Resourced CLA Accelerates the Journey to Self-reliance and Resilience in the Sahel

The SAREL project is a resourced, external CLA mechanism with the mandate to facilitate and stimulate enhanced collaboration and learning exchanges among 28 different RISE partners in this large initiative to build resilience in the Sahel, focusing on Niger and Burkina Faso. The Sahel Resilience Learning (SAREL) project was tasked with helping partners collaborate, learn and adapt based on the underlying assumption of the Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced (RISE) operational theory of change - better use of limited resources through collaboration between partners will lead to greater impact. SAREL not only facilitated collaboration, but also tested this theory of change. Evidence recently collected in a survey done by SAREL has shown that prioritizing and resourcing collaborating, learning, and adapting has in fact accelerated the journey to self-reliance and resilience amongst the most vulnerable populations in the Sahel. 

Over the last four years, the SAREL project, an external CLA mechanism implemented by The Mitchell Group Inc. (TMG) and its partner Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, has learned many critical lessons about what works and what doesn’t work in facilitating CLA across diverse partners in support of a complex and challenging USAID initiative. Helping local populations to achieve resilience and self-reliance requires strengthening their capacities to be able to better manage and navigate shocks, stresses and other challenges that life in a developing country may bring.