The project's objective is to improve access to essential productive assets, services and markets for pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in selected trans-border areas and grazing corridors across six Sahel countries. It aims at strengthening countries' capacity to respond promptly and effectively to pastoral crises or emergencies. The project will involve physical delineation of 5,100km of transhumance tracks, development of associated rest areas, rehabilitation of degraded land, development/ improvement of pasture reserves in Mali (over 55,000 hectares) and opening or maintenance of firebreaks at community level (800kms in Senegal and 500km in Chad).
It will design, build and rehabilitate water facilities (about 192 wells, 143 boreholes and 119 water pans and reservoirs) including 37 units with comprehensive storage and distribution facilities in Senegal, Chad and Mali.

Location: Sahel region particularly in Chad, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Mali and Mauritania.

Risk Assessment: Category B:

The World Bank classifies proposed projects based on the type, location, sensitivity, and scale of the project and the nature and severity of its potential environmental impacts.
Category B is assigned to a project if it has “potential adverse environmental impacts on human populations or environmentally important areas - including wetlands, forests, grasslands, and other natural habitats”.

APPLICABLE SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS

Environmental Assessment OP/BP 4.01 

this safeguard is triggered because "the project will support local and community investments including some with trans-border dimensions." These might have environmental and social impacts due to the construction of new and rehabilitation of existing water facilities and livestock markets.

Natural Habitats OP/BP 4.04

this safeguard is triggered because "the impact of severe climatic conditions, insecurity and conflicts may cause the project's activities to extend to critically important natural habitats where it had not anticipated working."

Pest Management OP/BP 4.09

this safeguard is triggered because "pasture protection or veterinary services and the fight against vector-borne diseases may necessitate the use of pesticides."

Involuntary Resettlement OP/BP 4.1

this safeguard is triggered because "project investments may support interventions that could entail land taking or limiting access to land and other resources."

Physical Cultural Resources OP/BP 4.11

this safeguard is triggered because "some of the project areas potentially have physical cultural resources."

OUR RISK ASSESSMENT
Based on the World Bank's project documents, this project poses potential risks to the following human rights:

The Right to a Healthy Environment:
The use of chemical products (acaricides) to vaccinate livestock is likely to lead to production of biomedical wastes, which may cause pollution when poorly managed. Livestock markets are likely to generate significant quantities of household wastes, which will contribute to the pollution of the environment if adequate collection and waste treatment measures are not taken. Stagnant water in the ponds is likely to become a breeding ground for malaria and bilharzia spreading organisms which will pose a health risk to the people.

The Right to Water:
The flow of manure into surface water and pouring of nitrates and phosphorus into underground water is likely to cause water pollution. Operations at the drilling sites are likely to lead to the draining of subterranean water reserves and a drying up of groundwater in the long term.

Right to Livelihood:
Project activities on pastoralists' grazing land like assisted natural regeneration, direct sowing and setting up of strong perimeter hedges are likely to restrict access to sources of water and pastures for livestock. Extensive livestock farming is likely to cause soil compaction, erosion and destruction of river banks which may affect agricultural production and exacerbate conflict between pastoralists and crop farmers. Drilling sites with water towers are likely to be created on agricultural or residential land which may require displacement of the people from the land. The opening of firebreaks is likely to cause deforestation, the disturbance of agricultural activities, the degradation of natural habitats and the destruction of portions of cultural domains.

Bank financing: International Development Association
Borrower: Ministries responsible for Livestock and Animal resources in the six countries
Amount of bank loan or investment: $248M

*No contact info available at time of writing

Consultations were held in all the six countries starting with Burkina Faso (January 30-31, 2014). These were followed by meetings in Mauritania, (April 29-May 2, 2014), Senegal (August 7-26, 2014), Nigeria (October 20-27, 2014), Mali (November 26, 2014) and Chad. The consultations were attended by communities, leaders of farmer organizations and representatives of government institutions. They were aimed at informing communities of existing environmental and social safeguard policies and how they can use them to hold investors accountable and to benefit from the development projects.

The administrative units of the six countries are structured differently but overall, the project level grievance mechanism has two levels.

• Village level: The grievance redress committee is made up of the Village leader as the head, traditional and religious leaders, representatives of Project Affected Persons, Leader of farmer and representatives from the local government. If one of the parties is not satisfied, there is room for appeal at the Municipal level.
• Municipal level: The Municipal committee is made up of the head of the location, representatives of farmer organizations, agriculture, land and forest departments and two representatives of Project Affected Persons. If one of the parties is not satisfied, an appeal can be made in court.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF WORLD BANK

The World Bank Inspection Panel is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by a World Bank-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the Inspection Panel, they may investigate to assess whether the World Bank is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. You can contact the Inspection Panel or submit a complaint by emailing ipanel@worldbank.org. You can learn more about the Inspection Panel and how to file a complaint at: http://ewebapps.worldbank.org/apps/ip/Pages/Home.aspx.