UNDP established the Africa Borderlands Centre in February 2021 as a flagship initiative to empower borderland voices and communities in Africa through impactful and innovative programming, research, data and partnerships and advocacy. This inaugural report captures UNDP’s vision for Africa’s borderlands. Although portrayed as strongholds for insecurity and poverty, Africa’s borderlands – home to 270 million people – are in fact pillars of promise given their land endowments, strategic geographic positioning and the enduring resilience of their communities. The Africa Borderlands Centre aims to empower and advocate for these communities by using local knowledge to drive local solutions.

In 2021, the Centre worked with border communities and stakeholders in 20 African countries, and also engaged with the African Union Commission, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and the Liptako-Gourma Authority at the regional level. In its first year, several unique and exciting programmes were initiated. For example, ABC's 2021 Innovation Challenge revealed how local talents and innovations are best placed to solve local development challenges. As a result, four projects are currently contributing to financial inclusion for informal cross-border traders in the border regions of Sudan-South Sudan, Niger-Mali-Burkina Faso, Zambia-Zimbabwe and Benin-Ghana-Togo.