Save the Children, World Vision report examines efforts to build resilience in Africa's Sahel

"Efforts to build resilience in the Sahel, a region chronically affected by drought and malnutrition, are highly fragmented, dysfunctional and ineffective, a report from Save the Children and World Vision said on Wednesday," the Guardian reports. "While noting a strong consensus among governments, donors and aid agencies to better integrate humanitarian and development work, progress is still very limited, said the report, 'Ending the Everyday Emergency,' written by Peter Gubbels," the newspaper writes. "Senior officials such as Kristalina Georgieva, the E.U. commissioner for humanitarian affairs, have stressed the need for a more integrated approach between the humanitarian and development sectors in preventing future similar crises in the Sahel," the Guardian notes (Tran, 8/1).

According to Devex, the report provides several recommendations to strengthen the resilience response in the Sahel, including "[p]utting child undernutrition at the center of the response," "[b]oosting small-scale agriculture," "[i]nvesting in social protection and services for chronically food-insecure households," and [d]eveloping a plan on how [organizations and governments] can all strategically work together to address crises" (Ravelo, 7/31). "Other recommendations include the building up of national and regional food reserves to cushion the impact of sudden jumps in food prices, an increase in funding for a regional and national disaster risk reduction strategy in the Sahel, an improvement in the early response system, and pilot programs for resilience in selected geographic areas where high levels of vulnerability exist," the Guardian adds (8/1).