West and Central Africa Transhumance Response Plan 2022

Regional Plan
Last updated: December 22 2021
Funding updated: April 02 2023
$30,600,000
Funding required
3,000,000
People Targeted

IOM Vision

With climate change impacting the route and calendars of nomadic herders throughout Western and Central Africa, imposing upon all stakeholders the need to ensure peaceful cohabitation between all groups and reduce the risk of violence and forced displacement due to competition over access natural sources, IOM aims to continue to support, at the local level, its Member States to develop early alert mechanisms and to reinforce local conflict mitigation strategies to pre-empt the risk of conflicts associated with herds movements, and, at the regional level, ECOWAS, its Member States, the Regional Herders Network and its national members, promoting multilateralism by ensuring that ECOWAS remains the forum where international transhumance is managed in a harmonized way.

Objective 2 - Driving solutions to displacement
Objective
Driving solutions to displacement

$24,000,000
Funding required
2,400,000
People Targeted
67
Entities Targeted
Internal migrant, Internally displaced person, International migrant, Local population / community
Primary target groups
Description of People and Entities Targeted

IOM will target internally displaced persons (IDPs) farmers and nomadic herders and their communities that can be at risk of disrupted social cohesion and conflicts induced by transhumance movements in at-risk zones along north-south movement corridors, in particular in border regions. In addition IOM will target relevant entities, including 13 regional and national pastoral organizations. Activities will also benefit 54 local authorities.

Funding confirmed 16%
84% Funding gap

Community stabilization

IOM applies its substantial experience in community stabilization along at-risk zones, as defined by the Transhumance Tracking Tool, to work with local governance structures in communities regularly affected by transhumant movements to define conflict mitigation and resolutions methods. IOM contributes to build the capacity of representatives from the above entities to establish or strengthen inclusive, transparent and accountable decision-making processes. The decisions that are taken within the various fora supported by IOM to improve a service benefit a larger number of users; being local or temporarily stationing or crossing the area. The way the activities are carried out will impact the perception of relegation among the various groups, thus contributing to a greater social cohesion and stability. IOM’s programmes in eleven targeted countries (Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea and Sierra Leone) shall include the following activities: 

  • Linking local authorities, line ministries and civil society to implement local solutions, including the establishment of mixed communities at borders that include all concerned authorities, leaders and groups of herders. Such activities ensure the inclusion of nomadic population into local community structures;
  • Supporting the resolution of potential land tenure issues, through local negotiations and the formalization of traditional tenure in a transparent and participatory manner. This will enable securing pastoral space that has been shrinking due to land grabbing, decentralization and urban development;
  • Rehabilitating community infrastructure to cater for the passage or the temporary station of herds (transhumant corridors, water points, markets, etc.).

IOM promotes participatory local decision-making processes to define priority actions while supporting relevant line ministries to respond directly to communities, who may otherwise be aggrieved, in the prioritization process.

Funding required
$18,000,000
Funding confirmed
$177,095
Last updated: 02 Apr 2023
Plan types

Peacebuilding and peace preservation

To promote peace in the region in a context of transhumance, IOM will support the transitioning of groups out of conflict and provide support to community reconciliation processes as well as seek to mitigate the drivers of conflict. Interventions will include:

  • Empowering local conflict mitigation mechanisms and supporting conflict resolution processes between herders and farmers along transhumance corridors.
  • Supporting participatory local decision-making processes to define priority activities and infrastructures that contribute to conflict mitigation or resolution, notably through protection mainstreaming and inclusion of marginalized voices/groups in peacebuilding activities.
  • Accompanying relevant line ministries to support communities out of conflict.
Funding required
$6,000,000
Funding confirmed
$3,823,879
Last updated: 02 Apr 2023
Plan types
63%
Funding confirmed
37%
Funding gap
Animals and herders at a water point during a transhumance movement in Mauritania. @ Dreamartmedia, 2020
Animals and herders at a water point during a transhumance movement in Mauritania. @ Dreamartmedia, 2020

Objective
Contribute to an evidence-based and efficient crisis response system

$6,600,000
Funding required
At risk communities
People Targeted
24
Entities Targeted
Description of People and Entities Targeted

Direct support of IOM’s data collection related to transhumance targets entities with a three-pronged approach:

  • Regional flow monitoring: pastoral organizations (national and regional) and relevant line ministries involved in the implementation of the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol;
  • Local Mapping and Early Alert System: local authorities and relevant civil society getting the information and informing conflict mitigation strategies at the local level;
  • Data provided through the Regional Flow Monitoring and the capacity developed to transfer the tools to the respective governments (line ministries) and civil society informs annual transhumance campaigns and the regional framework dedicated to transhumance
Funding confirmed 1%
99% Funding gap

Displacement tracking - rename

IOM supports its Member States along the regional transhumance corridors to develop and apply a unified data collection mechanism to inform sound policies as it pertains to the regional governance of transhumant mobility. To do so, IOM broadened the application of the Transhumance Tracking Tool as follows:

  • Mapping of transhumance corridors (including water points, grazing areas, markets, border posts, inter alia);
  • Issuing Early Alerts notifying at-risk communities ahead of the arrival of at-risk herds to ensure communities can agree on solutions to facilitate safe passage ahead of clashes materialising;
  • Implementing Regional Transhumance Movement Tracking for enhanced provision of reliable and unified analysis to enable regional decision-making.
Funding required
$6,600,000
Funding confirmed
$75,206
Last updated: 02 Apr 2023
Plan types
1%
Funding confirmed
99%
Funding gap
Operational presence in

Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic

The map used here is for illustration purposes only. Names and boundaries do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by IOM.

Figures are as of 31 December 2023. For more details of IOM's operational capacity in country, please see the IOM Capacity section.

With thanks to our current donors