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As part of Project 21's protection monitoring, over 43,000 interviews were conducted between April 2021 and December 2023 with communities affected by displacement and conflict in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Lake Province in Chad.
Analysis of the data collected illustrates the scale of a protection crisis that has become regional. The growing complexity and intensification of the security context has accentuated the forced displacement of civilian populations.
At the end of 2023, more than 3 million internally displaced people were registered in the central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger) and in Chad, i.e. 8 times more than 5 years ago. These four countries also host nearly 1.5 million refugees and 42,000 asylum seekers (Source: UNHCR, Regional Office for West and Central Africa). In the communities monitored by Project 21, 70% of population displacements are conflict-related. At the same time, restrictions on movement affect almost 1 community in 2 in the regions covered. This trend
has been steadily increasing since 2021, when restrictions to free movement were already affecting 39% of the monitored population.
Insecurity, forced displacement and restrictions on movement are having an impact on civilian populations’ livelihoods and access to basic services. Protection monitoring highlights major challenges, which Project 21 proposes to analyse in this 2021-23 trends report.
Project 21 brings together more than 30 partners involved in data collection and analysis in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Niger. Data collected is made available online, on a monthly updated dashboard. Analyses are shared and discussed with humanitarian, development and peace organizations operating in each one of the concerned countries, and at regional level. Project 21 collects, analyses and disseminates perception data on the protection situation of communities living in areas affected by forced population displacement, through interviews with heads of households and key informants. The conclusions presented in this report reflect only the perceptions of the interviewed individuals, households and communities. The conclusions should be considered solely in relation to the populations monitored, the areas concerned, and the period covered.