Renewed support needed for agricultural support in the Sahel 

By Jose Luis Fernandez,

Coordinator, FAO’s Regional Resilience, Emergency and Rehabilitation Office for West Africa/Sahel (REOWA)

On 3 February 2014, humanitarian partners launched the 2014-2016 Strategic Response Plan for the Sahel in FAO premises in Rome. The launch of the Plan was the culmination of a regional process in which hundreds of partners delivering humanitarian aid in the Sahel countries have come together to assess needs and formulate concerted plans and a unified funding request to UN Member States and donor organizations.

 

For 2014, the Plan includes response strategies to cover the most humanitarian needs of millions of people still affected by food insecurity and malnutrition in the region, including agricultural response. On 2 May 2014, only 13 percent of the required funds for the agricultural component of this appeal were received.

What are the immediate consequences of this lack of funds?

The lacks of adequate funding for emergency agricultural and livelihood support in the Sahel is preventing vulnerable communities who rely on small-scale agriculture to produce their own food. Millions of men and women farmers have to face the next main agricultural campaign (May-October 2014) with depleted or low stocks of food crop seeds, and will therefore cultivate reduced areas of land, or will not even be able to plant at all. Herds are extremely weakened by the lack of adequate food due to deficits in previous months fodder productions. As a consequence they are very vulnerable to diseases and to death.

 

Vulnerable families will rely entirely on markets in the coming months as the lean season, also known as the ‘hunger season’, has already begun. In absence of assistance, the most vulnerable households are forced to reduce quantity and quality of daily meals, reduce their investment in quality inputs, sell their productive assets and become indebted. These negative coping mechanisms threaten their ability to respond to shocks in the short, medium and long term. In particular vulnerable households will be confronted to possible droughts, floods or insecurity in the months to come with low level of adaptative capacities.

We can make a difference

In the past years, millions of vulnerable households have not benefited from adequate support. It is refraining communities from becoming resilient and protecting their livelihoods. Without a renewed commitment of donors and partners to support food production and protect livelihoods, a further deterioration of food security and nutrition can be expected throughout 2014, requiring long-lasting and costly food assistance. In the coming months, other opportunities shall be seized to support food production and protect livelihoods in the region with support to livestock, flood plain recession and off-season agriculture.

 

The food security challenge in the Sahel shall not be forgotten. The remaining needs of the region are enormous and donors and partners still have the opportunity in the coming months to support households affected by food insecurity with support to livestock, flood plain recession and off-season agriculture. Increasing support to the agricultural sector could help vulnerable households break the cycle of poverty and hunger, instead of keeping them dependent on food assistance.

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Increasing women’s voice through agriculture

By Chelsea Graham, P4P, World Food Program

Throughout the pilot phase, P4P has focused on assisting women farmers to benefit economically from their work, gaining confidence and voice in their communities and homes. Mazouma Sanou, a farmer from Burkina Faso, has first-hand experience of these benefits as well as the challenges still facing women farmers.

 

“P4P started as a gender conscious project,” says P4P gender consultant Batamaka Somé’, during the 2014 P4P Annual Consultation. From its inception, he says, P4P faced many challenges to women’s empowerment, such as women’s limited access to inputs and credit, their unpaid contributions to farming, and the male-held control of household production and marketing.

 

To address these challenges, P4P’s first step was to create realistic goals, and a framework within which these could be achieved. This was documented in a gender strategy. The development of the strategy was led by the Agricultural Learning Impacts Network (ALINe), and included extensive field research and literature review, which provided a nuanced and culturally specific view of women in agriculture.

 

Today, a number of P4P’s targets related to gender have been met. Women’s participation in P4P has tripled since the beginning of the pilot, and some 200,000 women have been trained in various capacities. Skills and income gained through P4P have boosted women’s confidence, enabling them to participate and engage more in markets. However, many challenges remain to further assist women to access markets and benefit economically from their work.

