SWAC Interim Activity Report 2023

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Sahel and West Africa Club

SWAC/GOP(2024)3

For Official Use English - Or. English 17 May 2024

SAHEL AND WEST AFRICA CLUB STRATEGY AND POLICY GROUP

INTERIM ACTIVITY REPORT (JANUARY - DECEMBER 2023) OF THE SAHEL AND WEST AFRICA CLUB SECRETARIAT (SWAC/OECD)

4-5 June 2024

OECD Conference Centre in Boulogne-Billancourt (Room BB2)

Sibiri Jean Zoundi, SibiriJean.ZOUNDI@oecd.org Dominic O’Shea, Dominic.OSHEA@oecd.org

JT03543966 OFDE

Dear Members, partners, colleagues, friends,

As the interim Director of the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC), I am pleased to provide you with this interim activity report for 2023, reflecting on the work conducted and its ongoing progress at the midpoint of our 2023-24 Programme of Work and Budget (PWB). This year has been a testament to the resilience, challenges, and opportunities within the Sahel and West African region amidst a backdrop of global uncertainties. Our work has been driven by a commitment to producing and utilising robust data and evidence-driven analysis to inform policy dialogues and contribute to sustainable solutions for the multifaceted crises facing the Sahel and West Africa.

The Club's work has emphasised the need for a responsive approach to effectively address the growing demands of a rapidly changing region. High population growth and rapid urbanisation have significant implications for states’ abilities to meet the increasing social demands (health, education, food, nutrition, employment, etc.) as well as for cities’ climate resilience. These changes are taking place while security-related violence continues to exacerbate food and nutrition crises, deepen social divides in agro-pastoral regions, and fuel socio-political crises. Alongside these challenges, the region has immense potential, as evidenced by the food economy, which offers substantial advantages for food sovereignty and employment opportunities.

The Secretariat's work has deepened understanding of several challenges, such as conflict and its spatial dynamics, demographic and urban shifts and their socio-economic and political implications, as well as state leadership in governing food and nutrition issues. These insights and tools offer significant opportunities to inform policy decisions, and several information access platforms (detailed in this report) have been developed for this purpose.

The Secretariat has also invested in strengthening interactions between and with members, notably by organising a special session of the Strategy and Policy Group (SPG) last November. This strategic dialogue enabled members to share their insights on the interconnected crises affecting the region, discuss adaptation strategies, and reflect on the Club's contribution to finding solutions. The Secretariat has also improved services to the Club’s members and partners, particularly through a podcast series on women’s empowerment and by reviving thematic discussions with members through webinars with the Wathi think tank and the “Club Rendezvous.”

This interim report provides an overview of the progress made in implementing the current biennium and marks the transition to the upcoming 2025-26 PWB that is in development.

Enjoy your reading.

With my warmest regards,

Sibiri Jean Zoundi

Figure 1 - Status report of SWAC's outputs indicators from the 2023-24 PWB

Figure 2 - Locations where Africapolis data was downloaded in 2023

Figure 3 - Has SWAC data and analyses improved your awareness and/or understanding of issues related to […]?

Figure 4 - Areas of SWAC work that relevant target groups are most and least aware of

Figure 5 - How would you evaluate the quality of the content presented in the training module?

Acronyms

ACLED

Armed Conflict Location & Event Data

ALTTFP Abidjan-Lagos Trade and Transport Facilitation Project

AAH Action Against Hunger

AfDB African Development Bank

AFD French Development Agency

AGIR Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative

AGOA African Growth and Opportunity Act

ANSD Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie

AU African Union

BCAO Central Bank of the West African States

CGLU United Cities and Local Governments

CILSS Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel

DNSA Dynamic Social Network Analysis

ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States

EU European Union

EGM Expert Group Meeting

FAO United Nations for Food and Agriculture Organisation

FNS Food and Nutrition Security

GovSAN Regional Governance of Food and Nutrition Security

GRDR Research and Achievement Group for Rural Development

HDP Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus

INSEED Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques et Démographiques

IFRI Institut Français des Relations Internationales

ITF International Transport Forum

MAPTA Mapping Territorial Transformations In Africa

MEL Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

NRP National Response Plans

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

P3S Partnership for Security and Stability in the Sahel

PREGEC Food Crisis Management and Prevention Charter

PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

PWB Programme of Work and Budget

ROPPA Network of Peasant Organizations and Agricultural Producers of Africa

RPCA Food Crisis Management and Prevention Network

SCDi Spatial Conflict Dynamics Indicator

SNA Social Network Analysis

SANAD Food Security, Nutrition, and Sustainable Agriculture

SPG Strategy and Policy Group

SWAC Sahel and West Africa Club

TC HF Technical Committee of the Harmonized Framework

TFP Technical and Financial Partners

UEMOA West African Economic and Monetary Union

UNECA United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

WHO World Health Organisation

WFP World Food Programme

1 Introduction: the context for our work

1.1 Food and nutrition issues

Worldwide, food systems face a triple challenge: ensuring food and nutrition security, providing livelihoods for workers, and achieving environmental sustainability. These challenges are intensified in West Africa due to high vulnerability, a projected population growth of 140 million in the next decade, and escalating hunger and malnutrition. In 2023, an estimated 35.1 million people were in need of emergencyfood and nutrition assistance, an increase of 5.8 million people compared to last year. If appropriate measures are not taken, up to 49.5 million people could be affected during the lean season from June to August 2024.

This food crisis is severely exacerbated by security-related violence, which continues to cause massive population displacement, disrupt agricultural production systems, and hinder regional food trade not to mention the closure of schools, depriving thousands of children of education and school meals. Over 80% of people facing food insecurity in the region live in conflict-affected countries, further challenging the implementation of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.

Despite significant efforts, the response to food and nutrition crises remains below expectations due to funding gaps, insufficient structural investments, and a lack of coordination and adaptation to new crisis profiles. The need for diverse responses is critical to both address immediate emergencies and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable populations and food systems.

1.2 Urbanisation, territories and the environment

Africa's urban landscape is experiencing rapid transformation, with cities emerging as dynamic hubs of youthful populations and economic potential. The expansion of these cities, which are expected to accommodate an additional 244 million urban residents by 2050 in the Sahel and West Africa region, represents both a challenge and an opportunity. While cities catalyse progress towards achieving both the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union's Agenda 2063, they also confront policymakers with the daunting tasks of urban planning, management, and financing. African agglomerations, particularly the small and intermediate, have a unique opportunity to lead the way in low-carbon development, given their less carbon-intensive growth patterns and significant investments yet to be made in urban infrastructure.

As the continent grapples with climate change, African cities are at the forefront of responding to its impacts in the midst of rapid urbanisation Cities must, therefore, create resilient urban development pathways that are both, sustainable and inclusive. The disparities and specific opportunities of cities need to be more thoroughly considered by national governments and development partners to facilitate systematic and effective climate action. With the right support and a fair transition, cities can become more resilient, sustainable, inclusive, and liveable, acting as levers for regional integration and combating climate change (COP 21, Paris Agreement).

1.3 Security and borders

Since 2011, the escalation of violence in West Africa has been stark, with a dramatic rise in violent incidents. In 2021-23, the bulk of this upsurge is concentrated in five countries- Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Cameroon, and Niger - often intensifying near border areas. The Liptako-Gourma region and the Lake Chad basin also represent major hotspots of violence. The reasons for this are multi-faceted, encompassing underdevelopment, community strife, and a profound sense of exclusion, which are not limited to terrorist activities but also include community clashes and the emergence of armed groups and militias.

