15 July 2024 Speech by Federal Minister Svenja Schulze at the reception on the eve of the General Assembly of the Sahel Alliance

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Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

We are gathered here this evening at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The Academy was founded by the scientist Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1700. It was only 264 years later, in 1964, that the first woman was accepted into the academy: Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich.

This shows that change takes time – in Germany as elsewhere. And so it is important that we should not take a patronising attitude towards each other.

Progress, development – whatever you want to call it – does not happen on its own. And it does not happen overnight. Progress is a long slow process that requires patience and endurance.

Let me tell you about Noumoutènè Diarra, for example. She is a strong young woman who earns a living growing onions in Mali. It’s hard work for little money. But it became a little bit easier when she joined a cooperative for women vegetable growers, supported by German development cooperation. That successful cooperative is just one of the many initiatives being supported by Sahel Alliance members. And things have changed for the better not only for Noumoutènè Diarra. She says her whole village has felt the change.

The women of the village received training and took part in exchange visits so they could improve production. They received an electric machine for cutting vegetables, a solar-powered de-hydrator and support for storing their produce. That gave a massive boost to production – and to their incomes. Which massively improved their lives.

In this way, they are escaping the cycle of despair and fighting back against hunger. And they can now afford the fees to send their children to school. With the extra money they are earning, the women are able to feed their own families. That gives them a freedom they didn’t have before and also control over their own lives.

Why am I telling you about this one woman? Because her example shows that international cooperation with the Sahel works. That seemingly small projects can change whole villages, whole regions. That they change people’s lives for the better. Little by little.

And that means that fewer people end up joining terrorist groups in the Sahel. Because they have better alternatives. And because their lives are better without the terrorists. Because when people in the Sahel join terrorist groups, it is not usually out of conviction. Instead, it is often the only source of income for their family and their whole village.

We all know about the escalating security situation in the Sahel. Poverty and hunger are on the rise. People see no future. And climate change is hitting them particularly hard. They are faced with repeated drought, extreme heat and water shortages.

But we also know that the Sahel region offers great potential. There are many young people with their whole lives ahead of them. Who want to make their countries safer. And want to have a better life than their parents. I have met lots of them on my visits to the Sahel. And have been deeply impressed by their drive and desire for change. People like Noumoutènè Diarra.

We in the Sahel Alliance want to give this young generation prospects. And so we have decided to coordinate more closely. So that our efforts have a bigger impact. And so that people’s lives improve even more quickly.

At the start of my presidency, we agreed to combine our efforts more and to start “joint initiatives” on those topics where we can have the biggest impact. For example education, agriculture, social protection.

The first is the joint initiative to strengthen social protection in the Sahel, which is being implemented by the World Bank, UNICEF and the World Food Programme.

Thanks to this initiative, over 2.5 million people in the Sahel have already received financial support, above all in situations where their livelihoods have been under threat. The payments are combined with training courses, for example on nutrition.

The second initiative is the Sahel Resilience Initiative, which has already supported many people in the Sahel, over half of them women. Its aim is to better cover the basic needs of people in the Sahel. For example by improving medical care, access to drinking water or school meals.

The initiative has proved so successful that we have partnered up with the World Food Programme, UNICEF and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, the GIZ, to expand it to all five countries in the Sahel. That means that even more people will now benefit from the initiative – in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad. So I am pleased that we can join together this evening to launch this new phase and this new partnership.

I would also like to invite you to take a look at the exhibition you will see in this room. It gives a good insight into what we have already achieved in the Sahel with the World Food Programme, UNICEF and the GIZ.

Ladies and gentlemen,

it is one year since I took on the Presidency of the Sahel Alliance. We don’t always agree on everything – either within the Alliance and with our partner governments. But what unites us is our desire to maintain a dialogue. So that more people like Noumoutènè Diarra can say they now have a better life. That the region has become more stable.

Before the World Food Programme and UNICEF give their remarks, I would like to give the floor to Kadidia Alassane Maiga. She is a 23-year-old slam poet from Timbuktu who now lives in Bamako. In her poetry, she talks about how families are impacted by the crisis in Mali and calls for solidarity and peace.

I look forward to an enjoyable evening together with you. Thank you.