 

One woman’s experience

 

Mazouma Sanou represented the Burkina Faso cooperative
union UPPA-Houet at P4P’s Annual Consultation in Rome.
Copyright: WFP/Ahnna Gudmunds

Mazouma Sanou is a 43-year old woman farmer from Burkina Faso. She is married and the mother of three children. Mazouma is a member of a P4P-supported cooperative union called UPPA-Houet. Today, the union has 20,500 members, 11,000 of whom are women. Mazouma contributes maize, sorghum, and niébé (cowpeas) to her union’s sales to WFP.

 

Mazouma also works as a field monitor paid by WFP and OXFAM to coach 25 rural women’s groups affiliated to her union, assisting them to produce and earn more. She works as an intermediary between groups and partners, and assists women to better organize their groups. She also supports them throughout the production process, making sure their products meet standards and working with them to improve their marketing and gain access to credit.

 

Changing family and community dynamics

 

P4P has contributed to an improvement in family dynamics by increasing women’s economic power through P4P-supported sales, finding that with money in their hands, women have more voice in their communities and homes. P4P and its partners also carry out gender sensitization training for both men and women, illustrating the tangible benefits which can be realized by households when women participate fully in farming activities.

 

Mazouma says that since their involvement in P4P, many women are able to make family decisions in collaboration with their husbands. She states that this has made income management easier, allowing families to plan for the possibility of unexpected illness, and to set aside money for enrolling their children in school.

 

Additionally, Mazouma has seen great changes at the community level. She says that thanks to their increased economic power, women are now more involved in decision-making and planning both in the cooperative union and their communities.

 

Challenges ahead

 

While Mazouma says that gender dynamics are certainly changing for the better in her community, she acknowledges that there are still challenges ahead. She says that certain men do resist women’s increasing voice, and that she often works with women to discuss family life and helps them negotiate with their husbands.

 

“Women have to help educate their husbands. Dialogue can certainly change attitudes, but you can’t command people to do things,” she says. “I ask the woman ‘if you get that money, what will you do,’ and she says ‘help the children,’ so I say ‘your husband can take another wife but your children can’t have another mother. Your children can really benefit from this.’”

 

Many women in Mazouma’s farmers’ group have benefited economically from their work with P4P. Despite this, while over 50% of the UPPA Houet’s members are women, only 32% of the farmers’ organization’s sales to WFP were supplied by women, putting just 22% of the union’s sales directly into women’s hands. The five-year pilot illustrated that progress has been made, however continued efforts are required to ensure that more women benefit economically from their work with P4P.

 

Future plans

 

When asked about the future of her cooperative, Mazouma says, “from the very start P4P has been a school where we have learned how to improve our work, how to improve quality. I think we need more training, so women can help women train each other and develop their work.”

 

Though women such as Mazouma have received benefits from their participation in P4P, there is still is a long way to go. Change at a community and household level is slow, and many of the deep-seated cultural and social challenges identified at the beginning of the project have still not been completely overcome. However, the progress made so far is an indicator of the potential impact of culturally specific, flexible and nuanced gender programming.

 

“A great deal of work still needs to be done for gender equity to be fully realized,” says WFP gender advisor Veronique Sainte-Luce. “But P4P has been identified as something valuable, something positive, which has made a difference in women’s lives.”

 

For more information go to www.wfp.org/purchase-progress

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Little Boy Plays Again As WFP Works To Rebuild Lives In Northern Mali

By World Food Program

After three weeks of nutritious food, Souleymane's health
improved. Credit: WFP / Daouda Guirou

As displaced people and refugees start to voluntarily return to northern Mali, the World Food Programme is scaling up its operations to help rebuild livelihoods while also responding to immediate food and nutritional needs. Saouda Salihou, who returned to Gao with her young family, explains why this assistance is vital.

 

GAO - Sitting in front of her straw hut, Saouda Salihou proudly watches her two-year-old son Souleymane as he plays with his ‘toy cars’ – two tin cans attached to a length of rope. The toddler mischievously teases his older brother as he plays. Salihou, 27, can hardly believe this joyful, healthy child is the same boy she brought to a health clinic just three weeks ago.

