Crisis in the Sahel: Adolescent Girls Struggle in Mali and Niger

By Plan

Adolescent girls are often the first victims in crisis situations, and the last to receive help afterwards. Plan recognises this and is making an effort to address the needs of victims of last year's conflict in Mali, as well as in Niger, where adolescent girls are often taken from school and married off to help their families during times of drought and food shortage.

 

 

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Niger Invests in Early Childhood through Social Safety Nets

 

By The World Bank

 

Malnutrition is a torment that Rabi, a Nigerien mother, struggles with daily. Rabi lives in the village of Katami, in the southern Niger department of Dosso, one of the poorest regions in the country. About 20 years old, Rabi raises her five children, as well as an orphaned niece, by herself. Her husband left the village five years ago in search of a better life, leaving the young woman to feed the household on her own.

 

In Niger, an immense Sahelian country where the fertility rate (7.6 children per woman) is among the highest in the world and where drought strikes with alarming frequency, more than one-third of children under five years of age are underweight. And even when the harvest is good, an estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of Nigeriens struggle to feed their families.

 

In an effort to combat this misery, Nigerien authorities decided to tackle the causes of chronic food insecurity. In 2011, with support from the World Bank, the government began to establish a system of social safety nets targeting the most vulnerable households, and women in particular, in the five poorest regions in the country: Maradi, Tahoua, Tillabery, Zinder and Dosso.

 

Rabi is among 114 beneficiaries in the village of Katami alone. For almost a year she has been receiving monthly cash transfers of CFAF 10,000 (approximately US$20), which she will continue to collect for 24 consecutive months. “I use this money to buy food and clothes, but also soap and shoes for the children,” Rabi states.

 

“What’s new in the social safety net program is that we’re not content to just give out money to beneficiaries; this program includes measures meant to bring about behavioral changes, not only among beneficiaries, but also across the community,” notes Carlo del Ninno, a World Bank economist and task team leader. “It is about long-term investment in human capital. The program’s goal is to help the most impoverished households meet their needs, avoid having to sell their assets when crises hit, and improve the odds that the children will emerge from poverty in the future,” he adds.

 

Promoting Early Childhood Development

 

To increase the impact of these cash transfers, the World Bank and UNICEF have joined forces to establish accompanying measures that build community awareness of the need to adopt better parenting practices and, in particular, to encourage children’s nutrition and development. In addition to collecting her small monthly stipend, Rabi will participate in 18 months of training activities (led by local NGOs and community educators). These sessions, based partly on UNICEF’s “Essential Family Practices” modules, explain the advantages of practices such as breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months of the child’s life, adding nutritious foods to the diet and sleeping under insecticide-treated mosquito nets, as well as the importance of stimulating young children through language and play.

 

“The innovative aspect of the accompanying measures is that they aim to give parents the maximum tools necessary to support their children’s development from a young age,” explains Oumar Barry, assistant professor of psychology at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, and the creator of the technical guide for the accompanying measures component.

 

Village assemblies, which are held once a month, target the entire community. Monthly group meetings and home visits are also organized for the women who take part in the program, in order to reinforce the messages. “Going into a community and asking outright that they change their behavior overnight is quite challenging and requires a lot of patience,” acknowledges Oumou Amadou Assane, regional supervisor for the accompanying measures for the Niger government’s Social Safety Net Department.

 

“The inclusion of such a parenting education program is an innovation that simultaneously helps strengthen the impact of cash transfers and expands the scope of early childhood development programs,” notes Patrick Premand, a World Bank economist. “The effectiveness of parenting training programs has been demonstrated in other low-income countries, but the Niger project also includes an impact evaluation that will provide scientific evidence about the extent to which the program improves children’s nutrition and development.”

 

Bringing About Lasting Change

 

Guido Comale, the UNICEF representative in Niger, welcomes the collaboration between the World Bank, UNICEF, and the government of Niger. In his view, linking cash transfers with behavioral changes is critical to lifting the most vulnerable households out of extreme poverty. “You cannot ask people to wash their hands with soap if they don’t have the money to buy soap. You cannot hope to change social norms in the long term without also creating economic opportunities for the villagers,” explains Guido Comale.

 

Thanks to this income, Rabi can even begin saving and preparing for the future. With a group of 10 other villagers, she participates in a tontine, a type of revolving saving group that is widespread throughout West Africa. Every month, she saves some of her cash transfers into a common pot. One by one, each woman will receive an interest-free loan allowing her to invest in a productive activity.

 

With a budget of US$70 million financed by the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, the program will continue until 2017: Some 80,000 households will receive these cash transfers and 200,000 households will benefit from the accompanying measures. In total, more than half a million children will be reached.

 

“I see a very strong connection between the cash transfers and the accompanying measures. These provisions allow us to envision a future, perhaps by 2030 to 2040, filled with very bright young people,” says an enthusiastic Ali Mory Maidoka, the national coordinator of the Social Safety Net Department in Niger’s Office of the Prime Minister.

 

Footnote:

The project is implemented by the Social Safety Net Department, Office of the Prime Minister, Republic of Niger, with technical and financial support from the World Bank. The accompanying measures are implemented in collaboration with UNICEF, whose “Essential Family Practices” modules serve as the basis for parenting education activities. Development of the technical manual for the accompanying measures benefits from the support of the Early Learning Partnership (ELP) and the Children’s Investment Fund (CIFF). The impact evaluation of the project is supported by the Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF).

 

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Plan soutient des réfugiés au Niger

 

 

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UNHCR helps prepare for refugees to vote in Mali elections, voices concerns over voter registration

By the UN Refugee Agency

With the first round of Mali's presidential elections scheduled for Sunday, UNHCR is continuing preparations with the Malian authorities and neighbouring states for out-of-country voting for refugees. Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger host some 173,000 Malian refugees who fled their country when conflict erupted in January 2012.

 

UNHCR's role in the elections is to facilitate their participation and ensure the voluntary nature of the electoral process in a safe environment. "Our role is humanitarian and non-political only," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards stressed, adding that the refugee agency in June conducted formal and informal surveys in major refugee areas through discussion groups.

 

"The surveys found that refugees were generally in favour of being included in the elections, that they have good awareness of the situation in Mali, and that some believe the elections will help peace and stability – a fundamental condition for many refugees in deciding whether to return to their country," he said.

 

Malian refugees in Mauritania. UNHCR is trying to ensure that eligible refugees can vote in the Mali election at the weekend © UNHCR/B.Malum

 

UNHCR teams in Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mauritania have been meeting with refugee communities to clearly explain the agency's role in facilitating participation and respecting neutrality. The agency has helped transport some election-related materials. However, transportation of sensitive materials, such as voters' cards or ballots papers, will be the responsibility of the Malian electoral authorities and the countries of asylum.

