This report responds to the question of how we might approach and understand the Boko Haram insurgency. In providing an answer, the report addresses three main controversies within the field of Boko Haram studies. First, whether local grievances or religious radicalisation is the main driver of...

In 2013, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was established by UN Security Council Resolution 2100 to support peace-making and -building in Mali in order to prevent further destabilization of the Sahel. MINUSMA has come to represent the...

As violence and insecurity increase and the Sahel situation deteriorates further, understanding the main causes and drivers of conflicts is of growing importance. Recently, the assumption that climate change is causing violence and displacement in the region has become prominent, and this has...

This DIIS Working Paper provides a broad overview of the Great Green Wall initiative to draw out lessons learnt from the first half of the programme. Overall, the authors find it unrealistic for the Great Green Wall to significantly alter root causes of migration and conflict in the Sahel region...

Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, adaptation debates have increasingly shifted from focusing narrowly on finance to considerations around governance of programming, implementation and impact of support for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The character of finance for climate change...

Climate change adaptation is a major global challenge and key to securing livelihoods and economies in the Global South. Locally-led adaptation (LLA) is gaining momentum as an approach to integrate local context, address equity concerns, and enhance the efficiency of adaptation efforts. This...

Recent years have witnessed an increasing focus on water as a source of conflict. So far, much of the focus has been on the risk for transboundary water conflicts. Our current knowledge on local water conflicts is however more limited, and trends to be based on sporadic accounts of local water...

Environmental governance can be understood as 'the establishment, the reaffirmation or change of institutions (policies, laws, procedures, practices and organisations) to resolve conflicts - overt or latent - between actors over environmental resources. Environmental governance takes place at...