The deteriorating security situation disrupts established development frameworks and necessitates a sustained, systemic strategy that incorporates both security and developmental concerns. In a context compromised by misinformation and a lack of data, it is essential to bolster the underpinnings of integration continuously. Producing data and analysis to inform the strategies of regional organisations and policies aimed at more inclusive and sustainable territorial development, as well as improving their accessibility, is important.

2 An instrument of monitoring: Producing data to support action and policy decision-making

The Secretariat gathers and analyses facts to create evidence-based insights and inform political discussions. To achieve this, it engages in innovative approaches, including leveraging various data sources, spatial modelling, and using complementary methodologies such as Dynamic Social Network Analysis (DSNA) to assess changes over time.

2.1 Food and nutrition issues

The Secretariat's work on food and nutrition issues is structured around two main areas: i) supporting regional governance of food and nutrition security (FNS), primarily through cofacilitation of the Food Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA: Food-Security.net) with CILSS; and ii) promoting resilient and sustainable food systems.

Activities carried out and achievements

Regional governance of food and nutrition security

• The Secretariat has launched a complete redesign of the RPCA website. This aims to enhance functionality, offer more robust analyses, and improve the site's overall navigation. It specifically involves overlaying maps from the Harmonised Framework and the mapping tool for food and nutrition security (FNS) and resilience development programmes and projects, as well as digitising all tools for a more comprehensive evaluation.

• A roadmap is being developed to enhance methodological tools for strengthening the regional governance of Food and Nutrition Security (FNS). Partially presented in the SPG meeting in June 2023, it is currently under final review (as of May 2024). Additionally, user guides are under preparation for improved data collection in multi-risk areas.

• SWAC, in collaboration with the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), implemented a system to monitor the impact of the war in Ukraine on food and nutrition security in West Africa. This work, carried out with the support of USAID, relied on the monitoring unit established around the Harmonised Framework Technical Committee (TC HF), which was set up as part of the response to the food crisis in 2020. The initiative involved creating a specialised technical team, revising data collection frameworks, developing report templates, organising regional workshops, and supporting data collection and analysis. Key activities throughout the year included compiling regional data, producing bi-monthly information notes on the effects of the war in Ukraine, and presenting findings at regional meetings and the 39th annual RPCA meeting. Monthly data

collected in the countries enabled the production of bi-monthly notes. These notes present the regional situation regarding the six monitored themes, including: (i) market functioning (agricultural and livestock); (ii) assessment of availability levels; (iii) the status of national and cross-border flows; (iv) food prices, particularly wheat, pasta, vegetable oil, imported rice; (v) fertiliser and hydrocarbon prices; and (vi) policies, strategies, and mitigation measures taken by the states. These information notes supported the implementation of mitigation measures in the countries. The measures include agricultural production policies aimed at stimulating agricultural production and food availability in the relevant countries, certain trade policies, fiscal policies and subsidies, price-fixing and control measures, and social awareness and communication measures.

Food systems transformations

• Developed an innovative dataset on intra-regional food trade, including corrected data on formal food trade flows (BACI), data oninformal foodtrade flows in the region (ECOICBT) and country-level survey data on informal food trade flows (Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Senegal). The ECO-ICBT data and national surveys on informal trade were cleaned, including the correction of missing values, removal of outliers and duplicates, and exclusion of non-food flows, to ensure the relevance and uniqueness of the recorded flows. They were also harmonised at the product level with the BACI data to obtain aggregated and comparable information, allowing an assessment of the overall intra-regional food trade. The data were also aligned with those of INFOODS, a division of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in terms of the caloric and nutritional content of foods to enable an analysis of nutritional trade flows. New analytical variables were created, notably the unit value of exchanged foods.

• Collected and processed data point estimates from the literature on regional food trade to serve as a comparison for formal/informal trade estimates.

• Prepared two models to estimate informal intra-regional food trade in the region – basic level modelling based on GDP growth and trade openness; advanced level modelling based on gravity and informal-formal trade data relationship.

2.2 Urbanisation, territories and the environment

The Secretariat has two data platforms that support the work on urbanisation dynamics, territorial transformations and climate resilience.

The Africapolis data platform provides policy makers, practitioners and researchers with original data, visualisations and insight into Africa's urban dynamics. It highlights the diversity and the scale of ongoing transformations, establishing a strong basis for the design of sustainable and inclusive urban and place-based development policies. It visualises the enormous territorial transformations driven rapid urbanisation and a growing population.

The Mapping Territorial Transformations in Africa (MAPTA) platform explores notably, transformative levers that can be activated to build more sustainable and resilient cities. The urgent threat of global warming and the lack of urban sustainable master plans makes it crucial for policy makers to have access to reliable and informative tools that can help them to define their policies and strategies. Utilising the platform's two unique indicators, users can track the urban form of African cities, as well as the provision of green spaces within urban areas. These indicators will be complemented by a tool that estimates the population's proximity to such green spaces.

Activities carried out and achievements

• SWAC launched the Africapolis update in the margins of the SPG meeting in June 2023. The revision incorporates new demographic data and updated spatial extents of all African agglomerations, including over 2 000 newly identified agglomerations. The new data showcases urban growth between 2015 and 2020, allowing for the first time direct spatial comparisons between urban agglomerations in these two dates. The data allows users to analyse key urban dynamics such as urban expansion and fusion of multiple urban agglomerations. The website was enriched with socio-economic data for 34 countries, extracted from the previous report Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics 2022. All new data, demographic and socio-economic, is now also available for 9 regional entities. The Africapolis website added new features, including a research section featuring SWAC and external contributions, in-depth country notes in French and English, improved map visualisations (19 downloadable postcards), newsletters, and additional interactive map layers (satellite and lightnights). The website also features a newly updated brochure. These improvements aimed at elevating user engagement through additional contents, improved navigation and social sharing. SWAC informed and contributed to the methodology in continuous exchange with E-Geopolis, checked data against existing literature and best practices, initiated data work to identify errors, and conducted a first set of analyses to understand where growth occurred by comparing expansion and densification, identifying cities most impacted by the phenomenon, and noting growing trends such as emerging urban clusters in East Africa.

• A module designed for the African Local Governments Academy of UCLGAfrica that explored the use of spatial data to better evaluate resilience inform land use policies and financing has been completed, with a pilot program successfully conducted in Marrakesh along with project partners Digital Earth Africa and Lincoln Land Institute. A condensed version of this module was presented at the Climate Chance Conference Africa 2023 (Yaoundé, Cameroon).

• Data and analyses to map accessibility and sustainability in African cities' transport systems, adopting a spatial and gendered approach. A pilot study was lead in Ghana, where iterative scenarios were modelled of Kumasi and Accra in collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. The scenarios focussed on potential accessibility and sustainability improvement options, with the process involving teams of Ghanaian researchers complemented by spatial and qualitative surveys, particularly to illustrate gender mobility patterns.

2.3 Security and borders

SWAC aims to provide policy makers, experts and researchers with interactive tools analysing the geography violence and the conflict life cycle to better address the security and development challenges of the region

The Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator (SCDi) maps the temporal and spatial evolution of political violence in North and West Africa since 1997. It divides the region into 6 540 cells of 50 by 50 km and analyses over 60 000 violent events from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) across 21 countries. Four conflict types are classified by i) their intensity and ii) their concentration. The SCDi was developed by the Club as part of its co-operation with the University of Florida’s Sahel Research Group.

Activities carried out and achievements

• The 'Mapping Territorial Transformations in Africa' (MAPTA) spatial platform is continuously updated with new content and data. It hosts the Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator (SCDi). Two new pivotal features were introduced: the identification of regions newly experiencing or exiting conflicts, offering a nuanced view of conflict dynamics, and an assessment of whether conditions in specific locations are deteriorating or improving. The evolution of the violence as well as gendered data on conflict were updated for 2023.

