The 10th Meeting of the Special Envoys for the Sahel took place in Casa África, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) on March 16-17, 2022. The meeting, entitled “Lessons learned from our partnership and proposals for the future of the Sahel”, was organized by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, and the EU Special Representative for the Sahel, Emanuela Del Re.
PREVEX was represented by Professor Francesco Strazzari (Scuola Sant’Anna) who contributed with an analysis of challenges for democracy in the region.
The EU is strongly engaged in the Sahel, having committed a wide array of instruments to the region in the past years. Despite these efforts, the current security and humanitarian situation presents serious challenges. Burkina Faso is the latest member of the Group of Five to suffer a coup d’Etat. In Mali, the Transitional Government has not responded to the request to carry out a democratic transition. Mali remains key for the security in the region: political stability in the country is dependent on a solid democratic transition with free and fair elections, as well as the implementation of the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement. In Chad, the democratic transition has started; despite some delays, a positive outcome may be envisaged. The current state of affairs requires a deep reflection on the role of international and regional organisations as well as the existing security framework in the region.
Aware of the many challenges that arise from the region, the objective of the meeting was to promote a substantive debate that allows for identifying lessons learned, challenges, opportunities, and prospects. The meeting brought together representatives and special envoys for the Sahel of partner countries, as well as representatives of the main regional and sub-regional organisations of the Sahel and West Africa and European and Sahelian experts.