 

During that visit to Gao’s health centre, Souleymane was diagnosed with moderate acute malnutrition. Nurses had weighed him and measured his mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) - a quick method to assess nutritional status.

 

Salihou was given Plumpy’Sup, a ready-to-use nutritional supplement delivered to health centres in Gao by WFP, in partnership with Action Against Hunger.

 

“After I started giving the product to my child, he quickly gained weight,” said Salihou. “The following week, I was amongst the first people to arrive at the health centre for my child’s medical appointment."

 

These weekly appointments allow health agents to monitor vulnerable children’s nutritional status. Mothers also receive information on nutrition, and are given cooking demonstrations, using local products like peanuts, millet and maize.

 

Salihou attended many of these cookery classes, but said she often did not have enough money to cook the nutritious meals she was shown.

 

She is not alone. In northern Mali, three out of four households are food insecure and heavily reliant on food assistance, according to the results of a joint survey carried out by WFP and the government of Mali in September this year.

 

Salihou returned to Gao in mid-October after spending around 18 months in the capital Bamako following her family’s flight from the conflict that gripped northern Mali. But her husband was unable to return to Gao with her as they could not afford the transport fees.

 

He sends a little money to the family, and Salihou uses this to buy and resell condiments in Gao market. But the little she earns is never enough.

 

This is why WFP’s school meals programme in Gao is so important. One of the reasons Salihou returned was to send her children to school in their home region.

 

Her 10-year-old daughter Alima is now enrolled, and was delighted to rediscover her old friends in the classroom. She also enjoys a hot meal of enriched porridge every morning and another hot meal at midday.

 

“I have struggled to feed my children since I returned and it’s a real relief for me that Alima is getting food at school. She is also very motivated to go to school,” said Salihou.

 

WFP provides school meals to around 120,000 children in 576 schools in northern Mali. As more schools reopen, WFP is expanding this programme. WFP is also extending its malnutrition prevention and treatment in areas where health centres have started to function again.

 

“WFP is scaling up its operations and requires more funding,” said Sally Haydock, WFP’s Representative in Mali.

 

“The drought and subsequent food crisis in 2012, combined with the protracted security crisis have made it very difficult for the most vulnerable people to rebuild their lives. They will require food assistance throughout 2013 and into 2014,” she said.

 

For more go to www.wfp.org
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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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Change Through Cowpeas: In Mali, WFP Empowers Women Farmers

 

By World Food Program (WFP)

As the world’s largest humanitarian agency, the World Food Programme (WFP) uses its procurement needs to boost agriculture indeveloping nations through its Purchase for Progress (P4P) programmes. In the village of Logo in Mali, WFP and its partners have helped women farmers improve yields in the fields, while also enriching their children’s diets.

 

LOGO – On a sandy plain below Mali’s majestic Bandiagara cliffs, Awa Tessougué describes how she and a group of women farmers reshaped agriculture in their village, putting money in their pockets and improving their children’s nutrition in the process.

 

“In the beginning, my husband was sceptical about the project. Now, not only has he given me a larger plot of land so that I can grow more niebe (cowpea), but he also allows me to sell the family’s millet surplus to WFP,” she said.

 

Traditionally women in this region were denied access to land unless their husbands, who tended to cultivate millet for use in the home, consented. Some women were given tiny plots of land to grow crops for sale to cover some household expenses.

 

Awa Tessougué was among a small group of women whose husbands or male relatives gave them small parcels of land on which they grew niebe, a type of cowpea that is rich in protein, for sale in local markets.

 

WFP, through its P4P initiative, recognised the challenges facing these women as they attempted to move from subsistence farming to larger scale production of crops for sale, and started to work with them in 2009.

 

Acting with partners, including Catholic Relief Services and the Government of Mali’s local agricultural division, WFP taught the women how to increase production and also provided more resilient and high-yielding niebe seeds.