3 Prospective analyses: Understanding trends and anticipating

The analysis of collected data and information reveals insights into ongoing changes and crises, providing valuable input for regional public policies and guiding international strategies.

3.1 Food and nutrition issues

Activities carried out and achievements

Regional governance of food and nutrition security

• The "Methodological Guide for Conducting the Inclusive Country Diagnosis" was published in January 2023 as part of the operationalisation of the HumanitarianDevelopment-Peace (HDP) approach to better address the growing food and nutrition insecurity in the ECOWAS, UEMOA, CILSS region plus Cameroon. While some countries like Niger have already developed a national roadmap on the operationalisation of the HDP nexus, the project has been discontinued.

• The production of two policy briefs began in 2023, focusing on the HDP nexus. Publication is scheduled for 2024.

• Communication products on the HDP nexus, such as a dedicated page on the RPCA website, a video clip, and news alerts have been completed, although the "Maps & Facts" on the HDP-N are yet to be finalized.

• A report monitoring the implementation of the recommendations made by PREGEC was presented during the RPCA meeting in Praia in December 2023.

Food systems transformations

• Conducted an analysis on the cost and affordability of healthy diets in West Africa, in the light of ongoing food systems transformations. The findings were published in July 2023 in the report "Healthy diets, costs and food policies in the Sahel and West Africa" looking at the costs of healthy diets by products, and across countries in the region.

• Advanced a report analysing intra-regional food trade dynamics in West Africa. The report will provide a comprehensive look into the level and composition of intra-regional food trade, including unrecorded trade using innovative datasets. It will also focus on this trade’s role in ensuring food security and nutrition in the region and fostering development of its food economy. The report will also look into the coherence of food and agriculture trade policies in the region. Its launch is scheduled for September 2024, with a regional workshop/webinar planned to present and discuss results through a fruitful dialogue on the study's outcomes.

• Advanced a report analysing the current food and agriculture trade data environment in the region and highlighting gaps and implications for regional trade policies, with publication scheduled for 2024. This report will draw on the OECD/SWAC consultations with national statistical offices and other food and agriculture trade data experts in the region. The consultations include fact finding missions carried out in early 2023 and an experts’ meeting held in Paris in October 2023.

• Began an analysis of the private sector’s perceptions of constraints and opportunities for regional food trade. An approach note and a draft questionnaire were prepared to measure the perception of private sector players – including small scale formal and informal traders, medium and large-size food companies - on drivers, constraints, and outlook for food trade in the region. The survey will be rolled out during the second quarter of 2024. The data will be collected through online questionnaires and enumerators on the ground. Preliminary results will be discussed through regional stakeholder workshops to be held in late 2024.

• Began a note analysing spatial price and market heterogeneities in the region. Using data from CILSS and World Food Programme (WFP), the OECD/SWAC started analysing variation of food prices across territories and products in West Africa, with the aim to inform food prices monitoring systems and initiatives in the region, such as CILSS, WFP, or FEWSNET. This will feed into a West African note, due mid-2024, that will use an innovative indicator to situate price levels for targeted markets and food products. This will help contextualise price level analysis for these markets and products, while identifying areas that are perennially more expensive or cheaper than the rest of the region. The note will also investigate spatial drivers of price levels, for instance proximity to borders or production areas.

• Started a note analysing healthy diets and food environment transformations. The note, to be published in 2024, will review and improve the state of the knowledge diets and food environment transformations in West Africa. It will use the literature and available household survey data to highlight the rapid but uneven transformations in consumption patterns in the region towards more market-sourced, processed, and diversified foods, and how the unequal physical and economic access to food outlets shape these consumption patterns

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3.2 Urbanisation, territories and the environment

Activities carried out and achievements

• Began production of a report on the need to plan for urban expansion, in collaboration with UCLGA, Cities Alliance and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The team analysed newly available Africapolis data and produced city-wise projections for population and spatial growth of all urban agglomeration. The analyses carried out focused on the implication of the projected urban expansion for urban planning, governance and financing. The release of the report is planned for 2024.

• SWAC undertook an in-depth analysis of urban plans at a continental scale, identifying the challenges they face for managing urban growth. Existing analyses of urban plans in the continent are limited to plans for major cities. This analysis was instead carried out on agglomerations of all sizes and it’s the first of its kind for the scale and coverage (131 plans from 47 countries). The analysis directly feeds the report and will also shed light on the future joint analysis with the UEMOA Commission on secondary cities and urban and territorial management.

• Publication of four blogs on the Africapolis website which feature external researches that use Africapolis data. The blogs illustrate the advantages of using Africapolis and the various fields in which the database is used (health, education, gender equality, climate and environmental resilience). The blogs can be found at the following links: Mapping the Exposure of Urban and Rural Communities to Natural Hazards, Educational Gender Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa, Child Health Across the Rural-Urban Spectrum and Morphological Traits of Informality in Sub-Saharan African Cities

• A West African Paper entitled "City shapes and climate change in Africa” was published in September 2023. This report produced a set of ready-to-use indicators that evaluate how a city’s urban form (e.g., fragmentation, monocentricity, heights of cities’ skylines) impacts its resilience and sustainability.

• Publication of a blog on the 'Mapping Territorial Transformations in Africa' (MAPTA) spatial platform on green spaces as a nature-based salution to heat waves. This piece showcases the importance of distribution of green spaces with trees across the urban area, so they can effectively help to mitigate heat waves.

• A peer-reviewed open access publication, Scaling of the morphology of cities, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS that presents a methodology to better track African cities’ urban form and estimates future impacts on energy demand from transport

• A peer-reviewed open-access publication, Análise em escala continental de questões urbanas com base em dados abertos: espaços verdes, forma urbana e a futura sustentabilidade das cidades na África, which is a Portugese language publication that deeps dives into metrics for African cities to track resilience (e.g., urban form, green spaces).

• Co-signed the Feuille de route de Yaoundé pour un Habitat durable en Afrique, with UN Habitat, Climate Chance, ICLEI Africa, and Covennant of Mayors for Subsaharan Africa, amongst other signatories, which outlines a series of propositions to realise this major objective (Climate Chance summit, Yaoundé, Cameroon, October 23).

3.3 Security and borders

Activities carried out and achievements

• The West African Study on Urbanisation and Conflicts in North and West Africa highlights a significant rural focus of conflicts, disconnecting major urban centers from their surrounding areas and complicating movement and communication. This analysis (local, cross-border, and regional) was conducted in North and West Africa with comparative case studies including Libya, Lake Chad, and the Central Sahel. The majority of violent events are concentrated within 100 km of urban areas, indicating a strategic encirclement of cities. From 2021 to 2022, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Cameroon, and Niger were the most affected, with these countries accounting for the vast majority of violent incidents and fatalities, underscoring the need for targeted interventions in these regions.

• The MAPTA platform is continuously updated with new content, drawing on SWAC publications and spatial analysis, maps and graphics.

• Publication of four blogs on the 'Mapping Territorial Transformations in Africa' (MAPTA) spatial platform on The Boko Haram insurgency in Maiduguri, Conflict early warning systems, Jihadists threats on informal trade between Burkina Faso and Ghana and How far south will the Sahelian jihadists go.

4 Dialogue: Enhancing the Club's influence

The insights from our analyses continue to spark a dynamic and inclusive multi-stakeholder dialogue, closely aligned with the Club's Members, partners and the broader international development agenda.

Our goal has been to create conditions that link the evidence generated by the Club to decisionmaking processes by promoting spaces for dialogue and other dedicated tools. This approach not only enables the wider dissemination of the Club's findings, thus amplifying the "know-how," but also increases their "resonance," particularly in decision-making forums. All this contributes to strengthening the impact of the Club's contribution to the region's development challenges.