 

Malian authorities visited refugee camps and other sites in Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger in June to establish willingness to vote. In total 19,020 refugees have voluntarily registered to take part, out of 73,277 refugees of voting age (18 and above). Names were then verified against the biometric civil registry, which was last updated in 2011 and used to establish the electoral lists.

 

UNHCR is concerned that only a low number of names of refugees interested in voting were found in the registry. In Burkina Faso, and according to Malian registration teams, 876 out of the 3,504 registered refugees were found in the civil registry; 8,409 out of 11,355 registered refugees in Mauritania, and 932 out 4,161 registered refugees in Niger. In other words, only around half the refugees who have volunteered to take part in the election have so far been found in the registry.

 

As concerning, are reports that only a few NINA (national identification number) voting cards have so far been provided by Malian authorities to refugees in Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger. In Burkina Faso, for instance, only 32 NINA cards have at this point reached the Malian representation. The delay in the issuance and distribution of NINA cards is not specific to refugees but is also impacting many Malian citizens within Mali as well as abroad.

 

"It is important that the Malian authorities quickly make public the voters' lists and speed distribution of the electoral cards in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania. This is especially important as refugee camps and sites are located in remote areas, where access may become difficult with the rainy season now settling in. The Malian authorities have informed us that they are considering alternatives to allow refugees to vote in case of further delays.

 

More than 173,500 Malians have found refuge in neighbouring countries since the beginning of the conflict in January 2012, including 49,975 in Burkina Faso, 48,710 in Niger, 74,907 in Mauritania and 1,500 in Algeria. About 353,000 persons are also internally displaced, according to the Commission de Mouvement de Population in Mali.

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Tackling hunger in the Sahel: the challenge of resilience

 

By Technical Cooperation and Development

Food crisis, drought, chronic hunger, rising food prices: the Sahel region continues yet again to suffer from recurrent food and nutrition crises. After 2005 and 2010, the populations of the Sahel region have had to face yet another crisis in 2012, following a disastrous agricultural season in 2011. The succession of droughts leads to inevitable negative consequences for the capacities of millions of people to meet their essential food needs in the Sahel region of West and Central Africa: drought leads to a reduction in agricultural production and rising food prices on consumption markets which affects the most vulnerable households that are highly impacted by the rise in commodity prices.

 

The food crisis of 2012 in the Sahel, in Niger, Chad, Sudan as well as Mali, Mauritania and Senegal, considerably deteriorated the food security situation of some 18 million people and led to a rise in mortality for undernourished children. At the height of the crisis in mid-2012, certain areas of Mauritania, North Mali and the Sahel region in Chad were faced with “extreme” food insecurity, the level before “famine”, while many other areas were considered to be in “critical” situations.

 

A major crisis has nevertheless been avoided thanks to humanitarian actors’ mobilisation through emergency interventions. However, despite a good rainy season and a relatively good agricultural and pastoral 2012/2013 season, the negative effects of the food crisis in the Sahel in 2012 are still being felt and lead to difficult access to food and necessary nutriments for the vulnerable populations, especially during the lean period, the time between the stock depletion and the following crop.

 

A chronic and structural food crisis

 

The Sahel is facing chronic food insecurity and high malnutrition levels, even during good agricultural seasons. In Chad, even though the production levels rose by 91% since the previous year, 2.1 million people are suffering from food insecurity, including 1.5 million in the Sahel region. In the most affected regions such as the Batha region, over 50% of the population cannot cover their daily basic food needs. In Mali, 2 million people are suffering from food insecurity and the maternal and child mortality rate is one of the highest in the world (13th country out of 136).

 

The series of crises is a first factor of chronic vulnerability for households in the Sahel region. The frequent food and nutritional crises do not allow vulnerable populations to have enough time to recover and thus contribute to a progressive erosion of their livelihoods. On top of these recurrent food crises, other external shocks also contribute to the reduction of the populations’ resistance capacities. The combination of climate, sanitation, social or economic factors such as the lack of basic infrastructure or services can explain the continued food insecurity that reigns in the Sahel region.

 

Political instability in the region (political crises, conflict, violence, population displacement, refugees, etc.) also contribute to render the security and humanitarian situation more complicated and to reduce the possibility to set up long-term solutions.

 

Douentza Mali (OCHA Mali)

 

 

These structural and cyclical factors led to the worsening of the general food and nutrition situation for the populations in the region in 2012, whose livelihoods are eroded, and who have to then turn to self-destructive survival methods such as debt, selling their productive assets such as livestock, reducing their daily food intake, consuming poorer seeds or foods, etc. These irreversible methods also impede on the populations’ capacity to recover and prepare for a future crisis.

 

Emergency responses help to tackle the effect of a cyclical crisis, and at best to avoid a major catastrophe by bringing short term responses (so-called quick impact projects) to the vital needs of the populations: food distributions or coupons, money transfers, protection of their productive assets, general cash distributions, food fairs, nutrition, as well as water, hygiene and sanitation interventions. However, it is neither sustainable nor desirable to bring an immediate response, with the risk of creating a dependency towards this type of aid.

 

Insufficient emergency responses: a mitigated assessment

 

Nowadays, the necessity to address the deep, structural causes of malnutrition and food insecurity in a multi-sector and sustainable framework, and not only in terms of emergency responses, lies in the ethos but also in real commitment. Structural development programmes have to be set up to enable the most vulnerable populations to resist to shocks and crises. Fostering resilience is also a way to facilitate long-term development.

 

Programmes that link humanitarian emergency relief and development have become scarce and difficult to implement, especially because of the restrictions imposed by certain donors with regards to the financing that limits the timeframe and ambition of the programmes, and thus the possibility of a sustainable response to a crisis.

 

Nevertheless, if situations such as the food crisis in the Sahel in 2012 allow decision-makers and donors to respond to such crises, they are also an opportunity to raise the awareness of these international actors to chronic food vulnerability situations. They also encourage using sustainable response mechanisms, by putting forward efficiency, relevance and the impact of the long-term development programmes to support populations in terms of productive capacities and resilience.

Addressing the causes of chronic vulnerability in order to reinforce resilience capacities

Responding to food and nutritional crises in a sustainable way underlines the need to tackle the structural causes of malnutrition and food insecurity in the area, as well as to assist populations in terms of their capacities to to deal with chronic stress (climate hazards, hunger gaps) and to shocks (food crises, armed conflicts, refugee influx), that are inevitable for some cases and are intrinsically linked to the recurrent drought in the region.