 

Thanks to these efforts, the women of Logo steadily increased their sales of surplus niebe, from one metric ton in 2011 (valued at approximately US$700) to 14 metric tons (with an approximate value of US$13,500) in 2013.

 

“Holistic” benefits

 

Yapè Tessougué, president of the Logo women farmers’ organization, says the village chief, who once fiercely opposed the project,is now very supportive.

 

“He has given 200 hectares of farming land to our organisation for niebe and millet production. He also offered a portion a land on which WFP built a warehouse to store our stocks,” she said. Awa Tessougué says that she can now pay her four children’s school fees, and is not dependent on her husband for all her needs.

 

“I even give my children a small amount of money to buy snacks during their break (at school) and I’ve noticed that they are now more motivated to go to school,” she said. WFP and its partners have also educated the women of Logo on the benefits of consuming the nutrient- and protein-rich niebe, which in the past was almost exclusively grown for sale.

 

Today, more and more women are using niebe in their own homes, and they say this has helped reduce child malnutrition rates in the village. “My children are less often ill and look healthier since they started eating more niebe,” said Binta Dramé, another farmer and mother-of-six. “The P4P project in Mali is very holistic as it brings together key aspects of development, such as nutrition, capacity building and gender empowerment,” said Ken Davies, the Global P4P Coordinator after he visited Logo in late September.

 

“While WFP is currently mainstreaming the best aspects of P4P into its overall Country Programme in Mali, I am glad to see the strong engagement from the Government at all levels”.

For more go to www.wfp.org
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More Irrigation and Pastoralism Could Transform Africa's Sahel Region

By Makhtar Diop, Vice President for Africa at the World Bank

The Sahel region, a vast arid stretch of land linking six countries in West Africa -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal -- is home to some of the most productive pastoralist communities in the world.And yet, assailed by a host of climatic, political and development challenges, their pastoralist way of life is under threat.

 

Here, over centuries, some 16 million pastoralists have perfected the art of survival in the Sahel, raising sheep and livestock in some of the most harsh and unforgiving environments anywhere on the planet. Meat yields fromthe Sahel rival those from some of the best ranches in Australia and the United States. Currently, half of the meat and two-thirds of the milk produced and consumed in the countries of West Africa originates in the Sahel.

 

However pastoralism is facing multiple threats. These include rapid population growth, conflict, volatile food prices, animal diseases, and shrinking grazing areas and water resources. Combined, these factors are steadily jeopardizing the survival of the pastoralists of the Sahel.

 

Climate change is expected to hit Africa hardest. It is increasingly likely that scientific warnings that the world could warm by 2°C in the next 20 or 30 years will come true. In such a case, pastoralism will be imperiled. The effects on the African continent will be dramatically more devastating under a warming scenario of 4°C.

 

Desert and aridity define the Sahel, yet its vast water resources are untapped. In a region where farming is the predominant economic activity, sadly, only 20 percent of the Sahel's irrigation potential has been developed. Worse still, one quarter of the area equipped with irrigation liesin a state of disrepair.

 

Pastoralism matters for Africa's future particularly in the Sahel. So does irrigation. Both affect farming, the dominant industry in the region,which accounts for one-third and more of all economic output in the Sahel. This in turn empowers the women of the Sahel, as women account for the majority of Africa's farmers.

 

Supporting pastoralism with more climate smart-policies; reducing vulnerability to drought, flooding and other disasters; and raising more healthy livestock through timely vaccines, are all necessary to help communities adapt to the ecological harshness of the Sahel.

 

Bringing more water to parched lands in the Sahel will not only improve food production but place more food on family dinner tables, allow farmers to move from subsistence farming into growing and selling greater quantities of food crops for higher earnings in local and regional markets. Climate-smart agriculture can increase yields, put more money in farmers' pockets and help protect biodiversity, improve soil fertility, and conserve the environment.

 

At a time when the global economy is slowly recovering, we want to prime the engines of growth that really matter.

