West and Central Africa: United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) and United Nations Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) pool their efforts to strengthen peaceful coexistence between farmers and herders and ensure the sustainable management of transhumance

The United Nations Workplace for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) and for Central Africa (UNOCA) organized a workshop on strengthening peaceable coexistence between farmers and herders and the right administration of transhumance from 26 to 27 February 2025 in Dakar. Greater than thirty individuals from a number of international locations in these two sub-regions, together with members of civil society organizations, in addition to representatives of the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS), the Financial Neighborhood of Central African States (ECCAS), the Local weather Fee for the Sahel area, NORCAP,  United Nations and technical and monetary companions, took half within the workshop.

On the opening ceremony, the Particular Consultant of the Secretary-Common of the United Nations and Head of UNOWAS, Leonardo Santos Simão, recalled the significance of the workshop, stressing that it “presents a novel alternative for us to mirror on and deal with one of the important challenges of our time: fostering peaceable coexistence, sustainable livelihoods, and shared prosperity between farmers and herders.” He added that “Transboundary transhumance poses important governance challenges, significantly when land tenure techniques and regulatory frameworks will not be well-structured. If not correctly managed, these tensions can escalate into broader safety threats, affecting social cohesion and regional stability.”

The discussions highlighted the complexity and interdependence of the interactions between herders and farmers, whereas highlighting the a number of elements that affect these dynamics in West and Central Africa. Members additionally addressed key points corresponding to competitors for entry to pure sources (land, water, pasture), seasonal livestock migrations, and rural land administration insurance policies, which form not solely these interactions, but additionally regional governance.

The exchanges led to the event of a piece plan of the Neighborhood of Follow on Farmer-Pastoralist Dynamics in West and Central Africa was adopted. This plan exactly defines the targets of the “Neighborhood” in addition to the principle thematic axes to be explored. It additionally consists of precedence actions, particular actions, an implementation timeline, the companions concerned, in addition to monitoring and analysis mechanisms.

As well as, the individuals made suggestions to advertise peaceable cohabitation between farmers and herders, and to stop conflicts associated to entry to sources and the mobility of livestock. They advocated, amongst different issues, for a harmonization of ECOWAS and ECCAS approaches, with a deal with strategic priorities corresponding to the event of resilient agriculture, financial diversification, geopolitical dynamics and sustainable financing. 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Workplace for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS).