The Secretary-General's Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) is the United Nations' instrument of first resort for responding to violent conflict. It was created in 2005 as a multi-year funding mechanism to support post-conflict and peacebuilding activities. Since 2018, the portfolio of projects implemented by FAO and funded by the Secretary-General's Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) has consolidated considerably in the region, with a tripling of funding mobilized. It is with a view to reinforcing this momentum of increasing PBF projects that the FAO Subregional Resilience Team for West Africa and the Sahel (REOWA) has initiated a process of exchange between country offices, with a view to generating knowledge aimed at developing good practices in peacebuilding. .

This summary report makes available the results of the self-assessment of the PBF projects and the highlights of the virtual workshop held on 31 May 2022, focusing on:

• the effects induced by the interventions carried out by FAO on the peacebuilding dynamic;
• the good or promising practices promoted in terms of building sustainable peace;
• and the main lessons concerning the approach to formulating PBF projects, as well as the strategies for operational implementation and monitoring-evaluation of the interventions.

This feedback will help to improve programming practices in the region's country offices, as well as fostering exchanges with colleagues from country offices in other regions of Africa and United Nations agencies that collaborate with FAO in implementing PBF projects.

SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS

• On the HDP Nexus: By appropriately addressing the key drivers of conflicts, FAO PBF projects in West Africa and the Sahel are helping to strengthen the peace component of the humanitarian—development—peace (HDP) nexus. However, some interventions still focus more on mitigating the socioeconomic consequences of conflict (addressing the economic needs of vulnerable groups, for example), rather than addressing its root sociopolitical causes (strengthening the inclusion of stakeholders in access to natural resources and economic opportunities, through improving the institutional representation of vulnerable groups and consolidating their ability to influence decision-making processes). In order to meet the challenge of consolidating and sustaining peace, it is essential to enhance the effectiveness of interventions, which must not only act on the key drivers of conflict, but also change the dynamics at work in the field, by focusing on the prevention and reduction of violence as a means of combating social, economic and political inequalities.
  
  
• On Gender: FAO PBF interventions in West Africa and the Sahel can bring about a qualitative transformation in the way social structures operate, developing the capacities of community management structures to promote inclusive decision-making on access to shared natural resources and socioeconomic infrastructure and promoting gender equality through the capacity development of vulnerable groups often excluded from public decision-making, including women and youth, so that they can establish themselves as agents of change capable of playing a decisive role in the public sphere. The PBF projects examined have used several levers of action to defuse potential conflicts and strengthen the peace dynamic, focusing in particular on:
• the creation of networks of Dimitra Community Listening Clubs that can function as instruments for promoting citizen participation at local level;
• improving the inclusiveness of land management institutions and conflict prevention mechanisms, by increasing the representation of women and young people in these decision-making spheres, through the creation of networks of leaders determined to become champions of gender equality.
  
  
• On Land (Sierra Leone): The PBF project's theory of change in Sierra Leone identified land and gender issues as the main sources of conflict. By addressing these two issues simultaneously, through the creation of bridges between women's access to land and the development of women's enterprises, the FAO PBF project in Sierra Leone has strengthened the income-generating capacities of beneficiaries. By giving impetus to the structuring of the women concerned and organizing training sessions, they acquired the confidence they needed to develop viable businesses. The intervention in Sierra Leone focused on promoting dialogue and raising awareness among community decision-makers (chiefdoms), landowners and the various users of rural areas (women, young people, etc.) of the need to promote the inclusion of all producers and preserve women's right to land ownership, including in the case of inheritance. Moreover, this intervention concentrated on the drawing of community land regulations, the creation of land committees and gender champions, and the appointment of local conflict observers to ensure that said rights are respected. .
  
  
• On Land (Niger): The intervention in the Niger provided support to the Permanent Secretariat for the Rural Code so that it could better take gender and diversity into account in its institutional and operational set-up, as well as train a critical mass of women mediators involved in the prevention and management of land conflicts. The Niger project's evaluation report notes that: "the representation of women and young people [in local land commissions] has improved significantly. The number of women has risen from two (as stipulated in the legal and regulatory texts of the Rural Code), to four, and even five in some land commissions. Women and young people now occupy decision-making positions and play an active role in community decision-making. The intervention facilitated the resolution of 483 community conflicts linked to access to natural resources.
  
  
• On Water Stress: Civilians facing a dramatic protection crisis are developing a strategy of abandoning areas plagued by violence in search of safety elsewhere. This leads to a considerable increase in population displacement. In June 2021, there were 1 446 183 internally displaced people in Burkina Faso alone. Massive displacements of rural households create enormous humanitarian challenges, and are also accompanied by rising tensions between displaced people and host communities over access to arable land, water resources and grazing areas. This situation is creating enormous humanitarian challenges and is aggravating antagonisms between displaced persons and host communities over access to natural resources including water points. FAO PBF projects can stimulate social cohesion between refugees and host communities and contribute to reducing conflicts and competition over access to natural resources through the implementation of actions of collective interest such as establishing water points.