 

The objective is to foresee and prepare for these crises beforehand, to reduce their impact for the most vulnerable communities and to foster recovery after external shocks, by limiting the effects of food crises in the short and middle term in terms of health, income, means, development opportunities and household safety.

 

The response must be multi-sector and sustainable by focusing on a response to crumbling livelihoods, community development (rehabilitating infrastructure to relieve them from isolation, setting up and ensuring access to markets, creating groups of food farmers and providing storage buildings or managing natural resources, etc) and to foster infrastructure, and individual and collective capacities in terms of water, sanitation, health, education, etc. (strengthening the health system’s human and institutional capacities, improving access to water by building wells and increasing the network as well as building adapted infrastructure, etc).

 

This integrated approach includes improving food security (agriculture support, provision of seeds, tools and agricultural inputs, improving farming techniques, irrigation, diversification of livelihoods, livestock support and recapitalisation, distribution of fodder during the pastoral lean period, animal health, improved breeding techniques, etc..), supporting households’ economic recovery after a shock (for reconstruction / recapitalisation of livelihoods while avoiding the use of destructive survival strategies), the contribution to the fight against malnutrition (prevention, screening and management of acute malnutrition, sensitisation to good nutrition and hygiene practices and distribution of hygiene kits, support to health centres to improve the quality of the management of malnutrition and access to healthcare, etc..).

 

Resilience is the ability of people to emerge stronger from a crisis situation, or at least without being weakened by a crisis. Being resilient also means to be able to analyze one’s own vulnerability and adapt to a disturbed context (post-crisis). To do so, people must be familiar with the environment and the elements that could impact the future on a daily basis (by knowledge of past crises and recurrent crises). This requires the establishment of monitoring systems for disaster risk reduction and early warning systems to foresee crises that might occur with ad hoc mechanisms, but especially in the long term.

 

Financing to tackle resilience

 

The Sahel is now in a recovery phase whose outcome will determine the ability of people to cope with shocks created by a difficult environment and climate events that regularly hit the area. Allowing the implementation of programmes to promote resilience among the most vulnerable populations also requires an adaptation from the donors in the management of funds. This is an essential requirement to break the cycle of recurring food crises in the Sahel. We have to make this choice today to contain a predictable humanitarian disaster.

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Tuareg refugees in Niger herd their livestock to safety

Nomadic Tuareg refugees from Mali head eastwards on their camels during a livestock drive in Niger to escape the fighting that erupted in northern Mali early last.

 

With the support of ECHO, UNHCR helped refugees to move their animals to allow them to maintain their livelihoods and to continue living as pastoralists and nomads. The Niger government's decision to move the Tuaregs to Intikane was based on security grounds: Agando is located just 10 kilometres from the border in an area that remains unstable.

 

For more go to www.unhcr.org and http://ec.europa.eu/echo/ 

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Au Niger, d’un camp de réfugiés maliens, une voix se fait entendre

Par Shushan Mebrahtu, UNICEF

 

 

Alors que le conflit au nord du Mali s’est aggravé, Fadimata Agali, 15 ans, a été obligée de partir de sa maison de Menaka, abandonnant sa famille et ses amis.

 

Fadimata et sa grand-mère se sont enfuies à pied au Niger. Elles se sont installées dans une tente improvisée au camp de réfugiés de Mangaize, à proximité de la frontière. Aissata, 12 ans, la sœur de Fadimata, les a rejointes plus tard.

 

Cette petite famille est en train de s’adapter à la vie de ce camp de réfugiés du Sahara balayé par la poussière.

 

 

 

« Nous sommes tous séparés les uns des autres »

 

Selon les estimations du HCR, plus de 50 000 réfugiés maliens ont traversé la frontière pour se rendre au Niger. La plupart ont été accueillis dans des camps de réfugiés ou des communautés d’accueil, dans des régions durement touchées par des pénuries alimentaires répétées et où l’accès aux prestations sociales est difficile.

 

Dans le camp, Fadimata se sent suffisamment en sécurité, à l’écart des traumatismes qu’elle a subis au Mali. Elle est en train d’apprendre à vivre avec la douleur causée par la séparation d’avec sa famille, ses amis et son foyer dans un pays étranger, dans des conditions de vie difficiles.

 

« Au Mali, j’étais dans ma propre maison, » dit-elle. « Ici, je vis sous une tente très mal protégée du soleil. »

 

« Mon père et ma mère sont à Bamako, » ajoute-t-elle. « Le reste de ma famille est toujours à Menaka. Mon père a fui Menaka quand la guerre a commencé. Il est allé à Bamako et y a trouvé un travail… »

 

« Nous sommes tous séparés les uns des autres ». Chaque semaine, Fadimata va voir les nouveaux arrivants qui viennent de Menaka pour essayer d’avoir des informations sur sa famille, pour savoir s’il ne se passe rien de nouveau.

 

« Je ne veux pas manquer mes cours »

 

Fadimata fréquente l’établissement scolaire de second cycle de Mangaize qui est proche du camp et où elle est en huitième année. « Quand j’ai commencé les cours à l’école, je me suis sentie perdue, dit Fadimata. Je ne connaissais personne. » Au fil du temps, elle s’est fait de nouveaux amis parmi la communauté d’accueil.

 

« Je sais que certains enfants ne vont pas à l’école et préfèrent rester au camp, dit-elle. Mais je ne veux pas manquer mes cours. »

 

Fadimata raconte ses journées. « Les jours d’école, je me réveille tôt, autour de six heures du matin, dit-elle. Je prépare le petit déjeuner et nous mangeons. Je pars pour l’école à 7 h 10. La classe commence à 8 h. Pendant la pause, je prends mon déjeuner à l’école avec mes camarades. À 13 h, je retourne à notre tente. Si ma grand-mère est malade, je prépare à manger pour l’après-midi. Si elle se sent bien, elle prépare un repas et nous mangeons ensemble. »

 

« Pendant les week-ends, je vais dans le village chez mes camarades ou bien ils viennent ici au camp, » dit-elle.

 

Pouvoir aller en cours signifie que l’éducation scolaire de Fadimata connaîtra moins d’interruptions. Mais, pour elle et les autres enfants du camp, l’école apporte aussi un sentiment de structure qui contribue à rétablir une routine ; en retour, elle permet d’atténuer les effets persistants du conflit et de la vie au camp.

