- A report by the UNDP and ABC shows that 58% of people living in borderlands have experienced a decline in incomes due to lower earnings, with the majority earning less than $65 per month.
Image: AMOS NJAU
The UNDP's Africa Borderlands Centre (ABC) is investing millions of dollars in income-generating and labour diversification schemes aimed at improving the lives of borderland communities in 25 African countries.
A report by the UNDP and ABC shows that 58% of people living in borderlands have experienced a decline in incomes due to lower earnings, with the majority earning less than $65 per month.
The report further identifies social and economic vulnerabilities that borderland communities face due to neglect by national governments, and the potential for them to be pushed into extreme poverty.
Dr Kehinde Bolaji, Program Advisor at UNDP Africa Borderlands Centre told the Star that, ABC's methodology of work is focused on investigating how these communities have continued to thrive against the odds of violent conflict, climate change, inequalities, and poor service delivery.
He noted that ABC seeks to address these challenges through four pillars: value and supply chains for agropastoralists, digital financial inclusion, entrepreneurship development for informal cross-border traders, climate-smart and resilience infrastructure, and peace-building and social cohesion.
“Our program interventions have also improved trade diversification for the textile sector in Ghana and Togo border areas, thus offering alternative business pathways for those displaced from the agropastoralists sector by multiple vulnerabilities.
"Through such business diversification pathways, we have also strengthened the viability of the dairy value chain in Mali. These program interventions have collectively improved community cohesion, and social protection,” he said.
The report shows the vulnerabilities people - dependent on livestock, small-scale agriculture, and migration across borders for earnings - face due to neglect by national governments for decades and the potential of being pushed into extreme poverty.
Dr Kehinde Bolaji said that the collaboration with local authorities and leaders, the ABC aims to facilitate community-led development beyond the life cycle of UNDP program support.
“Africa Borderlands Centre has co-created with border communities a development partnership model that seeks to address these challenges and increase the competitiveness of border communities by investing in four critical pillars: value and supply chains for agropastoralists; digital financial inclusion and entrepreneurship development for informal cross-border traders; climate-smart and resilience infrastructure; and peacebuilding and social cohesion,” he said.
The major challenges facing the borderlands are negative perception and structural gaps. Most analysts see the borderlands as ungoverned spaces that serve as hotbeds of violent extremism, conflicts, poverty, and smuggling.
However, through ABC's work, these borderland communities are beginning to get the attention they deserve.
“We collaborate with local authorities and leaders. We serve only as facilitators of their vision and do not seek to impose our development ideas on them. The result has been a high degree of commitment to continuous implementation beyond the life cycle of UNDP program support,” he said.