Sahel: National and Regional Disaster Response and Resilience Program

Context and Objectives 

The project's objective was to contribute to increased resilience of the vulnerable population in the Sahel region to droughts and other natural hazards.

The project responded to the following key results areas of the ACP-EU NDRR Program:

• Improved resilience to the impact of natural disasters: National governments and regional organizations have improved their knowledge on water resources for resilience and have strengthened collaboration for disaster preparedness. In this sense, the policies on disaster risk management and food security would be better coordinated and national hydro-meteorological services have a clear understanding of the relevant information needs of vulnerable user groups (e.g. small businesses, farmers) for tailoring their services.
• Better preparedness of the population in disaster-prone areas: The collaboration of national governments and regional organizations on early warning information is improved aiming at the communication of timely, accurate and tailored information between regional centers, national government and the population. Disaster preparedness strategies are informed about the specific needs of women.

Main Activities and results

At the regional level, the project has supported:

• An analysis of regional institutions’ capacities to contribute to DRR;
• A stocktaking analysis of information systems contributing to disaster risk monitoring and assessment in Sahel;
• A consensus approach to strengthen information and knowledge management related to disaster risks, which was developed with AGRHYMET, NBA, OSS and ACMAD. This work also provided critical inputs for the work with ECOWAS on the Result Area 2 Program.

At national level, the project has supported the preparation of:

• The preparation of various investment proposals.
• A hydromet and early warning capacity assessment in Chad.

In terms of concrete results, the project enabled the government to conduct an analysis of the capacity of regional institutions to contribute to DRR and took stock of information systems contributing to disaster risk monitoring. At the national level, the project supported the development of investment proposals, which were subsequently approved:

• An investment proposal for hydromet and early warning, focusing on preparedness and resilience in Mali, which was awarded a total of $22.75 million from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and $2.5 million from GFDRR;
• A RainCell proposal, which was awarded $500,000 to demonstrate the feasibility of using cellphone operator’s data on signal attenuation to monitor rainfall in real time in Bamako Greater Area; and
• An investment proposal for hydromet and early warning in Burkina Faso, which was awarded $25 million from the GCF.

Partnerships and Coordination

This project built on the ongoing support of the World Bank to Sahel regarding social safety, livelihood protection, drought and natural hazard management, and capacity building in the Sahel. The World Bank team also closely coordinated with relevant EU officials.