DARGUE, Niger - Grappling with desert conditions, insurgency and decades of political instability, Niger has long struggled to feed its rapidly growing population. But experts say efforts to change that are bearing fruit - and may even be a model for the region.

Four out of five of Niger's people eke out a living through farming or fishing, yet three-quarters of the landlocked west African country on the southern edge of the Sahara is arid.

This report presents a synthesis of project-level final evaluations, carried out after three years of implementation of the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) programme.

by Amy Kirbyshire and Emily Wilkinson

Challenging Assumptions

This series of BRACED papers explore the underlying assumptions made in the design of resilience-building approaches and whether these do or do not hold true in differing contexts.

Natasha Grist

For farmers everywhere, and especially in the Sahel, innovation is a way of life, as they adapt and change farm practices to increase yields and decrease work inputs. With climate change posing increased risks, community and farm innovations that build climate resilience will help support and enhance the lives of many marginalised people. This paper examines five innovations from the BRACED programme working with vulnerable Sahelian populations, drawing lessons for other resilience-building efforts.

KEY MESSAGES

Humans use shortcuts to help make decisions. Sometimes called ‘cognitive biases,’ these shortcuts are essential for making quick decisions such as deciding to swerve to avoid a car accident. However, these automatic judgements can also lead to bad decision-making when intuition is relied on too heavily and defective reasoning is used. This infographic series explains 5 common shortcuts, how they play a role in decision-making related to climate risk management, and strategies to outsmart the tendency to use shortcuts.