This document constitutes the main report of the study on the social, economic and environmental impacts, the main drivers of change and the long-term prospects of mobile livestock systems in West Africa. The study was carried out between June 2020 and January 2021 as part of the implementation of the Integrated and Secure Livestock and Pastoralism Project in West Africa (PEPISAO). This regional initiative is funded by the French Development Agency and implemented by the Economic Community of West African States.

Mobile livestock production in the Sahel and West Africa is a way of life and a form of adaptation and resilience developed over thousands of years by pastoralists and agro-pastoralists to cope with the effects of desertification and climate change, and to make the best use of the vast expanses of arid and semi-arid regions. This livestock farming system makes it possible to seek complementarities with the agro-ecological zones of the southern savannah regions through the use of pasture and water. In this way, livestock farming helps to provide substantial income for the local population and ensure food security. The N’Djamena symposium in the Republic of Chad (May 2013) and the Nouakchott declaration in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (October 2013) gave renewed interest to the livestock sector with the implementation of several regional initiatives such as PRAPS, PREDIP, PEPISAO financed respectively by the World Bank, the European Union and the Agence Française de Développement and coordinated by CILSS as well as others such as PACBAO, MOPSS, etc.

CILSS has achieved significant results and a great deal of experience through the PREDIP implementation. A sample of eleven (11) major experiments and lessons learnt have been drawn up and documented using the “ongoing capitalisation» approach, with a view to building on these achievements for the benefit of stakeholders in the livestock and pastoralism sub-sector in the Sahel and West Africa. The experiments cover all the themes addressed by PREDIP (i.e., regional pastoral information service, dialogue and governance on cross-border transhumance, agro-pastoral infrastructures and facilities, animal health). Each of the fact sheets documenting these experiments includes a short summary giving the reader an overview of the content of the experiment and enabling him or her to extract the information he or she needs. In addition to these eleven (11) sheets, two (2) capitalisation notes have been produced. These experiments and capitalisation notes can be scaled up for greater value. They complement the existing body of knowledge on the promotion of the livestock sub-sector. For more detailed information, the reader is kindly invited to read the full report entitled: «Experience gained and lessons learnt from PREDIP implementation».

Mobile livestock production systems have been facing a number of challenges over the past twenty years, including farmer-pastoralist conflicts and civil insecurity in West Africa and the Sahel. In recent decades, conflicts initially sparked by competition over natural resources have gradually evolved into struggles for control of land between socio-cultural groups, and politico-religious demands that have intensified the displacement of both animals and people. At the same time, we note that the media - print, radio and audiovisual - most often focus on pastoral issues, such as the management of land conflicts between farmers and herders, and access to transhumance corridors. Pastoralists and pastoral households are therefore most often described in terms of this general conception of pastoral farming as vulnerable to climatic, environmental, health and terrorist risks, and as inefficient in the context of agricultural modernisation policies. All in all, these observations lead us to conclude that pastoral livestock farming is a production system that is not only under-represented, but also little-known by the media in West Africa and the Sahel, who more often than not are content to relay current representations and official events about it.