How does innovation build climate resilience in the Sahel?

Key messages

• In the case of the Sahel, innovation is central to improving farming families’ incomes, farm and livestock yields, wellbeing and even survival in the face of climate shocks and cumulative stresses.
• Innovations that build people’s capacities to respond to climate changes include enabling access to better information and technical knowledge, introducing financial innovations, integrating climate information into farmers’ planning and social innovations.
• Innovating is a risky business: some innovations will fail or take longer and need more investment and leadership than initially planned. However, not innovating is riskier still in the face of changes to come.
• Monitoring how effectively resilience is built is an inexact science, but development partners need to demonstrate and compare the effectiveness of their programmes. Quantitative data on outputs and activities needs to be supplemented with triangulated narratives on improvements in choices, context and lives.