Pro-ARIDES

Pro-ARIDES aims to contribute to increased resilience, food security and incomes of farmer and (agro)pastoralist households in the Sudano-Sahel zone of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger through effective, decentralised institutions and organisations for improved service provision, natural resource and land management and local economic development.

Introduction

The Programme Agroalimentaire pour la Résilience Intégrée et le Développement Economique du Sahel (Pro-ARIDES) is a €100M programme financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. SNV will implement the programme over a period of 10 years with its consortium partners CARE-Netherlands, Wageningen University & Research and The Royal Tropical Institute, as well as its local partners, national and regional umbrella farmers and pastoralists organisations, local governments and research institutes in the three countries.

Intervention approaches:

1. Improved food, farm and herd management for more resilient production systems and better household nutrition

2. Increased business, service and employment opportunities and market linkages generating more economic value

3. Sustainable management of land, water and other natural resources through peaceful and collective resource use arrangements

4. Gender, youth and inclusiveness for resilient food systems development

5. Underlying – Strengthening institutions to re-establish social contract

Challenges and opportunities in the region

The Sudano-Sahelian zone of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger faces many challenges, which, if not mitigated, could have devastating consequences for its populations and beyond. Affected by climate change and a changing environment, it experiences erratic rainfall, strong inequalities within communities, instability and conflicts, degradation of land and water resources, displacement and a fragile food and nutritional situation. All these put together results in low levels of resilience extremely vulnerable to external shocks such as acute food insecurity and malnutrition, which were aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet, there are enough opportunities that when harnessed, could reverse these trends. Agriculture remains the key sector and main source of livelihood.  Inclusive value chains could be a source of decent income and fight against malnutrition. Equipped with matching skills, the youth represents a workforce available for agriculture and can be the engine necessary to transform this sector. Women, could, with the right support and empowerment, take key roles in the development of value chains.

Creating decent jobs for these populations would contribute to lowering existing tensions, the attraction of violent extremist groups, and thus improve the stability of the region, in addition to increasing the resistance of the populations to various external shocks.

Our theory of change

The project's theory of change is based on five pathways and 24 outcomes. Based on the results contextualised by country (36 Burkina Faso, 26 Mali and 35 Niger), activities have been formulated by country and each activity is described in terms of its definition, contribution to the expected results, target groups, approaches, sub-activities and stages of implementation. This list of activities is intended to be relevant, coherent, complete and dynamic in order to achieve the programme's objective.

The diagram shows the relationship between the eight interdependent systemic issues and how they are addressed through the five pathways. At the bottom, the terroir or landscape is positioned as the basis of the natural resources that feed the value chains at the producer level, as well as other services (e.g. soil fertility). Then the market shows the flow of products to consumers, with the various actors involved. Governance aims to improve the enabling environment for both land and market, through policies and institutions as well as financial resources. Finally, equality shows the cross-cutting importance of gender and social inclusion in all relationships.