Ifpri Podcast

POLICY SEMINAR Research Findings on Resilience & Social Cohesion in Burkina Faso and Niger Co-organized by IFPRI, World Food Programme (WFP), Institute for Peace and Development (IPD), and the CGIAR Research Initiative on Fragility, Conflict, and Migration (FCM) Security in the Sahel is deteriorating rapidly. The number of violent events jumped from 580 in 2018 to over 1,000 in the first half of 2022 alone. Associated fatalities are also up dramatically, from about 2,800 fatalities to almost 6,500. Insecurity is also becoming more widespread, especially in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. As a result, people are fleeing their homes – the region now hosts over 3 million internally displaced people and over 1 million refugees and asylum seekers. There are multiple drivers behind this deterioration, but conflict over land and resources has become a major source of violence across the region, triggered by population growth, land degradation, and climate change. Deteriorating security has other serious impacts on