The Niger and Senegal rivers have provided transport arteries for centuries. Researchers studying the Sahel today focus on the regions' continued economic fragility, its halting steps towards democratic political regimes, and its continued food security problems. Despite complex economic migration patterns and urban expansion in the 20th century, the vast majority of the region's rural dwellers are dependent on some form of rain-fed agriculture or animal production. Absolute minimum rainfall level were recorded at many stations in 1983 and 1984. The period of poor rainfall in the 1970s struck particularly hard for many Sahelian farmers and pastoralists, when there were an estimated 100,000 drought-related deaths.
Vulnerability is an everyday situation for some people, but a rare occurrence for others.
Low rainfall can be coped with, if farmers have a diverse livelihood systems, or sufficient assets. In some areas people starved without drought conditions, because of locust invasions, epidemics, or the seizure of their harvests by warlords or even colonial administrators. It is only in the last ten years, however, that the long-term impacts of the famines of the 1970s have become evident. Since the 1970s the Sahelian nations have also witnessed an abrupt economic transformation involving increases in migration, international trade, and links to the international development aid system. Despite slow starts, since the early 1970s the international community has acquired an increasing capability to prevent the onset of drought-induced food shortages.