In addition to this, the dialogue and interactions with and among the Club's members have been strengthened. Several visits to members (ECOWAS, UEMOA, CILSS, Belgium, USA) by the Club's President have launched strategic discussions on the region's multifaceted challenges and the Club's strengthened contribution to finding solutions. The extraordinary SGP session held on 27 November 2023 was intended to establish a framework for regular consultations and dialogue between members on the region's development issues. It enabled the exchange of views on the multifaceted and interconnected crises shaking the region, adaptation strategies, and the Club's contribution.

4.1 Food and nutrition issues

Activities carried out and achievements

Regional governance of food and nutrition security

• The facilitation and animation of the Food Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA) continued, with a Restricted RPCA Meetings held in Paris from April 12-14, 2023, and the 39th Annual RPCA Meeting was also held in Praia (Cabo Verde). from December 5 - 8, 2023.

• The sessions of the high-level expert group of the Global Alliance for Resilience (SEGAGIR) have taken place during the Restricted RPCA meeting in April 2023 and the 39th Annual RPCA Meeting in December 2023

• Leadership Dialogue on Partnerships for Food Systems in the framework of the UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment. On July 26, 2023, in Rome, the SWAC Secretariat and the Global Network against Food Crises held a Leadership Dialogue as part of the UN Food Systems Summit +2 Stocktaking Moment. This event reviewed Sahel and West African countries' progress on their commitments from the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, emphasizing a continued commitment to tackling the root causes of food and nutrition crises through an integrated approach that aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger. The Secretariat supported the dialogue by providing policy briefs and analyses

• The SWAC Secretariat has bolstered regional civil society through training and the support of vigilance committees, focusing on monitoring the implementation of the PREGEC Charter. This initiative aims to improve civil society's role in monitoring food and nutrition security and supporting countries in assessing their governance in this area. Civil society's involvement is pivotal in policy dialogues across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Senegal, enhancing accountability and decision-making. Efforts include a monitoring matrix for the PREGEC Charter, workshops for Civil Society Organisations on food security tools, and participation in RPCA meetings. Moreover, the adoption of the C Gov SAN tool has advanced leadership assessments in food and nutrition, demonstrating significant progress in several countries.

• Participation in the PREGEC system meeting and related workshops in Bamako, from March 26-31 2023. Discussions covered the review and planning of the national response plans (PNR), operational challenges and methodologies linked to the 'Harmonised Framework' tool, etc.

• Attended workshop from May 15-16, 2023, in Dakar organized by the World Food Programme (WFP). Discussions centred on refining the Integrated Resilience and Nexus Program for the Sahel 2023-2028. SWAC co-facilitated sessions focused on operationalizing the humanitarian, development, and peace nexus and enhancing delivery models for inclusivity, sustainability, and scalability. Key highlights included SWAC's presentation on an online food security and nutrition resilience project mapping tool, which covers 3885 projects across 17 countries.

• Attended and facilitated a series of workshops in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from September 11-22, 2023, focused on Earth observation products and tools for civil society monitoring related to food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture These sessions discussed using earth observation technologies to enhance the credibility and inclusion in monitoring agricultural and pastoral campaigns, especially in regions with limited access.

• Co-facilitated a regional workshop in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from August 28-31, 2023, focused on the Humanitarian, Development, Peace Nexus (HDP Nexus). The workshop, aimed at revitalizing the operationalization process of the HDP Nexus among frontline security countries Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Mauritania gathered HDP Nexus focal points from these nations. Participants reviewed the implementation state of the nexus, shared best practices, faced challenges, and discussed regional technical support and resource mobilization for HDP Nexus activities.

• Participated in a training on the Enhancement of Analytical and Civic Monitoring Capacities for Food Security, Nutrition, and Sustainable Agriculture (SANAD) and Resilience Policies, held from September 18-21, 2023, in Bamako, Mali. Organized by the Network of Peasant Organizations and Agricultural Producers of Africa (ROPPA), the training aimed to deepen understanding of SANAD-R policies and enhance political analysis skills among participants. The event featured presentations and group discussions, focusing on methodologies, steps, and tools necessary for the civic monitoring of SANAD policies. Additionally, a side meeting of national civic and parliamentary watch committees was held to discuss responses to food crises and implement the PREGEC charter.

Food systems transformations

• To further strategic discussions on the transformations of food systems, three workshops have been or will be held. These include the RPCA Food Systems Transformations day during the RPCA meeting in Praia in December 2023, another RPCA Food Systems Transformations day planned for December 2024, and participation in the First

International Conference on Markets in West Africa organized by CILSS in July 2023. These events serve as technical and political platforms for advancing conversations on food system sustainability.

• A technical meeting with actors involved in the production of data on intra-regional agricultural trade was held in Paris on October 12-13, 2023. This expert meeting focused on discussing the intricacies of food trade data within West Africa, marking a significant step towards enhancing the understanding and management of agricultural trade in the region.

• Showcased our role as an international organisation in the context of food crises and our function as a platform for exchange on food security and nutritional issues at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Paris). The event also provided an opportunity to discuss our recent report titled Healthy diets, costs and food policies in the Sahel and West Africa.

• Actively contributed to the first expanded meeting of the Regional Market Taskforce, an effort initiated by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) under the Regional Market Access Program (PRA/Marchés) in Bamako, Mali in July 2023. The gathering, focused on finalizing the concept note and laying the groundwork of the Taskforce. It convened experts from CILSS, ECOWAS, SWAC, and other pivotal organisations, alongside emerging key players in market analysis within the region. A significant outcome of this meeting was the establishment of the Regional Agropastoral Market Observatory (ORMAP), designed to boost resilience against food and nutritional insecurity by fostering a deeper understanding of market dynamics. This joint initiative underscores a proactive and informed approach to navigating market trends, essential for ensuring the economic and food security of the region.

• Held consultations in West Africa with l’Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie (ANSD) of Senegal and l’Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques et Démographiques (INSEED) of Togo on food trade dynamics and informal trade challenges, and discussions with Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO) on external trade data reconciliation and informal trade measurement. Explored potential collaborations with Akademiya 2063 on a scorecard for regional trade policy implementation, discussed nutrition, food markets, and price monitoring with World Food Programme (WFP), and potential market analysis collaborations with Cheick Anta Diop University, focusing on the role of agro-food industries and institutional purchasing on prices.

• Contribution to the report "AGOA and the future of US-Africa trade" produced by the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center to provide recommendations for the future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) agreement.

• Keynote speech at the Research for nutrition conference 2023 in November 2023, organised by Action Against Hunger (AAH).

• Presentation on Youth Employment in Food Systems at of the FAO Sub-Regional Office Multidisciplinary Team for West Africa annual meeting from March 7-9, 2023.

• Participated in a workshop in Niamey (Niger) on February 27-28, 2023, to discuss the development of a sustainability strategy for Agricultural and Livestock Market Information Systems, focusing on addressing market failures due to incomplete and asymmetric information among actors.

• Pursued its collaboration with the World Food Programme. As part of this joint effort, SWAC has offered insights on a WFP report on macro drivers of food insecurity; and WFP has shared data on prices and markets in the West Africa, informing SWAC analyses.

• Contributed to conversations in the West African Regional Markets Training in Abuja, June 2023. Organised by the Famine Early Warnings Systems Network (FEWSNET), this event facilitated critical discussions on food price and market analysis and intra-regional trade.

• Supported ECOWAS’ efforts to facilitate intra-regional trade as part of the GIZ-funded ECOWAS Agricultural Trade (EAT) project. Additionally, SWAC continued to offer support and input to inform the ECOWAS Agriculture Trade and Market Scorecard Task Force.

4.2 Urbanisation, territories and the environment

Activities carried out and achievements

• The Africapolis update launch event in June 2023 featured a comprehensive agenda with insightful discussions led by Luc Gnacadja, former Minister of Environment, Housing, and Urban Planning of Benin, and representatives from major organisations such as UEMOA, CILSS, UCLGA, AFD (France), GIZ (Germany), and SDC (Switzerland). Highlighting the session, the SWAC and E-Geopolis teams presented the latest findings on urban growth, drawing attention to the dynamic urbanisation patterns across the continent.

• The Secretariat attended the Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on the validation of the report "State of Urbanisation in Africa," organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The event, which featured prominent figures such as Mr. Sweta Saxena, Chief of Staff and Acting Director of the Gender, Poverty, and Social Policy Division (GPSPD) of UNECA, and Mr. Jalal Abdel-Latif, Acting Chief of the Urban Development Section, served as a framework for in-depth discussions on urbanisation trends, socio-economic measurement tools, urban conflicts, and future research agendas.

• The Secretariat welcomed a delegation from UEMOA on October 27- 28, 2023. The aim was to explore broader collaboration opportunities in collaboration with the Secretariat’s Territories and Environment team.

• Engaged in a significant forum with GRDR (migration-citizenship-development), an international association with strong presence in West Africa for the support of decentralisation and cross border cooperation policies, highlighting the urbanisation dynamics in West Africa, particularly focusing on intermediary cities like Bakel, Kaédi, and Kayes. The forum provided an opportunity to discuss urbanisation trends and the unique challenges and opportunities these cities face. It served as an essential platform for exchanging ideas, learning from on-the-ground realities, and interacting with key stakeholders from Africa's burgeoning urban areas. Additionally, the collaboration with GRDR, a key partner in addressing food systems, migration, and urbanisation, was strengthened, showcasing our joint efforts in exploring food environments, as seen in the invitation to GRDR to present at the RPCA meeting in Praia.

• Presented Africapolis at various events throughout 2023, including a collaborative exchange series with the World Bank Group on Africa's Urbanisation Dynamics, the Africa Logistics Conference in Dakar, at Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI) on secondary cities and Club’s take on this topic and a conference at Sciences Po Paris on urban revolutions in Africa.

• Hosted virtual seminars with the World Bank and African Development Bank discussing the economic power of Africa's cities.

• Participated in the pilot program on city resilience data in Marrakesh, Morocco, in partnership with the OECD and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

• Contributed to the Land and Carbon Lab Summit in Brussels, Belgium, focusing on guiding urban growth for risk management and resilience enhancement. The Club was invited by the World Resources Institute.

• SWAC hosted a technical session on urban projections and the use of satellite data to track urban spatial growth in June 2023. The conversation enriched the background information for the 2050 urban projections which will be featured in the Africa’s Urbanisation Dynamics 2024 report. Experts in the fild attended the event, starting from our partner E-Geopolis and external researchers from UNECA, the FAO, World Bank, WorldPop (Southampton University, UK), the Urban Expansion Observatory (India), University of Twente (The Netherlands), World Resource Institute (USA), German Aerospace Center (DLR). Three other technical sessions will be organised in 2024.

• Participated in the 8th Africa Logistics Conference focusing on humanitarian supply chain operations, where SWAC presented on urban supply chains and discussed the role of data in improving operations.

• SWAC facilitated a significant discussion at the OECD Virtual Pavilion during COP28, focusing on urban mobility and its crucial role in sustainable development and climate response in African cities (November 2023). Collaborating with the University of Ghana and Accra city officials, International Transport Forum (ITF), SWAC delved into enhancing the sustainability and accessibility of transport in Accra and Kumasi, incorporating a gender perspective.The event, with over 150 attendees, 40% of whom were from Africa, underscored innovative strategies for creating a more sustainable, inclusive, and accessible transportation framework in African urban centers.

• In collaboration with Digital Earth Africa and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a pilot training programme was conducted as part of the African Local Governments Academy (hosted by UCLG Africa). Entitled "Using Data to diagnose Cities’ Resilience and inform Landbased policy and financing", the program aimed to enhance participants' proficiency in online data analysis for more effective resilience assessments. The program focused on several open-source geospatial tools, including MAPTA and Africapolis, developed by SWAC in the fields of urbanisation and climate. Modules from these sessions are expected to be integrated into the next curriculum of the Executive Master in Management of African Cities at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco, particularly targeting local African actors and other experts. This integration is part of promoting a more contextualized approach to issues for defining both local and national policies.

• The SWAC Secretariat presented a condensed version of this programme at the Climate Chance Summit 2023 held in Yaoundé, Cameroon on 24 October, 2023. In addition to its session about data for resilience, SWAC presented its analysis of urban transport systems in Ghana in a panel discussion. The Summit gathered over 600 high-level personalities from the African climate community - experts, actors in the field, representatives of local governments, businesses, and organised civil society- to discuss climate change and responses in Africa. The Secretariat, a key partner of the conference, contributed alongside UN-Habitat, ICLEI Africa, and UCLG Africa to the Feuille de Route de Yaoundé pour un habitat durable en Afrique presented at COP28.

• Participated in the International Transport Forum Summit in May 2023 – Transport Enabling Stable Economies, and co-organised a panel with TUMI/GIZ on filling in the data gap for women’s mobility in African cities, which included panellists such as the former Minister of Environment from Benin and the Head of National Planning Agency in Uganda - Accessible and sustainable transport systems in African cities for all: Filling in the data gap - ITF 2023 Summit (itf-oecd.org)

• Moderated a panel at an Accessibility and Mobility Workshop hosted by the CFE Directorate at the OECD on Accessibility in Transport in October 2023 to share cross-country experiences

• Moderation of two sessions at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, focusing on digital twins and the feasibility of net-zero infrastructure in November 2023. Discussions highlighted the critical role of digital tools in urban management and the challenges and possibilities in achieving net-zero infrastructure, emphasizing local materials to reduce carbon levels.

• Supported the World Bank's Abidjan-Lagos Trade and Transport Facilitation Project (ALTTFP) by contributing data on urban form and green spaces and engaging with the team. This project works to reduce trade and transport barriers across roads in Ghana, Benin, and Togo.

• Actively contributed to a series of meetings as part of the continued collaboration with World Health Organisation and ETH Zurich on designing effective policies to tackle air pollution in African cities, however, the key outputs for this will only be available at the end of 2024, early 2025.

4.3 Security and borders

Activities carried out and achievements

• SWAC actively participated in the 12th and 13th meetings of the Special Envoys for the Sahel, held in April and October 2023, respectively. This dialogue platform offers opportunities for exchange on issues related to resilience, economic growth, and security challenges in the Sahel. In both meetings, SWAC moderated a session and made presentations.

• SWAC was formally acknowledged as the "knowledge pillar" of the Coalition for the Sahel. A letter from the Coalition’s High Representative Hamadi Meimou highlighted the Club’s role and the value of its analytical tools, developed in collaboration with partners, for tackling long-term challenges in the Sahel. The Coalition Sahel and SWAC hosted a seminar on "Urbanisation and Conflicts in North and West Africa" during the 9th Contact Group meeting, featuring a presentation on MAPTA and the SCDi. Highlights included a keynote the World Bank, a presentation by on civilian-jihadist interactions in Mali and Niger, and discussions on regional cooperation and the Sahel's deteriorating human security.

• SWAC presented the Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator (SCDi) at a meeting with the Partnership for Security and Stability in the Sahel (P3S), exploring its potential to enhance EU security and development strategies in the Sahel. Discussions included integrating SCDi with food security and spatial analyses to better understand conflict dynamics. The MAPTA platform was also introduced as a tool for assessing West Africa's vulnerabilities.

• Participated in an EU info-point conference organised by the DG International Partnerships, to launch and present the key findings of the report: Urbanisation and Conflict in North and West Africa. SWAC also presented its MAPTA platform, showcasing its data and spatial analysis to inform policy making.

• Participated in UNDP’s Africa borderlands data forum with data producers, innovators, users, scientists, and policy makers to jointly discuss the data ecosystem of Africa’s borderlands and identify data gaps. SWAC presented its data and spatial analysis compiled via its MAPTA platform to inform the discussions.

4.4 Dialogues and other services for members

• SWAC attended the Swiss Ambassadors' Conference in West Africa in Abidjan, invited for a strategic session on regional challenges. A presentation was made on urbanisation, demographics, and security in the Sahel and West Africa, highlighting the impact of rapid population growth and the importance of urban development for stability. Discussions confirmed the need for prospective data and analysis including a multiscalar dimension and more integrated policies.

• WATHIxSWAC: https://www.wathi.org/conversations-avenir-sahel-et-afrique-de-louest/ In partnership with the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC), the citizen Think Tank WATHI, initiated discussions on the future of the Sahel and West Africa. This project continues the efforts of the "Sahelian Consultations" carried out by SWAC in 2021, which provided a forum for open dialogue among individuals in the region who consider the complex equation of development, governance, and stability. By involving stakeholders from civil society, academia, professional organisations, think tanks, and reflection groups, these Consultations aim to foster new approaches to the development and implementation of public policies in the Sahel. In 2023, four discussions were organised:

o Quelles perspectives politiques et sécuritaires au Sahel en 2023?

o Priorités, valeurs et engagement des jeunes au Sahel

o Renforcer, réformer ou réinventer l'État au Sahel

o Sécurité alimentaire au Sahel et en Afrique de l’Ouest : Où en est-on réellement ?

• RDV du Club: https://www.oecd.org/swac/about/events/. The Secretariat launched a cycle of informal and exclusive discussions with the Club's Members and partners. This new informative and special framework makes it possible to share the Secretariat's work and to bring other relevant perspectives on the region to the attention of Members. In 2023, an edition of the RDV du Club series was an opportunity to present our work on environments issues with a session called : “From the Global Adaptation Summit to COP 28: Insights into African Cities” .

5 Gender

SWAC has significantly intensified its focus on gender issues in recent years. Considerable progress was made during the 2021-22 biennium, during which the Club saw a doubling of gender-sensitive publications and analyses, a 38% increase in dialogue events and advocacy tools centred on women and gender issues, a 25% rise in female participation at Secretariatorganized meetings, and a 64% increase in new female contacts for the SWAC's mailing list, which itself grew by 34%. As SWAC continues to implement its gender mainstreaming strategy, its efforts are gaining momentum. Just one year into the current biennium, the Club's initiatives focused on women and gender-centred dialogue and advocacy tools have seen a notable 9% increase compared to initiatives in the previous two-year period.

Activities carried out and achievements

• Eight episodes produced within the “Women leading change" podcast series. This series, moderated by two West African journalists, tells the stories of women as civil society actors, activists, authors, leaders, youth representatives, traders and entrepreneurs in the Sahel and West Africa. It highlights their outstanding work within local communities and their important contributions to advancing gender equality. These conversations also aim to better connect the Sahel and West Africa Club’s evidence-based analysis with civil society advocacy and action through dialogue and knowledge exchange. More to follow in 2024.

• Participation in the UN Women conference titled "Adapting the women, peace, and security agenda to the changing context of the Sahel: Rethinking and readjusting approaches" from May 3-5, 2023. The goal was to explore strategies to bolster women's civilian roles in promoting peace and stability in the Sahel, amid various security challenges like violent extremism, community conflicts, climate change, and governance issues. The conference sought to enhance understanding of the conflict dynamics, share effective practices from women's peace initiatives, and foster greater support from national, regional, and international actors for these initiatives.

• Applied a gender lens to forthcoming papers “Accessibility for all to unlock sustainability : a gendered approach” and “Shaping Expanding Cities for Accessible Transport: Proximity and Road Networks”. This work recognises how different segments of society experience mobility in different ways. In particular, it focuses on how mobility patterns differ and are influenced by gender and income in Accra and Kumasi.

• Participated in the 2023 ITF Summit on Transport Enabling Sustainable Economies in Leipzig, Germany, where we hosted a side event with GIZ/TUMI on accessible and sustainable transport systems in African cities, focusing on gender-sensitive data methodologies. Our presentation on the collaborative project for gender-inclusive transport in Accra and Kumasi was followed by GIZ’s insights on data collection and a panel discussion with experts from WRI Africa, Uganda, Kenya, and Benin. The event aimed to disseminate project information, foster connections with GIZ/TUMI, and build relationships with local stakeholders.

6 Monitoring and Evaluation: A first glance

6.1 Approach and process

In 2020, the Secretariat began to build its capacity in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), working to design a strategy that met the expectations of Members whilst being compatible with the OECD’s results-based management framework and achievable within . This collective exercise culminated in the implementation of MEL plans to better assess the influence of the SWAC’s work.

Since 2020, the Secretariat has significantly strengthened its capacity for monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL), aiming to design a strategy that meets members' expectations while being compatible with the OECD's results-based management framework and achievable within the allotted timeframe. This collective exercise resulted in the implementation of MEL plans to better assess the effects and impact of SWAC's work.

As set out in the 2023-24 Programme of Work and Budget, the SWAC Secretariat has implemented a comprehensive MEL framework to assess the reach, relevance, and impact of SWAC's work. Utilising a variety of innovative solutions, SWAC's MEL infrastructure is designed to be a lasting pillar of the Club, evaluating and informing SWAC's development for years to come.

SWAC's MEL frameworkcan be separated into two main categories: output indicators and impact indicators.

Output indicators set out the publications, events, communications products, and so on, to be published or organised throughout the biennium. As SWAC outputs are influenced by changing variables, such as developments in the region, funding, and collaborations, these indicators are expected to be adjusted for each PWB.

Impact indicators measure SWAC's influence in the long term. They are designed to track developments across several biennia, supporting the Club's continuous efforts of self-evaluation, and allowing Members and partners to consider the Club's developments over time.

6.2 Preliminary findings of the 2023-24 biennium

At the half-way mark of the biennium, the SWAC Secretariat has conducted a preliminary monitoring and evaluation analysis of the 91 indicators set out across the 2023-24 Programme of Work and Budget.

Output indicators

Circa 30% of SWAC’s output indicators have been completed at year-end 2023. The remaining indicators are completed in part; meaning that some but not all of the indicators’ activities have been completed, or ongoing; meaning that they are scheduled to be completed in 2024.

Perception and use of the Club's work:

SWAC's impact indicators are evaluated continuously. By employing a diverse range of innovative methods, the Secretariat grows its comprehension of the Club's influence. Below are some examples of how the Secretariat has analysed its qualitative impact indicators:

Unlocking the real-life utility of Africapolis data

In 2022, the Secretariat implemented a comprehensive structure to monitor the utilisation of Africapolis data. By requesting information when users download the platform's datasets, SWAC collected information about the locations, sectors, and purposes of its users, and therefore, of Africapolis’ impact.

Out of over 3,000 downloads of the dataset in 2023, 545 users opted to provide SWAC with information. This subset of Africapolis users has provided SWAC with valuable insights into the platform's utility.

Where was Africapolis downloaded?

• Africapolis data was downloaded to at least 71 different countries.

• Africapolis data was most frequently downloaded in France, the United States of America, and Senegal

Figure 1 - Status report of SWAC's outputs indicators from the 2023-24 PWB

Figure 2 - Locations where Africapolis data was downloaded in 2023

In which sectors was Africapolis data used?

• 29% of Africapolis users represent universities, research centres, or think tanks.

• 22% of Africapolis users represent international organisations and assemblages.

• 19% of Africapolis users represent private companies and initiatives, including consulting firms.

The successful mapping of Africapolis’ impact has inspired a campaign to extend this analysis to other SWAC workstreams. Through these concerted efforts, the Secretariat can harness the full potential of its activities, ensuring its data production and analysis has a broad and comprehensive reach.

Surveying SWAC: assessing the Club’s reach and relevance

In March 2024, the SWAC Secretariat conducted a survey of its Members, partners, and other stakeholders. Covering a wide range of topics, this survey provided a detailed assessment of the Secretariat’s performance and influence. Yielding 82 responses from a remarkable 22 countries, its positive reception demonstrates that SWAC’s MEL efforts are of value to its network. The feedback gained from this annual exercise will inform and influence the Club's conduct, enabling it to maximise its relevance, utility, and influence.

The survey had a response rate of 8% across of 978 targets, which in statistical terms allows us to attribute a confidence level of 95% with a margin of error of 10% to the questions all respondents answered. Thanks to the responses provided, SWAC has identified some core takeaways.

SWAC work improves awareness and understanding

Respondents overwhelmingly agree that the Club is successfully playing the role its mandate requires – acting as an “instrument of monitoring and prospective analyses”for the region. Across 18 key thematic areas assessed in this survey, an average of 85% of respondents indicate that SWAC's data and analyses strongly (40%) or somewhat (45%) improve their awareness and/or understanding of each topic.

Figure 3 - Has SWAC data and analyses improved your awareness and/or understanding of issues related to […]?

Improving the awareness of SWAC’s work

In order for SWAC’ work to achieve the maximum possible impact, Members, partners and other stakeholders must be aware of its work. This survey helped SWAC identify thematic areas that of its work that stakeholders are not yet aware of. This crucial information allows the Club to adapt its dissemination and communication practices, ensuring its work reaches the relevant audiences – it also allows us to monitor the evolution of awareness of specific topics. The chart reinforces the idea that SWAC needs to continue to increase the awareness around some of its more recently developed work such as security amongst its wider target audience.

Figure 4 - Areas of SWAC work that relevant target groups are most and least aware of

Key insights

• 100% of Members and partners from the Sahel and West Africa find SWAC data and analyses to improve their awareness and/or understanding of issues related to food crises prevention and management.

• West African Papers and interactive spatial tools are the most useful products according to target groups working with urbanisation and climate.

• The relevant target group indicates that SWAC outputs have a strong (45%) or some (45%) influence on their data production, analyses, and research on issues related to security and borders.

• 96% of SWAC Members, partners and stakeholders find SWAC’s work on gender to be useful.

In 2025, the Secretariat will release a comprehensive MEL analysis of its work in the 2023-24 biennium. The report will include a comprehensive comparison of findings from this survey and its corresponding poll in 2025 as we begin to track our performance over time, serving to enhance performance, efficiency and provide invaluable insights into SWAC's evolving impact.

6.3 Testimonials on the usefulness of SWAC's work results

From data to development: MAVIL's use of Africapolis

Africa is urbanising at a pace never seen in the world before, with the continent expected to welcome 900 million new urban inhabitants by 2050. Such levels of urbanisation present a major challenge but also a multitude of opportunities, including economic growth and improvement of living standards. In order to unleash this potential, policy makers need to be able to monitor, analyse and accompany the urbanisation process, employing available resources and innovative methods to build cities that are resilient, inclusive, and attractive to inhabitants.

SWAC’s Africapolis database acts as a backbone to this urban transition process, with just one example of its use being conducted by Maitrise et Adaptation des Villes Intermédiaires au Sahel (MAVIL). MAVIL, developed by SWAC's long-standing partner GRDR, supports the urban transition of intermediate cities in the middle Senegal River Valley.

Currently in its pilot stage, MAVIL is designed to support SDG 11 and provide support to five agglomerations and three cities (Kayes, Mali; Kaédi, Mauritania; and Bakel, Senegal), all with poor access to comprehensive or up-to-date urban data, in becoming more inclusive and sustainable - enabling them to better deliver urban services.

Armed with Africapolis data, MAVIL was able to deliver urban growth projections for their covered agglomerations, estimating their urban populations in 2040 and empowering local governments to anticipate and facilitate urban growth. Strategically designing cities according to principles of accessibility, sustainability, and protection of human rights, local actors are supporting the social and economic well-being of West African urban populations.

At the invitation of GRDR, SWAC has since been able to contribute to MAVIL's forum “What trajectories for the cities of the Senegal River?”. Meeting with esteemed colleagues, partners, and stakeholders, including the Mayor of Kayes, it is always a pleasure to see SWAC data in action, as we learned of new and innovative ways local actors are working to build sustainable and welcoming cities across the middle Senegal River Valley – using Africapolis.

« Africapolis data enables me to monitor demographic trends in intermediate towns in West Africa, where there is very little in the way of up-to-date data systems… The data has formed the basis for a number of studies carried out as part of the MAVIL programme run by GRDR in the Middle Valley of the Senegal River: urban diagnosis, sampling for surveys, mapping of urban networks, measurement of urban sprawl, etc. In turn, these studies are helping to raise awareness among the players involved in the project of the challenges facing these areas, which represent the future of urban development on the continent. ».

Léo Brenet, Urban Study and Territorial Officer, GRDR, April 2024

Enhancing local utilisation of data to boost resilience and sustainability

In May 2023, SWAC partnered with United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa) and the Lincoln Land Policy Institute to organise the training program “Using Data to diagnose Cities’ Resilience and inform Land-based policy and financing”.

Spatial data is an indispensable tool for resilient and sustainable urban development, allowing local authorities to anticipate, monitor and plan for the future. Geospatial tools like SWAC’s MAPTA and Africapolis platforms have great benefits to government officials and other stakeholders working in the fields of climate and urban planning.

Encouraging local use of spatial data and tools, SWAC’s two-day course targeted 26 stakeholders from 7 African countries. Building awareness and practical skills, this course equipped participants with the necessary knowledge to diagnose resilience, risk, and sustainability using available data resources. Urban planners, technical directors, architects, and others left the course with enhanced capacity to integrate spatial data into their work.

Initiatives like these not only empower local stakeholders, but also pave the way for more resilient and sustainable urban development across Africa. The impact of this program was underscored by the overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants; 87% expressed satisfaction with the course’s contents and 93% indicated that the training met their expectations and concerns.

Figure 5 - How would you evaluate the quality of the content presented in the training module?

This course represents one of SWAC’s efforts to enhance local data capacities. In October 2023, SWAC presented a tailored version of this programme at the Climate Chance Conference Africa in Yaoundé, Cameroon. A similar training will be conducted with the UEMOA in June 2024. Additionally, advancing its partnership with UCLG Africa, SWAC will hold a 5-day training for territorial managers in December 2024. Through these endeavours, SWAC fulfils its mandate of providing reliable data and supporting urban knowledge, working towards data-driven and placebased urban policies.

7 Our publications / products

7.1 West African Studies

• Urbanisation and Conflicts in North and West Africa

North and West Africa are undergoing rapid urbanisation. While cities and urban areas have always been sites of conflict, given their political and economic importance, many insurgencies, rebellions and separatist movements are associated with rural areas. Has increased urbanisation led to increased conflict in cities or do conflicts stay predominantly rural? Combining a regional and local perspective, this report examines and maps the rural-urban geography of conflict in North and West Africa since the late 1990s. A qualitative analysis of ten cities helps to illuminate the local sources of conflict. At a time of increasing violence in West Africa, the report lays out a solid foundation for policy makers, experts and researchers to develop more security and development place-based policies.