 

Une grande ville et la nostalgie du foyer

 

Fadimata et sa grand-mère se sont récemment rendues à Niamey, la capitale du Niger. Là, pour la première fois depuis qu’elle a quitté le Mali, elle a vu sa tante. Cela a aussi été sa première visite dans une grande ville. « Niamey n’est pas comme Menaka, ce n’est pas comme Mangaize, ce n’est pas comme Gao, » dit-elle. « À Niamey, il y a de nombreux véhicules et beaucoup de gens qui circulent dans la ville. »

 

Fadimata a été heureuse de reprendre contact avec sa tante et d’explorer la ville. Tandis qu’on la conduisait à travers les rues de Niamey et qu’elle achetait des cadeaux sur les marchés importants pour les envoyer chez elle, à sa famille, elle se sentait envahie de sentiments mitigés. Alors que les jours et les mois se sont écoulés le désir de voir sa famille n’a fait que croître.

 

Peu après sa rencontre avec du personnel de l’UNICEF, Fadimata pu se rendre à Menaka pour rendre visite à ses parents qui sont rentrés chez deux. Elle est actuellement en congés scolaires pour une période de deux mois. Fadimata retournera à Mangaize quand, en septembre, l’école rouvrira ses portes.

 

L’UNICEF, en partenariat avec le HCR, des ONG et le Gouvernement d Niger, continue d’apporter une aide humanitaire aux réfugiés venant du Mali. Au nombre des interventions, figure l’apport de prestations concernant la santé, l’alimentation, l’eau, l’assainissement et l’hygiène. L’organisation investit aussi dans l’avenir des enfants par l’accès à l’éducation et la protection de l’enfance.

 

L’objectif est que 11 500 garçons et filles puissent poursuivre leur éducation scolaire dans les camps et les écoles des communautés d’accueil, que 15 000 enfants bénéficient d’une prise en charge psychosociale grâce à des espaces amis des enfants et que 1010 650 personnes disposent d’eau potable et d’installations sanitaires. L’UNICEF exprime sa reconnaissance envers les donateurs pour leurs généreuses contributions qui ont rendu possible l’intervention actuelle.

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Une petite fille souffrant de malnutrition, un an après

From CARE

En 2012, les membres de l'équipe de CARE rencontraient au Niger Firdaoussou, une petite fille d'un an, sévèrement sous alimentée. Firdaoussou a alors bénéficié du programme d'urgences mené par CARE lors de la grave crise alimentaire qui a touché le pays. Découvrez le témoignage de sa mère un an après.

« Ma fille revient de loin ... »



2013 / CARE / Niandou Ibrahim



« Ma fille revient de loin... Un vrai miracle » ne cesse de répéter Adama Issaka en cajolant Firdaoussou.

 

Firdaoussou a maintenant deux ans et elle revient effectivement de loin. De très loin même. Elle a 24 mois et a passé la moitié de sa vie à lutter contre la mort. Une victoire contre la faim qui est fêtée chaque jour avec sa mère dans une émouvante complicité, pleine de sourires, de clins d'œil, et de gestes de tendresse.

 

Firdaoussou est née en mai 2011 dans le village de Bongoukoirey, dans la région de Tillabery. Les 10 premiers mois de sa vie, nourrie au sein par sa mère, la petite fille grandit normalement. Son père, lui, passe la plupart du temps en Côte d'Ivoire. En mars 2012, Firdaoussou commence à souffrir de malnutrition.

 

« Un grand nombre d'enfants tombaient malade, dépérissaient, mourraient. J'ai désespéré un moment. Vers le mois d'août, je pensais que Firdaoussou allait mourir... elle avait tellement maigri », se souvient Adama avec tristesse.

8 mois sans réserves alimentaires

En mars 2012, une déclaration conjointe du Gouvernement nigérien, de l'OCHA (bureau de la coordination des affaires humanitaires de l'ONU) et d'ONG internationales tirait ainsi la sonnette d'alarme :

 

« La situation des populations, en particulier des femmes et des enfants, se détériore rapidement.... La combinaison d'un ensemble de facteurs - déficits agricole et fourrager de la saison dernière, flambée des prix des denrées alimentaires de base, baisse de la valeur du bétail et niveaux élevés d'endettement des ménages suite aux crises précédentes, a considérablement affaibli les revenus et l'accès à la nourriture de nombreuses familles. Pour ces personnes, la période de soudure a déjà commencé : elles n'ont plus de réserves alimentaires jusqu'à la prochaine récolte prévue en octobre. »



Renforcer les capacités de résilience sur le long terme face aux épisodes chroniques d'insécurité alimentaire



2013 / CARE / Niandou Ibrahim

 

Dans le village de Bongoukoirey, presque toutes les femmes dont les enfants souffraient de la malnutrition n'étaient pas membres du réseau des femmes « Mata Masu Dubara ». Ce groupe de 99 femmes a été créé il y a plusieurs années, avec l'appui de CARE, pour renforcer leur résilience vis-à-vis des aléas climatiques.

 

Ainsi, à travers ces Associations Villageoises d'Epargne et de Crédit (AVEC) qui facilitent le développement d'activités génératrices de revenus, ces femmes ont mis en place un grenier à grains pour prévenir les ruptures de stocks survenant chaque année entre mars et septembre. Elles ont également aménagé des jardins potagers collectifs pour améliorer la nutrition des enfants.

 

Les mamans lumières, une approche nutritionnelle sur base communautaire

Une vingtaine de femmes référentes dans leurs communautés ont également été formées au dépistage de la malnutrition et à la prévention de la malnutrition maternelle et infantile (allaitement, prévention des carences, prévention sanitaire, soins de santé aux enfants ou aux femmes enceintes et allaitantes).

 

« Ces femmes, ces mamans lumière comme nous les appelons, sont également formées aux techniques d'animation afin qu'elles puissent mener ensuite des groupes de discussions dans leur communauté. Elles ont ainsi multiplié les séances de démonstrations culinaires pour expliquer aux autres mères du village quel type de recettes favorise la récupération nutritionnelle, notamment des enfants en bas âge », explique Hervé Bonino, responsable Programmes Sahel/Afrique de l'Ouest de CARE France.

 

Ces foyers d'apprentissage et de réhabilitation nutritionnelle (FARN) ontété développés par CARE au Niger depuis 2001 pour prévenir et réduire les prévalences de malnutrition aigüe à travers la prise en charge non médicale de la malnutrition sur base communautaire.

 

« Je n'ai jamais raté une de ces séances du FARN. Et ça se voit », explique Adama en regardant intensément Firdaoussou.

Une belle histoire de solidarité. Une histoire d'auto-réponse communautaire digne et efficace au problème récurrent d'insécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle.

 

« L'approche communautaire développée par CARE mettant en œuvre des projets intégrés combinant la capacité de réponse sectorielle - ici les FARN - et l'autonomisation des femmes - à travers les AVEC - permet de renforcer les capacités de résilience des communautés bénéficiaires sur le long terme face à des chocs alimentaires sévères », conclut Hervé Bonino.

L'histoire d'Adama et de Firdaoussou n'est qu'un exemple de nombreuses vies sauvées à travers le projet « Maman Lumière ».

 Pour plus d'informations visitez www.care.org

Good news from the front lines of hunger

Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the World Food Programme

 The past year – my first as Executive Director of the World Food Programme – has vanished in a blur.  The unfolding crisis in Syria and neighbouring countries has kept all of us in the humanitarian community busy, but for me, it is the continuing crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa that has provided a constant backbeat to my first twelve months in this job.

I chose Niger as the first country I visited as Executive Director in April last year.  At the time, the country was at the epicentre of a drought that had affected the whole Sahel region, pushing millions into the protective arms of the humanitarian community.   Hunger gnawed at the very soul of people caught in the unforgiving lean season that precedes the arrival of crops from the new harvest.

Twelve months later, when I visited Burkina Faso and Mali, millions were still facing the prospect of the next hunger season.  But this time they were better equipped to cope, even though the simmering conflict in Mali had complicated matters by forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. 

In 2012, humanitarian agencies and national governments worked together to avert a potential catastrophe.  In 2013 we are helping those same communities continue on the road to recovery as they adapt to shifts in weather patterns that have made droughts more frequent and more severe.

This is all good news.  Lives have been saved and money has been invested in building resilience, ensuring the people of the Sahel are better equipped to cope with future droughts.  But does good news get the attention it deserves?

Blink and you would have missed any news coverage of the successful early intervention that prevented disaster in the Sahel in 2012. This year, the Sahel has barely registered on the news media radar.  I may have missed it, but I don’t recall seeing any coverage of the healthy babies I saw in Mopti, Mali when I visited a few weeks ago.

Good humanitarian stories, it seems, are not worthy subject matter for newspaper headlines or top billing on television news channels, even when the lives of millions are at stake and tax-payers’ money is being used efficiently to provide vital assistance.

It’s not so long ago that a television report featuring harrowing images of a starving child would open the floodgates of support, compelling governments and the public to respond, donating the cash that humanitarian agencies need to stop more children going hungry.  It is a formula that has worked again and again since the first televised famine in Ethiopia in 1984, and it has been difficult for humanitarian organisations to resist.

At some point or other, we have all been complicit in identifying a “poster child” to tug on the heartstrings of the public and encourage them to reach for their wallets.  But while this may have worked in the past, it is becoming increasingly obvious that people have seen and read enough about food shortages and famine to acquire a more questioning approach to the causes of hunger and the potential solutions.

Today, potential supporters are more likely to ask why after so much work has been done, are children still starving?  And what has been achieved after all the millions of dollars have been spent, when so many people are still vulnerable to hunger?  As humanitarian agencies we must answer these questions  ourselves, but we also depend on media organisations to help us deliver the message explaining the rationale behind our response as well as to highlight success when it is deserved.

Of course we don’t work for each other, but media organisations and humanitarian agencies do depend heavily on each other’s goodwill.  We support each other as we strive to fulfil our different missions, finding ourselves accidental partners at the scene of every disaster.

The Sahel in 2012 was no Biafra, nor was it Ethiopia in 1984, or Somalia in 2011.  But human suffering – that image of a severely malnourished child - should not be the measure of whether a story merits news coverage.  Our role in the humanitarian sector must be to inspire journalists to move beyond reporting that is driven primarily by images that exemplify our collective failure.  If it takes television footage of a starving child to move a donor into action then we are acting too late.

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Sahel: Millions need long-term support

By the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)



The UN’s senior humanitarian representative in the Sahel region of West Africa has called on the international community to maintain its commitment to millions of people who face another year threatened by malnutrition, displacement, conflict and high food prices.



 

Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel and Assistant Secretary-General Robert Piper said that the region remained in crisis, even though the response to last year’s food crisis was “fast and substantial”.

“A lot of things went right in 2012 despite the scale of the challenges,” he said. “The temptation going into 2013 was to breathe a sigh of relief and take the foot off the humanitarian accelerator.

 “(But) we can’t take a year off just yet. The Sahel is still in crisis as a region.”

Over 10 million need food

A range of factors have left an estimated 10.3 million people in need of food assistance across the region. Many communities are still reeling from last year’s food crisis, which came less than two years after the previous one. Cereal prices remain high, exacerbated by floods in northern Nigeria (an area that produces 50 per cent of the Sahel’s cereals) as well as insecurity in Nigeria and Mali.

This insecurity and flooding have meant that pastoralists in Chad and Niger are cut off from Nigerian livestock markets, making it difficult for them to sell their cattle at the prices they need to make a living. Finally, continued Piper, many people need assistance because of the very deep nature of their vulnerability.

“We need to recognize that one reasonable agricultural season will not reverse the levels of acute vulnerability in the region,” he said. “Vulnerable households affected by cycles of ever-frequent crises don’t need much of a push to go under the emergency line.”

Funding thwarts efforts to tackle root causes of vulnerability

For 2013, UN agencies and their humanitarian partners have appealed for US$1.7 billion to help them support communities in the nine countries that make up the Sahel. To date, $473 million – about 28 per cent of what is needed – has been received.

“2013 is not the year to reduce our commitments to the Sahel,” said Piper. He noted that the type of funding received was limiting the ability of agencies to respond effectively to the crisis.

Forty-three per cent of the funding that has been received has been directed towards short-term food aid. While this has ensured that 1.2 million people across the region received food assistance in the first two months of 2013, it also meant that aid agencies were constrained in their ability to address the root causes of vulnerability.

“The resources that are being received are slanted to particular sectors,” Piper said. “They do not allow us to tackle the root causes of vulnerability in the Sahel.”

For example, agricultural projects that are designed to help communities build resilience against disasters and break the cycle of aid dependence have received only five per cent of the financial support they need. Only 108,000 of the estimated 5.9 million farmers in need received seeds ahead of the May 2013 planting season, meaning that many millions may face a third year of crisis in 2014.

“Last year’s response to the food crisis was extraordinarily good,” said Piper. “(But) we need to learn from this success. Our record for 2013 looks less promising but it’s not too late.”

The need for greater investment in addressing the root causes of vulnerability will be a major focus of the Fourth Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction that is being held in Geneva this week. This event will see governments, the UN and the wider humanitarian and development communities continue to explore the global framework for reducing disaster risk. It comes on the heels of a new report from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) that warned that direct losses from disasters have been underestimated by at least 50 per cent, and have cost the global economy in the range of $2.5 trillion since the start of this century alone.

