Pastoral monitoring
“SIG Sahel” is a pastoral surveillance and early warning system for the countries of the western Sahel. It is part of a broader initiative that has been running for several years called “Action Against Hunger”, which aims to establish monitoring and analysis tools and mechanisms for responding to food and nutrition crises in the Sahel.
The aim of the initiative is to improve the ability of pastoralists to respond to climate and environmental crises through real-time monitoring and data collection tools. Data derived from satellite acquisitions, integrated and enriched by field surveys, provide both quantitative and qualitative information covering the entire western Sahel region.
Satellite data and biomass analysis
Action Against Hunger assesses annual biomass production with analyses focusing on pastoral and agro-pastoral areas in the Sahel, enabling humanitarian and livestock operators to anticipate and potentially prevent crises related, for example, to drought.
The tool used, called BioGenerator, utilises satellite data from the Copernicus system to analyse biomass production during the rainy season and detect any anomalies in order to identify the areas most vulnerable to drought. Biomass production data is updated every ten days and can be viewed and downloaded on the interactive mapping platform GeoSahel.info.
The pastoral sentinel network
There is also an automated system, called the “Pastoral Sentinel Network”, which is used to send a weekly questionnaire to data collectors, known as “pastoral sentinels”. The pastoral sentinels respond to the questionnaire using a simple mobile phone. This allows the monitoring system to collect a wealth of data in rural areas despite limited resources. This network operates in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal in collaboration with the livestock services of each of these countries. Since 2020, a partnership with Veterinarians Without Borders Belgium (VSF-B) has also made it possible to share information collected by the networks in Burkina Faso and Niger, thus increasing territorial coverage and the accuracy of information.
Dissemination of information and alert systems
This information concerns livestock conditions, the availability of pasture and water resources, livestock market prices, herd movements, the presence of disease outbreaks, forest fires and other incidents of various kinds. Finally, in some countries, a partnership has been established with another data collection network, the “Billital Maroobé Network” (RBM), which is one of the most important pastoral associations in the Sahel. All the information collected is summarised in bimonthly bulletins in each country covered by pastoral monitoring and is accessible on the SigSahel.info portal.
Below are some maps from a recent bulletin (end of August 2025).
Among the items available for consultation is one relating to the average pastoral conditions for each year – or period – in each state. For example, for Niger, 2025 was a year characterised by a ‘rainy season favourable to the development of pastoral resources. Overall biomass production was in excess in all pastoral areas. There were livestock losses due to flooding caused by heavy rains. Livestock mobility was disrupted by insecurity, particularly in the regions of Tillabéri, north-western Tahoua, southern Maradi and Diffa, and exacerbated by recurrent livestock theft. The economic context is characterised by falling cereal prices and unfavourable terms of trade for livestock farmers.
The website, available at https://sigsahel.info, provides detailed information on the entire western Sahel region and each of the countries involved: Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Côte d’Ivoire.