Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (Comité permanent inter-État de lutte contre la sécheresse au Sahel, CILSS)
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Burkina Faso
Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Hydraulique et des Ressources Halieutiques
01 BP 2418 Ouagadougou 01
Tél. (226) 50.32.41.29/ 70.26.77.74
Fax: (226)50.31.04.55
Email: conacilss@cenatrin.bf
Cape Verde
Ministère de l'Environnement, de l'Agriculture et de la Pêche BP 50 PRAIA
Tél: (238) 261.69.02/261.57.16/17
Fax: (238) 261.69.06/261.54.40
Email: concilss@mail.cvtelecom.cv / adelaideR@ma.gov.cv
Chad
Ministère de l'Agriculture
BP 441 N'djaména
Tél. (235) 52.38.97 / 26.04.65
Fax (235) 52.51.19
Email: insp.agri@intnet.td /
ngaye_tordina@yahoo.fr
Gambia
Department of State for Agriculture
The Quadrangle, Banjul
Tél. (220) 990.79.66 / 997.70.08 / 422.61.34
Fax: (220) 420.11.87
Email: conacilss@quanet.gm
Guinea Bissau
Ministère de l'Agriculture et Développement Rural
BP 71 BISSAU
Tél. (245) 22.12.00 / 72.13.76
Fax: (245) 22.10.19 (s/c FAO) 245.22.24.83
Email: GNB@field.fao.org / conacilssgb@hotmail.com
Mali
Ministère de l'Agriculture
BP 61 Bamako
Tél. (223) 222.86.67 / 639.71.25
Fax: (223) 222.86.67
Email: Conacilss@mdr-mali.org
Mauritania
Ministère du Développement Rural et de l'Environnement
BP 180 Nouakchott
Tél. (222) 631.18.57
Fax. (222) 525.74.75
Email: idabdi@yahoo.fr
Niger
Ministère du .Développement Agricole
BP 12091 NIAMEY
Tél./ Fax: (227) 73.25.70
Email: conacils@intnet.ne / magagiibrahim@yahoo.fr
Senegal
Ministère de l'Agriculture et de l'Hydraulique
BP 21616 Dakar
Tél. (221) 821.24.61 / 512.43.28
Fax: (221) 821 823.60.30
Email: conacils@sentoo.sn
Description
The Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (Francophone abbreviation CILSS, see website - http://www.cilss.bf/) was created on 12th September 1973 as an intergovernmental organization of nine Sahelian countries which include Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Chad. The current mandate consists of 'seeking to assure food security and to combat the effects of drought and desertification for a new Sahelian ecological balance'. In organizational terms CILSS is comprised of three branches: the Executive Secretariat based in Ouagadougou, capital of the Republic of Burkina Faso, the Sahel Institute, a specialized institute, based in Bamako, Mali, and an AGRHYMET Regional Centre (ARC) based in Niamey, Niger.
The CILSS is governed by the National Council of Ministers, which meets every year. Every three years, the Heads of State hold a summit. CILSS headquarters are in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, where are its two major policy programs: one on food security and another one on natural resources management. CILSS has also two specialized institutions: the Regional Agrhymet Centre in Niamey in the Republic of Niger, involved with the Major Technical Programs on Training and Information. The second specialized institution, the "Institut du Sahel" based in Bamako, works on research on agro socio-economic, population and development issues. In each of the nine member countries, Permanent Secretaries are responsible for coordinating activities of national CILSS committees (CONACILSS - Permanent Secretaries of the National CILSS Committees).
Track Record
The organization track record has been evident in four major areas namely: the fight against poverty and desertification, provision of renewable and solar energy.
The AGRHYMET Regional Centre is a specialized institute of CILSS and an interstate public body with legal status and financial autonomy and carrying international status. It was created in 1974 in the wake of the drought that had hit the Sudano-Sahelian zone of West Africa since 1969 and resulted in human and ecological disasters in 1972 and 1973. Originally, the Regional Centre was geared towards training in agro-meteorology and operational hydrology and their applications. AGRHYMET has a wide variety of data available on climate, hydrology, agriculture, food, phyto-sanitary and pastoral matters. NOAA satellite data is offered via all channels, while NOAA satellite-based lake and pond, and pasture area monitoring can also be obtained. METEOSAT satellite data for rainfall estimation and satellite image animation is available. In the mapping domain, information is available and for sale on administrative units, road networks, forests, soils, rainfall and crop monitoring, hydrography, watering points for humans and cattle, Normalized Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVI, greenness), sea surface and ground temperatures and rainfall stations locations and readings. Also available are aerial video-survey and aerial photos of specific areas or locations taken at customer request. In addition, biological data products, for reference only, include collections of nematodes, insects, rodents and other crop pests, rearing of locusts, rodents and other pests, and cultures of bacteria, fungi, weeds, etc.
With the support of its partners who were brought together within the Club of Sahel, CILSS has contributed, to the emergence of a Sahelian consciousness. It has invested in the mobilization of public development aid for its member states. Thus, it has allowed the realization of a set of substantial national and regional programs on food security and the fight against desertification. However, in spite of significant progress, sahelian countries remain subject to serious deficits: the impact of desertification persists, sahelian populations are still struggling to escape poverty and food security, the economies of sahelian countries are improving, but remain fragile and have not diversified much. This is why CILSS, and in particular its central group, was entrusted by the Council of Ministers, during its 30th annual session in Nouakchott in April 1995, with the mandate of organizing a reflection process on the Sahel in the 21st Century. This reflection process was named the Sahel 21 Process (Processus Sahel 21).
CILSS partners with the following countries: Germany, Canada, France, USA, Switzerland, Denmark, Japan and Italy. Other multilateral partners include the Sahel Club, European Union, European Development Fund, Food Agricultural Organization, Inter-Governmental Authority on Development and UMA among others.
Challenges
It is difficult to work with the private sector though there is need to include the private sector. With the civil society organizations, when they are already organized at the national level, it is an advantage. However sometimes this can be an inconvenience, because there is then a risk of capture by the leaders of civil society organizations who can present their own opinions above the real reports from the discussions. A second difficulty is: how to accompany without suffocating, how to give a helping hand to the discussions, the organization, but in a way that will not undermine their independence.
The third difficulty: How to inform the actors about the process? This is not always evident. They often come with an enormous amount of information to give. The selection of this information needs to be agreed upon and the information needs to be simplified without distorting the content. Moreover, particularly when we work with actors such as agricultural producers, it is necessary to avoid diverting them from their own activities. It is necessary to bring them into a process of consultation but we should avoid creating one rule for every time.