 

The World Bank is hosting two major summits in Mauritania and Senegal focused on threats and opportunities for pastoralism and irrigation to thrive in Africa.

 

I am confident that in Nouakchott and Dakar, we will mobilize new coalitions of countries, development partners, business leaders, and the communities themselves for a new push to transform agriculture with more domestic, regional and international support for pastoralism and irrigation.

 

It can be done.

 

Kids Head Back To School In Timbuktu

By World Food Program

Children are headed back to school in the desert city of Timbuktu as life gets back to normal after conflict in northern Mali. The promise of a daily, nutritious meal helps to fill the classrooms, particularly among girls, who might not otherwise be allowed to come. The fighting left northern Mali exposed to widespread malnutrition, a problem which food assistance programmes like school meals can help to address.

For more go to www.wfp.org
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Mahamat Haroun Dahab, farmer, Chad: "What we really need here is schools, a flour mill and water"

 

By IRIN

The southeastern Chad border district of Tissi has seen an influx of people fleeing violence in neighbouring western Sudan, among them Chadian nationals who had either migrated there for work or fled earlier violence, and new refugees from Sudan’s Darfur area.

 

Mahamat Haroun Dahab’s family (his wife and four children) are among those from eastern Chad who left the country seven years ago during the conflict there, for Darfur. They recently returned to their Tissi village of Tadjou, after fleeing inter-communal violence. Dahab and his wife told IRIN their story.

 

Photo: Ann Weru/IRIN

Mahamat Haroun Dahab and his wife in the southern Chad village of Tadjou, in Tissi

 

[Dahab:] “I have been here for three months. I arrived in May when the Misseriya and Salamat [ethnic groups; the latter lives on both sides of the border] started fighting in Um Dhukun [Darfur]. I am not sure what they were fighting over. Around us there were people who were killed and injured.

 

“The journey from Sudan to the Chad border was by donkey. Then, once we were on the Chadian side, IOM [the International Organization for Migration] brought us here [to Tadjou village].

 

“We just packed what we had and sought safety; we did not have time to prepare ourselves.

 

“Here we are doing some farming, mainly of sorghum. Back in Um Dhukun I used to slaughter some sheep. I worked as a butcher. But I have always been a farmer.

 

“The land I had here before I fled is where I am planting my crops now; during the fighting this area was deserted and my land and house remained intact.

 

“None of my children have been to school. They are young and I don’t have enough money to register them.

 

“But I have no intention of going back to Darfur. Here, I can practice farming; there [in Um Dhukun] we had to buy things from the market.

 

“What we really need here is schools, a flour mill and water.

 

[Dahab’s wife - she did not give her name:] “We decided to leave [Um Dhukun] when our belongings, such as our [mobile] phones and livestock, started being taken by force by the Arabs.

“We are OK living here [in Tadjou] as we just go to the farm and come back.

 

“But the children really need schooling and some clothes. What we really want is schools.

 

“Myself, I have never been to school. I learned to speak Arabic because people around me speak it; but I can’t write anything or read. A person who doesn’t go to school can’t read Arabic.”

 

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Growing resilience through community gardens in Gambia

By Katie Robinson, Canadian Red Cross Society

For the first time in 15 years, communities in Gambia found themselves without food and income following poor rainfall during the 2011–2012 harvest season. Families were forced to sell their assets and livestock, or survive on charity and foraging.

 

The Gambia Red Cross Society – with assistance from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Canadian government – aimed to provide immediate and long-term assistance to vulnerable communities in the North Bank Division and Lower River Region.

 

Using a two-pronged approach, the Red Cross provided emergency life-saving interventions whilst also focusing on longer-term community resilience. Distributions of food, quality rice seeds and fertilizer addressed the immediate needs, whilst the longer-term resilience activities concentrated on women-run vegetable gardens. The Red Cross provided these gardens with infrastructure support, training, drought-resilient seeds, proper fencing and new concrete-lined hand-driven wells.

