Lessons from Three Conflict Sensitivity Pilots with Landscape Restoration Initiatives in the Sahel

Elise Doumergue, The World Bank Group (France)

How do conflict-sensitive principles translate into concrete design and implementation choices on the ground? This presentation draws on three World Bank advisory pilots embedded in landscape restoration projects in Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mali to answer that question. Each pilot examines a different entry point: adaptive project design embedding environmental drivers of conflict into activity selection and technical delivery, participatory decision-making tools that allow to remain engaged in volatile security conditions, and adaptive management practices to operationalize “do no harm” principles throughout a project’s lifetime and beyond. Across all three interventions, a consistent set of lessons emerged on the non-neutrality of NRM investments, the centrality of legitimacy and inclusion, and the need for flexible, feedback-driven management. The presentation highlights how these operational choices shape project outcomes and what they reveal for practitioners working at the climate-fragility nexus.