and violence. For organisations working on food, water, and energy systems in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, this is not an abstract projection. It is the operating reality.

As operating conditions become more challenging and development budgets shift, some actors are rethinking or even withdrawing from their engagement in the region. SNV, among other humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors, has drawn a different conclusion. Human security and the resilience of food, water, and energy systems are inextricably linked. Access to land, water, energy, and markets; the functioning of local institutions; and the sustainability of agro-pastoral livelihoods are all profoundly shaped by fragility, conflict, and violence. Strengthening these systems, therefore, requires more than technical solutions: it demands continued and deliberate engagement with the underlying drivers of insecurity that determine who can access resources, participate in institutions, and sustain their livelihoods.

In late June, SNV convened a Sahel Practitioner Roundtable at the Hague Humanity Hub, bringing together around thirty practitioners, researchers, and policy actors across the HDP nexus. The half-day, held under the Chatham House Rule, was structured around three questions. What is the reality of fragility in the Sahel right now, and what does it demand of us? What does working on the dynamics driving fragility, and not only in the contexts they shape, genuinely require? And what are the implications for how organisations programme, partner and stay engaged as conditions continue to shift?

The roundtable was deliberately designed for productive disagreement rather than consensus. Participants brought different mandates, perspectives, and field experience, and that diversity was the point: these are questions no single organisation can answer alone. For SNV, convening this exchange is part of how we work in the Sahel, connecting the ground-level knowledge held by organisations in the region with the scenario planning and policy decisions that depend on it.

Protracted crises are not static: conditions in the Sahel keep evolving, and with them the openings for strengthening human security and the systems people depend on. Seizing those openings requires organisations that remain present, understand the contexts in which they work, and combine their expertise across mandates. SNV will continue to play its part, as an implementer and as a convener of the exchanges that effective engagement requires.