 

“Before the Red Cross came to support us, we were struggling to feed our families,” says Funneh Touray, who works in the Sukuta Women’s Community Garden in the Lower River Region. “Thanks to their support we are now able to grow our own food, and are no longer facing hardship.”

 

The community gardens are not only thriving, they are generating an income as crops and products like jams and juices are sold to nearby communities. This has allowed parents to send their children to school and pay for health care.

 

Touray is very proud of her community and is looking forward to expanding their garden. They currently have two hectares of fencing around the garden, but only half is currently being used. She is looking forward to the day when more seeds will be planted and there will be more crops to look after.

 

“I have seen a change in my community and I am very happy,” says Touray. “Many organizations have entered my village, but we have never received assistance like we did from the Red Cross. What the Red Cross has done, nobody will forget. We will maintain this garden and continue to work hard to make everyone who supported us proud.”

 

For more go to www.ifrc.org

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l'INITIATIVE AGIR

Vers la résilience des populations,

Par Cyprien Fabre, ECHO

Nous vous proposons ci-après une présentation de M. Cyprien Fabre, Chef du Bureau ECHO pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest, au colloque international sur "l'agriculture, la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle" de l'Association des Femmes de l'Afrique de l'Ouest.

For more go to http://ec.europa.eu/echo/policies/resilience/agir_en.htm - http://ec.europa.eu/echo/ 

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Kitchen gardens: one step towards resilience in the Sahel?

By ACTED

 

In the East Batha region, in Chad, located at the heart of the Sahel and badly affected by food insecurity, ACTED is mobilised to help the most vulnerable populations. In order to give long-term solutions to food security problems, ACTED is supporting 35 villages in the set up of kitchen gardens. In each village, several vulnerable households have come together to create a cooperative.

 

Seed and tools have been distributed and are necessary to start a kitchen garden, access to water has been guaranteed and trainings have been conducted, with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/OFDA).

 

Reaping the fruits

 

Habsita lives in the village of Tchakani, where one of the kitchen gardens was developed. She is 39 years old, married and has eight children. She often finds it difficult to feed eight mouths. In 2012, Habsita had to borrow money during the lean period, when stocks were depleted and prices on the markets are high, in order to feed her family. She then had to use all the earnings from the cereal harvest to repay her debt.

 

Habsita is now part of a group of 25 people that are harvesting a plot of land of one hectare on the edge of the river Batha. The group is working hard, under the scorching sun, to grow carrots, lettuce and other vegetables that will help them cover their needs during the lean period.

 

ACTED supports 35 villages with the implementation of kitchen gardens
and the support to gardeners groups. © ACTED.

 

Habsita is very eager to continue working on the kitchen garden: “The kitchen garden changed my life and can already see the result of my efforts. I am proud to learn and to be able to produce rather than depend on others.” With her child on her back, Habsita is tirelessly working in the field. “work in the field is hard, and not many people can do it. I am hoping that we can continue to work as a cooperative.”

 

In a region where agriculture is showing very meager outputs because of severe shocks, the development of kitchen gardens is one step ahead towards resilience. By varying their food sources, households are improving their food security and nutrition situation. Step by step, communities are reinforcing their livelihoods: “At the end of this year’s work, I will be able to go through the rainy season without having to borrow money because the harvest will be good,” concludes Habsita.

 

For more go to http://www.acted.org/
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Mieux produire pour mieux vivre

Par World Vision Mali

A Barakolombougou, un village situé à une centaine de kilomètres de Bamako, les communautés espèrent récolter en abondance cette année. Leur espoir n’est pas seulement fondé sur la quantité de pluie, mais elles comptent sur la fiabilité des terres qu’elles ont apprêtées suivant des techniques de régénération naturelle assistée et de préservation de sols récemment acquises grâce à l’appui de World Vision.

« Avec une bonne pluviométrie, nous sommes certains de récolter abondamment cette année, et peut être même plus que nous n’aurions besoin pour notre nourriture », dit Fragnan Coulibaly, un sexagénaire et président du comité villageois pour la pratique de la régénération naturelle assistée, le FMNR (Farmer managed natural regeneration).

