Pathways to resilience: Supporting adolescent girls in East and West Africa's pastoral areas

This report aims to investigate how and why support well-being and resilience of adolescent girls in the climate- and conflict- affected setting of East and West Africa. The methodology consisted of synthesizing findings from a desk review of 53 sources and 11 key informant interviews with researchers, evaluators, and program implementers. These were guided by two core questions: Why invest in adolescent girls' well-being and resilience in fragile pastoral areas of East and West Africa? And what works to support their well-being and resilience in these contexts?

The report's findings highlight both promising strategies and persistent gaps, with most interventions remaining short-term, narrowly focused, or poorly adapted to mobile and displaced populations. Long-term tracking of outcomes is rare, and resilience pathways are incompletely documented. The report provides five key insights to address these findings:

• Localize economic empowerment approaches to pastoralist livelihoods and fragile market contexts;
• Expand adolescent mental health and psychosocial support;
• Strengthen education pathways;
• Invest in integrated, cross-sectoral programming;
• Bridge community-driven models with broader systems.