This operational guide is dedicated to public, academic and private institutions working in the fields of climate, water, environment, agriculture, livestock, plant protection, food and nutrition security, climate disaster risk reduction, and any other related sectors using (or wishing to use) the products and services of AGRHYMET Regional Climate Centre for West Africa and the Sahel (AGRHYMET RCC-WAS), which is a specialized agency of the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). Its main objective is to enhance the value of AGRHYMET RCC-WAS's various products and services, by making them more visible and attractive to development stakeholders (public, academic and private), decision-makers and partners (technical and financial), through their performance, relevance, and effectiveness in meeting the specific and collective needs of different users in the countries of West Africa, the Sahel, and other zones. The guide maps out the various services provided by AGRHYMET RCC-WAS, which is a benchmark institution in the sub-region for diploma and continuing training in the various fields listed above, and for building the operational capacities of state, university and private technical institutions involved in reducing hydro-climatic and phytosanitary risks and improving the productivity of agro-sylvo-pastoral and environmental systems in West Africa and the Sahel. It explains the different types of services that AGRHYMET RCC-WAS provides or can provide, as well as the modalities and procedures that state technical institutions and other applicants must adopt to gain access to them, in accordance with their specific or collective, immediate, or future needs, and in compliance with environmental and social safeguard standards.

Checklist for the implementation of livestock sector activities or infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan pastoral areas The Conflict Sensitivity and Prevention (CSP) Checklist was developed as part of the "Pastoralism and Stability in the Sahel and Horn of Africa" programme (PASSHA, 2016-2017, World Bank). The PASSHA programme was designed to support CILSS (the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel) and IGAD (the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development). It aims to integrate the Conflict Sensitivity and Prevention approach into the interventions of both institutions and strengthen their capacity in this area. Its content has been improved in the framework of the implementation of the Integrated and Secure Pastoralism in West Africa Project (PEPISAO 2018-2022). The checklist is a field tool associated with the Practical Guide to Conflict Sensitivity and Prevention in Livestock Sector Development Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has been tested within the framework of the Sahel Regional Pastoralism Support Project (PRAPS) and the Regional Pastoral and Livestock Resilience Project (RPLRP) respectively. If you are new to the checklist, please first read the Practical Guide

The Integrated Farming Project and Pastoralism and Secure in West Africa (PEPISAO) undertook the design of a teaching guide, for the prevention and management of conflicts related to mobile livestock. This document will provide orderly and practical content for stakeholders in particular, technicians accompanying projects as well as direct stakeholders in the field (POs, transhumance committees, etc.). It should be remembered that the objective of PEPISAO is "to reduce conflicts linked to pastoralism by initiating the construction of a shared regional vision on the different ruminant farming methods ".

i) The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a pioneer in establishing regulations for the exercise of cross-border transhumance, a somewhat controversial livestock production system in relation to its economic, social and environmental impacts, and the conflicts of access to natural resources that are sometimes associated with it. ii) Since 1998, ECOWAS has been experimenting with a set of legal and technical instruments to provide a framework for the exercise of this multi-functional credited activity, which makes it a powerful means of strengthening the resilience of populations in general, and pastoralist and herder households in particular, on the one hand, and promoting social and regional integration in West Africa, on the other.

The stakeholders involved in the project to Improve Food and Nutrition Governance and Sustainable Agriculture in the Sahel and West Africa (PAGR-SANAD), notably ECOWAS, UEMOA, CILSS and CEI/PREGEC region through ROPPA, have been heavily involved in improving the food and nutrition situation for many years. On an institutional level, nutrition has been considered, following the accession of all the countries in the Sahel and West Africa region to the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement. Almost all the countries have revised their nutrition policies and strategies in line with the multi-sectoral approach. However, the issues of nutrition-sensitive sustainable food security remain a major challenge.

Pastoralism and transhumance are livestock production practices in Africa in general and West Africa in particular. Moreover, continental, sub-regional and national organisations consider that pastoralism is useful for preserving and increasing livestock production. On the whole, this practice is faced with various difficulties, notably clashes between the different users of natural resources. In order to maintain social peace, which contributes to the promotion of regional development and integration, continental, supranational and national bodies have enacted legal texts and policy guidelines to enable pastoralists to carry out their activities in peace alongside the other economic actors. As a reminder, it can be noted that "a regulation is a legal concept that covers a set of legal instruments in the form of laws, decisions, rules and regulations, and other legal texts that frame a social and economic activity, etc. It is, in fact, about subjecting an activity to regulations”. Regulations govern activities related to the movement of people and their economic activities. To this end, the African Union, ECOWAS, UEMOA, States and communities, through legislative and regulatory measures, have laid down strong legal and institutional foundations to facilitate the movement of animals in their sub-regional and national areas. Between 1998 and 2004, ECOWAS, UEMOA and other partners adopted several legal texts and policy documents to regulate cross-border transhumance and reduce conflicts between farmers and herders, and then to protect public health, in the light of the global health environment (resurgence of animal diseases transmissible to humans). In order to control transhumance and reduce conflicts between herders and farmers, the States have adopted, since independence, laws that have been adapted to regional regulations. Despite this body of legislation, conflicts remain and the management of transhumance is still a major concern in the States and at the cross-border level. In order to contribute to better application of the regulations, the Integrated and Secure Livestock Farming and Pastoralism Project (PEPISAO), financed by the Agence française de développement (French Development Agency) (AFD) and coordinated by ECOWAS, which has delegated the implementation of Components 1 and 2 to CILSS, is working to promote the most relevant texts and also to facilitate their accessibility. The elaboration of the information directory of regulations required a process that helped to identify regulations relating to the prevention and management of pastoral conflicts with regard to the measures to be taken before going for, during and after transhumance, procedures for settling cases of field damage, natural resource management, access to resources, etc. The main regional and national texts have been compiled to extract relevant information to facilitate accessibility, better understanding and application by field actors

The "Integrated and Secure Livestock Production and Pastoralism in West Africa" (PEPISAO) project is implemented by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as Project Manager, and CILSS, as Delegated Project Manager, with the financial support of the Agence française de Développement (French Development Agency) (AFD) and the technical assistance of the IRAM/ISSALA/ LARES consortium. With a duration of four years (2018-2022) and an amount of five (5) million Euros, the project covers the ECOWAS zone plus Chad and Mauritania. It has been extended at no additional cost to 31 December 2023. The project has been implemented since 2019 in a regional context marked by: (i) the deterioration of the pastoral, food and nutritional situation, (ii) the resurgence of insecurity of goods and people; (iii) the prevalence of the COVID 19 pandemic, on the one hand, and by (v) a significant increase in the number of regional projects dealing with pastoralism and (vi) a relative deterioration in the governance of cross-border transhumance, on the other hand. However, the stakeholders were able to overcome the effects of these factors through their commitment, and the project has achieved a lot. This report capitalises on the major achievements and results of four years of implementation.