 

 

The need for greater investment in addressing the root causes of vulnerability will be a major focus of the Fourth Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction that is being held in Geneva this week. This event will see governments, the UN and the wider humanitarian and development communities continue to explore the global framework for reducing disaster risk. It comes on the heels of a new report from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) that warned that direct losses from disasters have been underestimated by at least 50 per cent, and have cost the global economy in the range of $2.5 trillion since the start of this century alone.

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Defusing the Sahel time bomb – ECHO Director General visits the Sahel

 

At the beginning of the 2013 lean season in the Sahel, when people´s resources and food reserves start running low, ECHO´s Director General, Claus Sørensen, visited the region. Here is what he found on the ground.

 

 

 

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Local factory provides home-grown response to malnutrition in the Niger

By Bob Coen, UNICEF

 

A new report by UNICEF reveals the high prevalence of stunting in children under 5, but also outlines the tremendous opportunities that exist to make it a problem of the past. A factory in Niamey is transforming the way the Niger responds to the threat of malnutrition. It is also transforming the local economy.



In just five years, the company has been able to provide
100 per cent of the country’s ready-to-use therapeutic food.
In 2012, that food treated 370,000 children.

A few hundred metres from the banks of the mighty Niger River, where the routines of fishers and farmers continue as they have for centuries, a modest factory is transforming how this West African nation responds to the threat of malnutrition.

 

Societé Transformation d’Alimentaire (STA) is a wholly owned and operated Nigerien enterprise in the nation’s capital, Niamey. Within the walls of its plant, personnel work shifts on a gleaming, high-tech assembly line. They turn out carton after carton of a peanut-based ready-to-use therapeutic food, the go-to product for treating severe acute malnutrition in children.

 

Response to multiple food crises

 

Since 2005, the Niger has experienced several serious food crises, which have threatened hundreds of thousands of children with severe acute malnutrition. In 2006, UNICEF decided to enter into a unique partnership with the still-fledging STA to help it develop its capacity to manufacture ready-to-use foods locally. In just five years, the company has been able to provide 100 per cent of the country’s ready-to-use food; in 2012, STA delivered 2,800 tonnes of the food, which treated 370,000 children.

 

“[Ready-to-use-foods] have brought about a real revolution in the treatment of children suffering from malnutrition because these are products that meet international standards and the needs of children,” says UNICEF Niger Deputy Representative Isselmou Boukhary. “They are also extremely easy to use in the health centres, and especially at home, which is important in a country like Niger.”

 

“We are very happy about this collaboration,” says STA Deputy General Manager Ismael Barmou, watching trucks being loaded with cartons of the food to be taken to the UNICEF central warehouse. “One of the things we’re most proud of is to be able to be competitive in the international market. So, it’s a win and win partnership, especially for the end use, which are the kids in Niger that are in need of nutritional solutions.”

 

“Soon he will be running”

 

Women grind peanuts in Tchadoua. These locally farmed peanuts
are the main ingredient of ready-to-use therapeutic food,
which is produced by UNICEF partner Societé
Transformation d’Alimentaire

Some 700 km from the factory, Nana Hassia has reported to her local health centre with her 20-month-old son Hassan, who is recovering from severe acute malnutrition. A health worker carefully weighs and measures the boy. Ms. Hassia is given a week’s supply of the ready-to-use food, which she will use to treat Hassan at home.

 

With five other children to care for, Ms. Hassia says, “It’s a big advantage for me to be able to treat my child from home and not have to keep him at the health centre.”

 

Once home, all she needs to do is to tear open the sachet of paste for Hassan, which he quickly and eagerly devours. The food is given five times a day.

 

The results are nothing short of remarkable. In a matter of days, most children are already gaining weight and strength. “I’m so happy,” says Ms. Hassia, as she feeds Hassan. “I can see my child getting stronger, and soon he will be running.”

 

Supplies when and where they are needed

 

In order for ready-to-use food to be available to mothers like Ms. Hassia when they arrive for their weekly appointments at health centres, it is essential that there be a reliable supply chain of the product – a reason that having a local supplier is so important. “It makes our supply chain much more efficient and easier to manage,” explains UNICEF Niger Supply and Procurement Manager Stephane Arnaud.

 

Before the partnership with STA, UNICEF imported large shipments of the food via the neighbouring port of Lomé, Togo, which would require months of planning. Getting the product from the STA factory to the more than 900 health centres around the Niger is much simpler, says Mr. Arnaud. “Having it locally, I can reduce my costs of warehousing – and it’s also much easier to manage for the shelf life of the product.”

 

Benefit to the local economy

 

The UNICEF–STA partnership has also had a positive impact on the local economy.  The company employs more than 100 people in its manufacturing plant, as well as scores of women at an adjoining facility who inspect and clean the peanuts by hand.  At agricultural markets in the various farming centres around the country, wholesalers can purchase sacks of peanuts directly from farmers. Hundreds of other people are employed as peanut shredders.

 

“I’m really happy and also proud to know that there’s a company here in Niger that is using peanuts to make this special food for children,” says peanut farmer Hassan Nomao.

 

“I’m happy because I know that these peanuts are going to help save a lot of children.”

 

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Tuareg refugees in Niger herd their livestock to safety

By Bernard Ntwari /UNHCR / Intikane, Niger

The long column of animals – flanked by men sitting high in the saddle – headed eastwards at a steady pace, raising clouds of dust on the trek towards new pastures.

It may sound like a scene from a Western, but this drama was being played out thousands of miles away and across an ocean in the West African nation of Niger. The cast includes 800 animals, ethnic Tuareg nomads from Mali and the UN refugee agency.
  

Tuareg nomads from Mali head eastwards on their camels
during the livestock drive in Niger. © UNHCR/B.Ntwari

In late April, the caravan of camels, cattle, donkeys, goats, sheep and three horses left the refugee settlement at Agando, about 10 kilometres from the border with Mali, and began the three-day trek to Intikane, a vast area where the Tuaregs will be able to live in an open area and lead their traditional nomadic lifestyle in safety.

All of the 8,000 refugees at Agando and nearby Chinourawen village fled to western Niger with their animals to escape the fighting that erupted in northern Mali early last year or because of continued insecurity or fear of reprisals since January this year, when a French-led counter-attack pushed back rebel forces.

The Niger government's decision to move the Tuaregs to Intikane was based on security grounds: Agando is located just 10 kilometres from the border in an area that remains unstable. It was also a way of letting them lead a more normal life.

