Agro-silvo-pastoral systems are the main form of livestock production in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. They are the main providers of red meat for local markets, and they contribute for very significant exports of live animals to West-African coastal countries and to the Arabic Peninsula. Agro- silvo-pastoralist activities are essential to food security, income generation, community welfare and ecosystem management. Around 15 % of the population of the Sahel and of the Horn of Africa (i.e. 22 to 32 million people) rely on them for their subsistence. Because of their mobility across different ecoregions, pastoralists are particularly adapted to the environments of local rangelands, characterized by high climatic variability and socio-economic vulnerability. However, the capacity of these systems to contribute effectively and sustainably to food systems is increasingly challenged by cheap imports, climate change, land use competition, and policy measures in favor of sedentarization. In this study, we analyze how market participation of agro-silvo-pastoralists can support their contribution to food systems in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. We describe the systemic relationships between agro-silvo-pastoralists and other value chains actors (collectors, traders, processors, distributors, consumers). We assess how institutions involved in those value chains influence the market bargaining power of agro-silvo-pastoralists. We also examine how increased market orientation affects positively and negatively the resilience and food system stability. Thirdly, we discuss how local governance regimes influence the distribution of market gains across gender, wealth, and mobility groups, and the implications of those distributions on equity in the food systems. We underline in particular the role of producers' organizations in supporting market participation of agro-silvo pastoralists and the potential of several inclusive business models. We propose 3 pillars of interventio