CILSS aims to invest in food security and in the fight against the effects of drought and desertification, for a new ecologically balanced in the Sahel.

CILSS brings together thirteen (13) States, including eight coastal states (Benin, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, Togo); four landlocked states (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Chad); and one island state (Cape Verde).

CILSS aims for Sahelians to have better food security and better manage natural resources, as well as considers population and development issues.

CILSS also follows and promotes actions for the exchange of agricultural and agrifood products; control of water to improve the living conditions of Sahelian populations is strengthened; and also so Sahelians have dynamic, fluid and integrated national and regional markets for the trade of agricultural and agrifood products