"Helping refugees to move their animals will allow them to maintain their livelihoods and to continue living as pastoralists and nomads rather than ending up in a refugee camp dwellers and dependent on aid," noted Karl Steinacker, UNHCR 's representative in Niger.

The Tuaregs were involved in the relocation process from the start. "We held several meetings and we worked out an itinerary," said Mouhamoud Abdoulaye Al Kan Afi. "We were able to go and see Intikane. It is suitable for us and for our animals," added the respected refugee elder, who rode his horse like a young man and was one of the chief herdsmen.

UNHCR brought in local partner, Akarass, to help organize the caravan, which was a major logistical operation. "We worked on every detail: there were water points along the way and food for the herdsmen," said the NGO's Oumarou Danni Saadou, adding that gendarmes on camel-back provided security.

The health of the animals was looked after by a vet, and on arrival at Intikane all the animals were given vaccinations to prevent the spread of disease among livestock owned by the local community.

The three-kilometre-long train of animals arrived in Intikane to a warm reception from the local community. "The refugees and their animals are welcome. What happened to them could happen to anyone," said the village headman, Alghadawi Ilhouda. "We have to support them by sharing our water and pasture," he added in an arid area of scrub and sand.

Some of the Malian herders were delighted to discover that there was a well at Intikane, operated by powerful pumps and generators that had been rehabilitated by UNHCR. "This is simply like rain," said one refugee, Omar Mouhamadou. The 700-metre-deep well also benefits the local community in this part of Niger's Tahoua region, where the Sahel region meets the Sahara.

The Niger government, with help from UNHCR, plans to bring other communities of refugees to safer pastures deeper inside the country over the coming weeks. But unlike the animals and their drovers, most of the refugees will make the journey on convoys prepared by UNHCR's partner, the International Organization for Migration.

UNHCR is protecting and assisting some 50,000 Malian refugees in Niger. They are among more than 175,000 Malian refugees in surrounding countries, including Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

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Blacksmith forges a new life in Niger camp

By Bernard Ntwari in Agando, UNHCR / Niger

When Ali Mahmoud fled his home in eastern Mali last year, he took along a skill that has helped him survive, thrive and even find a wife in exile in western Niger.

 

The 40-year-old has been using his expertise as a blacksmith to earn a handsome living in the Agando refugee site since leaving his home eight months ago in Méneka, just across the border in Mali's Gao province.

 

His enterprise is encouraged by UNHCR, which has this year launched self-sufficiency projects in the camps. "We have started to organize income-generation activities in the refugee camps, not only to give refugees opportunities to earn money, but also to allow them to contribute to their living and not rely on assistance," explained Karl Steinacker, UNHCR's representative in Niger.

 

Ali specializes in making knives and the ornamental swords that are a part of Tuareg culture and proudly displays a range of his products to visitors from UNHCR. "These are the kinds of blades that I usually make," he says, adding that he also mends iron tools.

 

Business is brisk and he reckons that he earns the equivalent of about US$50 every day. "Every man here owns a sword or wants to own one," says Ali's father and fellow blacksmith, Galio.

 

Ali says it takes him three or four days to make an ornamental knife or sword with engravings. He buys the metal, including iron and copper, at the market [in Agando] and forms, heat treats and finishes the blades using hammers and a simple anvil outside his shelter made of straw and branches. A good knife sells for US$50, while a sword and sheath command a price of US$100.

 

Ali uses his skills as a blacksmith to turn pieces of metal into tools and weapons.

People also come to get their damaged tools and blades mended by Ali and a queue starts building up outside his home from early morning. He accepts barter – normally food – from those who cannot pay in cash.

 

"Nobody else here can work with iron as well as Ali," says Hawlata, after handing over half a kilo of flour to get her household knives repaired and sharpened. "He is a skilled man," echoes Habba, the smithy's neighbour. He brought an axe to be fixed.

 

In Agando, Ali's success has brought him more business than he ever had in Méneka, where all his earnings went to support his parents, two brothers and sister. But now, for the first time, he is earning enough to get married. And he's picked a bride – Anata. She's 18 years old and comes from his home village.

 

"I'm very happy to have met Anata," he says, adding that he has saved around US$600 to pay for the dowry. "I love her very much," the smitten blacksmith says as he sips hot tea from a small glass.

 

Meanwhile, Ali is preparing to move to a safer camp deeper inside Niger at Intikan, which is located some 80 kilometres from the border. UNHCR will be helping about 17,000 Malian refugees to the new site, where it will also be easier to provide them with protection and assistance.

 

He's looking forward to the move and is confident that his business will thrive there too. "I am eager to go as soon as possible to Intikan, where I hope the number of my customers will double or triple," says Ali. If business is that good he hopes to hire other refugees.

 

Meanwhile, his neighbours and friends, are happy that they will be able to continue to rely on his services in the new camp. "He is an asset to our community and we are happy we can move with him to Intikan," says Habba. And Ali hopes he can benefit from UNHCR's livelihood's programme there.

 

There are currently more than 50,000 Malian refugees living in Niger.

 

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UNHCR urgently needs funding to continue assisting displaced Malians

By UNHCR

The UN refugee agency on Friday renewed an appeal for millions of dollars to help meet the needs of tens of thousands of Malian refugees and almost 300,000 internally displaced people.

 

"UNHCR needs US$144 million to cover the basic protection and assistance needs. So far we have received only 32 per cent of this amount," spokesman Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva. "The financial requirements and activities presented in the Special Appeal are not additional to the ones approved by our Executive Committee in 2012 but reflect a reprioritization of UNHCR's budget based on the latest developments in the region," he added.

The funding UNHCR is seeking is to allow for expansion and construction of transit centres, provision of supplementary and therapeutic food, shelters and other relief items, and delivery of basic services such as health care, water and sanitation and education.

There are currently more than 175,000 Malian refugees in surrounding countries. This includes 75,850 refugees in Mauritania, over 49,000 in Burkina Faso and some 50,000 in Niger. "The special appeal we are issuing today covers the needs of this population plus up to 45,500 additional refugees anticipated during 2013 – based on existing rates of arrival," Edwards said.

In addition to the refugee population there are more than 282,000 internally displaced people (IDP). Funding for them is also urgently needed. UNHCR leads efforts to coordinate activities of the protection and shelter clusters.

Displacement from Mali into neighbouring countries is continuing. More than 35,000 people have become refugees since the French military intervention in January (and, according to UN figures, there are an additional 60,000 IDPs).





Malian refugee children take shelter from a dust storm in Burkina Faso's
Goudebou refugee camp. The needs for displaced Malians
remain great.
© UNHCR/B.Sokol



"According to our staff on the ground, many recent arrivals are in worse condition than the refugees who arrived last year, requiring immediate relief and attention. The humanitarian situation is also being aggravated by prevailing food insecurity as a result of ongoing drought and a series of crop failures affecting the entire Sahel region," Edwards said.

