This article draws on data collected over the course of two decades to examine the role of youth mobility in the ways a rural Senegalese community has adapted to ecological, economic and socio-cultural change. Temporary migration has become a veritable stepping stone in the life of most young men and women in the community. It provides for more diversified family resources given the inability of farming to cover essentials and the new needs of youth avid for modernity. Types of migration have also evolved, notably because of increased education; mobility has further transformed cross-generational and gender relations. Migration is rooted in the strategies of many families and appears to be a resilience factor in a context of multifaceted change.

Culture, Migration, Gender, Natural ressources, Education, Youth, Family, Gold, Rural Areas, Social, EMPLOYMENT

This article analyses the Sahel crisis through the prism of young people, with reference to the case of Burkina Faso. In particular, it looks at the ways in which young people are involved in shaping and implementing security policies. The aim is to elucidate why, despite their political weight, young people are not yet strategic actors in the governance of this sovereign sector. Based on actor-centred institutionalism, the article highlights the influence of contexts and institutions on their participation strategies in the fight against insecurity. The results show that while government mechanisms for the inclusion of young people produce precarious effects, the alternative strategies promoted by the latter end in deadlock.

Security, Youth, Politique publique

Marie-Dominique Aguillon's article, "The Making of Senegalese Migration Policy," published in the journal Anthropologie & développement, examines the process of developing migration policy in Senegal, influenced by interventions from international organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Based on ethnographic research, the article analyzes how these entities promote standardized migration policies in West Africa, focusing on the interactions between policymakers, experts, academics, and civil society actors in Senegal. The study reveals that, although the IOM plays a prescriptive role by introducing norms and policy frameworks, there are dynamics of local negotiation, contestation, and adaptation. Senegalese actors do not merely follow international directives passively but actively participate in the co-construction of migration policy, reflecting a plurality of logics and strategies. The article also highlights the tensions between the objectives of international organizations and national priorities, shedding light on challenges related to sovereignty and local ownership of migration policies.

Politics, Sovereignty, Migration

Using the Sahel as an example, and more specifically the situation in the Lake Chad region, this article looks at how the growing recognition of climate change in scientific and political-institutional agendas is changing the way we think about the relationship between environmental crises, agriculture and violence. By recalling how this discussion is part of long-standing reflections on the relationship between resources and conflicts, he analyses the crystallisation of the debate into two camps - neo-determinist quantitative approaches at continental scales of study, on the one hand, and critical social science approaches such as Political ecology, which are more local and territorialized, on the other; as well as the role of think tanks as mediators of scientific work towards the political sphere. It explains the seduction of neo-determinist analyses despite the refutations fed by field research.

Agriculture, Climate change

The article "Is the Sahel Crisis an Agrarian Crisis?" examines the underlying causes of instability in the Sahel region, characterized by a series of coups d'état and deteriorating diplomatic relations, notably with France. It emphasizes that in countries where the majority of the population is rural and dependent on agriculture, political and security crises are closely linked to agrarian issues. Challenges such as soil degradation, climate change, population growth, and land conflicts exacerbate social and economic tensions. These factors contribute to the emergence of violence and political instability. The article suggests that to understand and resolve the Sahel crisis, it is essential to address agrarian issues and support rural development.

Governance, Agriculture, Climate change, Food security, Insécurité

This research paper is based on a study carried out from september 2019 to november 2020 by a pluridisciplinary social sciences team in six countries : Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Senegal. During the last two decades, the offer of islamic education in the Sahel has been greatly renewed and diversified, thanks to he dynamics speficic to the societies, but also in connection with the commitment of international organisations and States in favor of Education for all politics. The pluralism that caracterizes the offer of islamic education, due to the existence of several sensivities and various sources of funding, poses multidimensional challenges to the countries concerned, particularly in their ability to articulate different, even antagonistic training systems, as well as in their desire to design relevant educational policies in these contexts. The reforms carried out by the public authorities are still partial, while many actors with diverse and sometimes conflicting interests seek to make their mark in the national and sub-regional educational fields. The future of education systems is therefore closely linked to the will of States to organize and govern Arab-islamic education, so present and rooted in local social dynamics, but insufficiently taken into account in its complexity and its permanence.

Religious education, Youth