The present Real-Time Review looked at the DFID-funded humanitarian programmes in the Sahel region (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad) in 2013-2014. It focused on three key elements: - A systemic analysis across the different countries to identify key generic issues and lessons to be learnt, including sector-specific issues of relevance for the whole region; - Specific issues and constraints that led to differences in programme achievements either between countries or between agencies; - How flexibility is managed both in relation to operations and in the relation to DFID. The Sahel belt is regularly affected by a variety of crises where droughts, or sometimes floods, alternate with locust infestations, conflicts over resources and those resulting from the rise of fundamentalist. In this complex and fast-changing context, the DFID funded programmes variously address the following issues: - Nutrition and food security in the context of a bad harvest or bad pastoral; - The impacts of the Malian conflict, both in Mali and in neighbouring countries.