In Mauritania – which hosts the largest number of Malian refugees – at the end of last year there were more than 54,000 Malians. The military intervention in northern Mali prompted a new influx of refugees, with an average of 500 new arrivals per day during January and February – amounting to more than 21,000 people. People are continuing to arrive, but in smaller numbers.

The new influx requires an expanded response in life-saving sectors, including in food and non-food items, water, sanitation, nutrition, health, education, shelter and environmental areas.

Several measures have been taken to treat and prevent malnutrition at the Mbera refugee camp, including distribution of nutritional supplements to infants, organization of awareness sessions for mothers, increased access to health facilities, launch of a measles vaccination campaign and installation of better water and sanitation infrastructure. This has led to a reduction in acute malnutrition rates of refugee children (under five years) from 20 per cent to 13 per cent. Additional funding is required to improve prevention and response mechanisms.

In Niger, the latest wave of refugees (some 2,700) in the remote north in late March and early April is mainly composed of women and children, escaping the military operations in Kidal and Menaka on foot or donkey. Reception conditions are precarious, mainly owing to a lack of water and health facilities.

UNHCR and the World Food Programme have already provided them with food and emergency non-food items while also redeploying staff and resources to this isolated area. "A recent inter-agency survey to assess the feeding programmes shows positive results, but continued efforts are required to counter prevailing malnutrition in the four refugee camps of Niger," UNHCR's Edwards noted.

In Burkina Faso, the majority of the new arrivals have been settled in Goudebou camp, where a recent nutrition survey organized by UNHCR, WFP and the national health authorities showed an alarmingly high global acute malnutrition rate of 24.5 per cent. UNHCR and its partners have completed screening of all children under five years of age and have started treatment of malnutrition cases.

Preparation is under way for blanket feeding programmes, including fortified cereals and micro-nutrient powder for children under five years and supplements or fortified blended food to all pregnant and lactating women.

One of the main protection priorities in Burkina Faso and Niger is to relocate refugees away from the formal and informal sites that are too close to the border or to military installations.

 

For more go to www.unhcr.org

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Learning the Lessons in the Sahel

By Elise Ford, Humanitarian Policy Advisor / Oxfam

In 2012, the Sahel region of West Africa faced in 3 crises in 7 years.  It was unprecedented in its scale – it affected 18 million people across 9 countries – from Senegal in the West across 4,000km to Chad in the East. And yet, the crisis rarely received the media headlines and attention it deserved.  Marred in a cycle of hunger and chronic poverty, the story of a crisis in this region is no longer seen as news. Suffering was not thought to be sufficiently extreme. And yet, going to communities such as those in the Guera region in Chad, there could be no doubt that poor and vulnerable people had been pushed to the brink of survival. Mothers told me of how they had cut back the number of times they ate to just once or twice a day.  They were forced to bring together scraps to find enough to eat – resorting to boiling nettles or digging anthills for grain. 

 

I came to West Africa from Nairobi having dealt with the response to the famine that savaged part of Somalia the previous year.  In East Africa, there had been outcry and disappointment at the collective failure to respond to the early warnings received.  Oxfam had pointed to a widespread culture of risk aversion that had resulted in a ‘dangerous delay’, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of lives and livelihoods. We knew that it could have been different.

 

As warnings emerged that the harvests had been poor and that the Sahel could face a similar crisis, food security experts in the region appeared determined that they would not repeat the mistakes of East Africa. This time they wanted things to be different.  In a Oxfam report released today ‘Learning the Lessons: assessing the response to 2012 food crisis in the Sahel to build resilience’, we analyse to what extent we really were able to do better this time and come to some worrying conclusions.

 

First, the good news. As soon as the first warnings were issued, governments began to issue appeals and agencies and donors came together to begin planning an appropriate response.  Some donors provided the first contributions for the crisis already at the end of 2011, allowing assistance to provided to those communities most in need before they even began to feel the effects of the critical food shortages and rocketing prices to come.

 

But the overall verdict is mixed at best. Although there were some initial positive steps, it is clear that the response was still not as good as it could or should have been, nor as many have been claiming. Despite new willingness from governments in the region, there were still critical gaps in their capacity to lead – something we must all take responsibility for.  A lack of consensus around the severity of the crisis led to a critical delay in the response. Donors still preferred to wait for certainty, rather than act on the basis of risk. 50% of the funding requested was still lacking by June. 5.6 million farmers didn’t receive the seeds and tools they needed in time for the main harvest, to help them produce the food to recover. The same old mistakes and flaws from past response reappeared. We’re still failing to learn the lessons.

 

There is increasing acknowledgement – from Oxfam and others - that the only way these challenges will be overcome is by adopting a new model of doing business rather tweaking an old one. Resilience - the ability of households to survive and thrive despite shocks and stresses – has become an important concept, offering hope that the cycle of hunger can be broken once and for all.  In the immediate resilience means investing in the poorest and most vulnerable communities so that they can recover from this latest crisis and build up the capacity to better cope in the face of future shocks. 

 

Whilst the 2012 crisis may have come too soon, it is also clear that we can afford no further delay. Conditions in the region are becoming increasingly precarious and unpredictable. The population in the Sahel increases 3% each year – making it constantly harder to produce enough food to meet needs. Climate change threatens to further exacerbate the problem – reducing yields and cultivable land.  According to the FAO, with appropriate action, climate change could mean an additional million people in Mali could fall into poverty by 2050. For some communities that Oxfam works with in Niger, that they describe only one in every three years as a ‘normal’ year.  Rocked by one crisis after another, there are limited prospects for the most vulnerable to escape from poverty.

 

The challenge is making change happen. The failings of the 2012 response and the poor showing so far in 2013 demonstrate the huge gap between the rhetoric and the reality that still needs to be overcome. Ongoing needs in the region are huge. 10 million people are still food insecure. 5 million are acutely malnourished. The road to recovery will be long. And yet, UN humanitarian appeals for 2013 – designed to meet immediate humanitarian and recovery needs and build the foundations of resilience in the region – remain desperately underfunded. Less than one quarter of the funds needed have been provided so far this year.  Donors have provided few concrete commitments on money to build resilience and improve food security in the region. National governments still need to convert unprecedented political will into actual policies.

 

The region will inevitably face more crises in the future. When those crises do hit, we must hope communities will be better prepared to withstand and thrive despite of them.  It is the actions that we do or do not take over the next months and years that will be critical in deciding that.

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