Presidents, former heads of state, panelists, ECOWAS and UN leaders, and global partners at the inaugural Sahel Governance Forum in Banjul, The Gambia, from July 30-31, 2025. Image by UNDP Comms. Used with permission.
At the heart of the Sahel’s many crises, ranging from armed conflict and democratic erosion to climate-induced poverty, one thing stood out at the inaugural Sahel Governance Forum in Banjul: this is no longer just a security crisis. It is a governance emergency.
Conversations about the African Sahel often generalize into a space of fragility and disorder. But that one-dimensional narrative is fading. This region, rich in human capital, cultural diversity, and strategic importance, is home to one of the youngest, most dynamic populations on the planet. Yet it is precisely this energy that has been betrayed by elites who have hijacked constitutions or seized power in fatigued democracies.
Stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, the Sahel is made up of Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, and northern Nigeria. It is home to the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a confederation formed by Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso in September 2023 following the Nigerien crisis and the eventual withdrawal of these countries from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
To former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, the real problem isn’t fragility. “It is that the region has been structurally abandoned,” he said in his opening remark at the Sahel governance forum.
Sahel governance forum
At the Sahel Governance Forum held July 30–31, 2025, at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre in Banjul, The Gambia, presidents, former heads of state, ECOWAS and UN leaders, and global partners came together to chart a new course for governance in the region.
Themed “Rebuilding Social Cohesion and Public Trust,” and organized by the Government of The Gambia, the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), this high-level convening brought together leaders, civil society, and the private sector to rethink governance in the Sahel.
Beyond headline-grabbing coups, attempts by incumbent leaders to cling to power through constitutional reforms have been equally destabilizing to the region. According to the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, over the past two decades, more than 20 African leaders have sought to remove or circumvent presidential term limits, with about two-thirds succeeding. In Guinea, Alpha Condé’s 2020 constitutional amendment triggered mass protests and ended in a coup. Similar scenarios have played out in Togo and Côte d’Ivoire.
These legal maneuvers have deepened public distrust in democratic institutions. According to Afrobarometer, trust in African institutions and leaders has steadily declined since 2011. Surveys in 39 countries between late 2021 and mid-2023 found that citizens trust key institutions and leaders less than they did a decade ago.
In her opening remark at the forum, Ahunna Eziakonwa, the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and the UNDP’s Regional Director for Africa, challenged the tired framing of the Sahel as a fragile region.
What if the real problem is not fragility, but the failure to invest in governance as a force for justice, for dignity, and for development?
Eziakonwa's remarks highlighted what she calls the region’s deepest crisis — not just a lack of infrastructure or economic development, but a governance challenge and a breakdown in trust.
She added:
Trust is not symbolic. It’s the bedrock of peace, prosperity, and legitimacy.
Citing Afrobarometer's findings that fewer than 30 percent of citizens in many Sahelian countries trust their national governments, she declared, “That’s a governance emergency.”
Eziakonwa further highlighted the misalignment of national priorities.
In some Sahelian countries, over 60 percent of national budgets are spent on peace and security, while economic sectors that could generate jobs remain underfunded.
Structural roots of instability in the Sahel
Former Nigerian President H.E. Goodluck Jonathan, drawing from personal experience and historical context, noted during a panel interview with UNDP’s Ahunna Eziakonwa that climate vulnerability, youth unemployment, and resource mismanagement are fueling unrest across the region.
Celebrated for overseeing Nigeria’s first peaceful transfer of power from an incumbent to the opposition in 2015, when he handed over to the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, Jonathan referenced this milestone as proof that democracy can work in the region.
“The Sahel’s problem is structural. You have farmers who can only work four months a year. What happens to them the rest of the time?” He asked, citing northern Nigeria, where vast stretches fall within the Sahel zone. He spoke of his administration’s efforts to rehabilitate irrigation systems and launch the Great Green Wall initiative to combat desertification.
We wanted farmers in the Sahel to plant at least twice a year, maybe even three times. Because if we don’t create wealth, we will never manage insecurity.
But, like many such efforts across the region, his plans stalled with political transitions. “I don’t know what happened after I left office,” he admitted. “But we must revisit those ideas.”
Localising governance in Africa
Responding to a question from Global Voices during a press conference at the Forum on whether it is time to redefine what democracy means for Africa, Roba Sharamo, Regional Director for Africa and West Africa at International IDEA, referenced Kenya’s Gen Z protests, highlighting the role of youth in pushing for change:
The Gen Z movement in Kenya is led by the youth, because the youth are getting disillusioned with their government, and it is also the issue of lack of accountability, corruption, and the failure to provide opportunities and employment.
The governments are actually set up to deliver services to the people, that’s the essence of the social contract. If the social contracts are not met, then it becomes a problem.
Citing Afrobarometer data, Sharamo emphasized that:
Seventy percent of African youths would actually like to live in a democracy, so democracy is still a preferred mode of government, but it is not perfect. The alternative is autocracy, and I don't think the people would want to live in those. What we want is for democracy to deliver, to be accountable and responsive.
Njoya Tikum, the Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sub-Regional Hub for West and Central Africa (UNDP WACA) and Resident Representative of UNDP Senegal, called for adaptive governance that reflects Africa’s lived realities rather than one-size-fits-all models:
What we’ve come to learn, especially in light of global shifts, is that every country must define what it sees as democracy. However, there are some basic concepts of civil liberties that must be respected. The notion of democracy, as it were when we started this conversation with the British old institutions, is not the same today. Today’s realities demand flexibility, context, and cultural relevance.
With over 60 percent of its population under the age of 25, the Sahel’s political future heavily depends on how young people view democracy. Panelists highlighted that exclusion from political processes and decision-making spaces fuels disillusionment, migration, and even recruitment into extremist groups.
UN Special Coordinator in the Sahel, Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, unveiled the (Re)building Social Cohesion and Public Trust Report, a joint initiative by the United Nations Development Programme Sub-Regional Hub for West and Central Africa (UNDP WACA), United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), and the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (UNISS) Secretariat. The report calls for recentering the people, especially the most marginalised, as a critical step toward peace and sustainability in the Sahel.
President Adama Barrow, the forum’s host, framed “peace” as a precondition for wealth and development. He highlighted his administration’s acceptance of 263 out of 265 recommendations from The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission in a bid to “confront the past with honesty and build a future grounded in justice.”
The forum positions itself as a pivot point and a narrative shift. One that sees the Sahel not as a problem to be fixed from the outside but as a subregion capable of redesigning its own future.
