Promise, Peril and Resilience: Voices of Agropastoralists in Africa's Borderland Regions

Produced by UNDP's Africa Borderlands Centre, this report constitutes a wealth of insights to build better programming and make sure our development actions are relevant and efficient.

Through direct testimonies from agropastoralists living in Africa's borderland regions, communities describe their strengths and vulnerabilities; detail the current challenges of rising forced displacement, intensified climate change, increased violence and conflicts; and explain their strategies to overcome these trying experiences.

As explained by communities themselves, borders are not barriers but magnets that keep families together, encourage trade, and improve the quality of life. Their detailed accounts of their values, history, practices, and priorities provide a roadmap toward improved development solutions that can better support the innate resilience of agropastoralist communities in Africa's borderlands.

Recommendations shared in this report offer solutions identified by the communities themselves and policy and programmatic interventions for authorities and other actors to consider. They include incremental but high-value changes in basic governance and service provision, with the potential to transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of borderland inhabitants. They focus on scaling up existing efforts and improving coordination between local and national levels of government.