While political dynamics differ greatly from one place to another, rural areas continue to have legitimate grievances. Poverty in rural areas is both more prevalent and more acute than in urban areas - about 80 per cent of the world's extremely poor people live in rural areas.

We analyse the mid-term socioeconomic impacts of the Action Against Desertification in Northern Nigeria. AAD is a large-scale land restoration and livelihood development project aimed at halting the process of desertification in the Sahel, while sustaining these outcomes through improvements in...