The United Nations Economic Commission (ECA) has expressed concern over the poor state of development in the Sahel region, including Nigeria.
In a statement on Tuesday by the ECA, the acting Director of the ECA Sub-Regional Office for West Africa, Mr Bakary Dosso said this in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso at a dialogue on the Sahel 2043 Prospective Study.
Dosso said the overall goal of the UN Support Plan for the Sahel, targets 10 countries namely Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.
He said the goal is to scale up efforts to accelerate shared prosperity and lasting peace in the region.
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“The Sahel is a priority for the UN Secretary-General in his efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals in Africa, and ECA’s role is to work in this direction.”
“Current narratives on the crisis do not paint a full picture of the situation.
“It is true that the Sahel is blessed with an abundance of natural and human resources, which if managed equitably and sustainably, could positively transform the situation of the region,” he said.
Dosso said that the ECA has been mandated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to conduct research on the root causes of the problems in the sahel to bring about structural change.
He said the research will guide the implementation of the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (UNISS) with the aim to recalibrate the many existing strategies in the Sahel.