7.2 West African Papers

• Socio-economic Impact and Political Environment on Food and Nutrition Security in the Sahel and West Africa

The secretariat has prepared an analytical note to contribute to the Cadre Harmonisé analyses and discussion. This paper looked at the implications that global and regional environmental, socio-political determinants have on the food and nutrition security in the Sahel and West Africa region.

• Healthy diets, costs and food policies in the Sahel and West Africa

The Sahel and West Africa region is facing a serious food and nutrition security crisis with high rates of acute malnutrition, combined with high rates of malnourishment and over-nourishment –the “triple burden of malnutrition”. Poor-quality diets are the root of all forms of malnutrition, as well as common non-communicable diseases, and are responsible for an estimated one in five adult deaths globally. The high cost of food is a key barrier to accessing a healthy diet. Even before the recent global inflation in food prices, West Africa’s food prices were 30%-40% higher than other regions in the world of comparable income levels. The paper analyses the costs of healthy diets in 17 countries in the Sahel and West Africa and which food groups drive up costs. The observed high cross-country variability in costs and cost composition points to a need for more targeted and nutrition-sensitive food system policies as well as the need to invest in better food price data and monitoring capacities.

• City shapes and climate change in Africa

Africa is undergoing an unprecedented urban and climate transition; yet, given the right conditions, compact urban forms can encourage greater sustainability, resilience and liveability in the coming decades. Using novel techniques and newly available data, this report fills in existing data gaps by producing measures of compactness for 5 625 urban agglomerations,

along with other urban form attributes. Even though urbanisation is often unplanned and uncoordinated, a promising trend has emerged: very large cities (of over 4 million inhabitants) are more compact, discounting the population effect, on average, than larger (1 million to 4 million inhabitants) and intermediate cities (50 000 to 1 million inhabitants). Moreover, less compact agglomerations tend to have smaller buildings, flat, low skylines, less built-up centres (reflecting a less optimal use of space) and polycentric patterns (i.e., multiple centres, rather than a single, monocentric city). This report analyses the consequences of less compact agglomerations for sustainability and liveability. The disadvantages include higher energy demand, less accessibility to services and opportunities, less walkable urban landscapes and greater car dependency, in addition to higher outdoor air pollution. It also considers the potential trade-offs with resilience; for example, compactness can lead to a loss of green space and an increase of urban heat island effects. The report offers opportunities in the coming years to single out potential areas of action for resilience, as well as for monitoring and evaluating progress.

7.3 Maps & Facts

• No. 118, Better data and monitoring of food prices are needed in West Africa

• No. 117, Cost and affordability of healthy diets in West Africa

• No. 116, Rising cereal prices complicate the food equation in the Sahel and West Africa

• No. 115, A persistent food and nutrition crisis spreads from the Sahel to the Gulf of Guinea

• No. 114, The security crisis in the Sahel is disrupting market operations

• No. 113, Declining supplies and soaring fertiliser prices

• No. 112, Gender-sensitive tools for food crisis prevention and management

7.4 Policy brief

• Release of a policy brief (NAD) in April 2023

7.5 Brochures

• The geography of conflict in North and West Africa

• Conflict networks in North and West Africa

• Urbanisation and conflicts in North and West Africa

• Borders and conflicts in North and West Africa

• City Shapes and Climate Change in Africa

7.6 Podcasts

• Women Leading Change: Dr Victoria Daaor

• Women Leading Change: Mariam Diallo Drame

• Women Leading Change: Somachi Chris-Asoluka

• Women Leading Change: Edith Efua Chidi

• Women Leading Change: Maimouna Ndoye

• Women Leading Change: Ornella Moderan

• Women Leading Change: Seynabou Dia Sall

• Women Leading Change: Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim

Communications and visibility

SWAC online presence:

282,000 total page views

Details:

SWAC: 93,000

RPCA: 123,000

Maps Library: 26,000

Africapolis: 40,400

Social Media:

Twitter: 5,790 followers

Facebook: 1,700 followers

LinkedIn: 2,930 followers

In the media

SWAC publications:

91,800 total downloads

Details: West African Studies: 74,400

West African Papers: 17,400

News Alerts:

6,078 subscribers 20 issues published

• Measuring 6,000 African cities: Double the population means triple the energy costs, Phys.org, February 27, 2023

• The growth of Africa’s towns and small cities is transforming the continent, The Economist, March 9, 2023

• Violence is predominantly rural in North and West Africa, media advisory, SWAC/OECD, March 21, 2023

• Nigeria será el tercer país más poblado del mundo. Hoy su gobierno no sabe ni cuántos son exactamente, Xataca, April 24, 2023

• Africa Drives Global Urbanization, All Africa/DW, May 17, 2023

• „Sie sind Klimarisiken stärker ausgesetzt" Wie die Urbanisierung Afrika überrollt, Focus.de, May 19, 2023

• "Africa123" guardando al futuro”, L’Osservatore Romano, June 16, 2023

• Urbanisation : 279 agglomérations créées dans l'espace UEMOA entre 2015 et 2020 selon l’OCDE, Fratmat.info (Côte d'Ivoire), June 22, 2023

• Urban centres boom as rapid urbanisation redefines the urban geography of Africa, press release, SWAC/OECD, June 26, 2023

• Urbanisation africaine : une opportunité économique encore mal exploitée, Les Échos, June 27, 2023

• Il 50 per cento del territorio africano è ormai urbanizzato, africarivista.it, July 1, 2023

• La fiebre de las nuevas ciudades africanas, El País, September 18, 2023

• En Afrique, la ville s'étend entre anarchie et développement, le Monde, October 8, 2023

• COP28: In Dubai, the OECD calls for "reimagining transport in African cities, Afrik 21, December 4, 2023

• Afrique de l'Ouest : l'évaluation de l'insécurité alimentaire, TV5 Monde, December 17, 2023

• C’est quoi une ville intermédiaire ? (podcast), AIN, Africa Innovation Network, December 27, 2023

• Sustainable cities: how private sector players are gearing up, PROPARCO-Groupe AFD, December, 2023

• Conflitos, aumento do preço dos cereais e clima entre factores que agravam situação alimentar na África Ocidental e na região do Sahel - Balai , Balai Cabo Verde, December 5, 2023

• Cabo Verde partilha “boa experiência” em matéria de prevenção e respostas às crises como estratégia de segurança alimentar - Balai , Balai Cabo Verde, December 5 , 2023

• 34,7 milhões de pessoas enfrentam crise alimentar na região do Sahell e Africa OcidentalYouTube , RTC - Rádio Televisão Cabo-v , December 4 , 2023

• PM defende medidas imediatas e concretas para inverter quadro “preocupante” de insegurança alimentar na região africana (expressodasilhas.cv), Expressodasilhas, December 5 , 2023

• Primeiro Ministro enaltece a importância da Rede de Prevenção das Crises Alimentares africana - Governo de Cabo Verde , Governo, December 6 , 2023

• Les Nations Unies et les Organisations intergouvernementales en Afrique de l’Ouest conjuguent leurs efforts pour le développement durable de la sous-région – Africa Guinee, Africaguinee, June 22, 2023

• Senegal tackling post-harvest losses for food security | APAnews - African Press Agency,APA News, November 10, 2023

• Inflation driving 64 million Nigerians into food crisis – World Bank (punchng.com), Punchng, May 20 , 2023

• Africa needs regulatory overhaul for food security: Fan Milk - The Africa Report.com, The Africa Report, June 13, 2023

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