Après quelques séances de formation, les communautés ont réalisé que les déficits agricoles de ces dernières années n’étaient pas seulement liés à l’insuffisance des pluies, mais aussi à la gestion qu’elles font de leurs terres.

C’est ainsi que pour contribuer dans la recherche d’une solution durable à l’insécurité alimentaire quasi récurrente qui maintient les communautés rurales dans une situation de vulnérabilité permanente, World Vision a choisi la résilience pour rendre les communautés autonomes et responsables de leur devenir.

Grâce à l’appui du Gouvernement du Royaume Uni, l’organisation a mis en place un projet de résilience pour promouvoir la gestion communautaire des ressources à travers la régénération naturelle assistée et la préservation des sols par des techniques de lutte contre l’érosion tels que le cordon pierreux ou la technique du Zai pour retenir l’eau et aussi l’élaboration du compost qui augmente naturellement et considérablement la production agricole.

Quant à Mahamane Sanogo, Coordinateur du projet et Ingénieur agro-forestier « les communautés ont accueilli ces techniques avec un vif intérêt, car juste après la démonstration plusieurs personnes ont déjà commencé à pratiquer les techniques apprises dans leurs champs, ce qui nous laisse croire que d’ici peu, les paysans eux-mêmes pourraient répliquer les connaissances acquises aux communautés avoisinantes. »

 

Pour plus d'informations visitez www.wvi.org

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UN Regional Coordinator Robert Piper on his most striking memory of visiting the Sahel

The UN Regional Coordinator for the Sahel, Robert Piper, shares the image that struck him the most during his recent trip to the Sahel region.

Follow Robert Piper on Twitter or ECHO on Twitter

Why NOW is the moment to give additional funds to the Sahel

Families in Africa's Sahel region are still trying to bounce back from the 2012 drought and food crisis. However the region remains in crisis, with with more than 11 million people in needing help and the humanitarian response severely underfunded.

Director General of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO), Claus Sørensen, and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, Robert Piper, explain why NOW is the moment to give additional humanitarian funds to the Sahel region.

 

 

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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

Jean-Louis Mosser, Expert santé pour
le département d'aide humanitaire
de l'Union Européenne (ECHO)

Point sur la santé au Mali

Propos recueillis par Anouk Delafortrie, Commission Européenne / ECHO

Trois mois après le début de l’intervention militaire au Mali, la situation reste extrêmement volatile dans ce pays qui se trouve en situation précaire au niveau humanitaire, alimentaire et nutritionnelle. Les populations maliennes réfugiées et déplacées n’ont pas encore entamé de voyage retour en masse, ce mouvement de retour ne pouvant se réaliser que suite à un rétablissement des services de base ainsi qu’à de meilleures conditions de sécurité dans le nord du pays. Jean-Louis Mosser, expert santé pour le département d’aide humanitaire de l’UE (ECHO) en Afrique de l’Ouest, revient d’une mission au Mali et décrit la situation.

Quel était le but de ta mission au Mali ?

J’y suis allé pour faire le point sur la situation sanitaire. J’ai rencontré toutes les ONGs médicales, partenaires d’ECHO, qui travaillent sur des projets d’urgence dans le nord du pays.

Lors de ma dernière visite en décembre, les groupes d’extrémistes occupaient toujours les régions du nord et une menace permanente sévissait sur les districts au nord de Mopti qui n’étaient plus administrés. Malgré la présence de quelques ONGs, la couverture sanitaire était incomplète, notamment dans certains districts de la région de Gao et de Tombouctou.

L’intervention militaire a permis de chasser ces groupes d’extrémistes hors des villes principales et des axes routiers. Mais, aucune administration ne s’est encore concrètement réinstallée. Certains directeurs de la santé s’apprêtent à revenir, mais de manière provisoire, pour évaluer la situation.

Sans la présence de préfets, ni de responsables des districts sanitaires, le personnel médical des centres de santé ne revient pas. Quelques infirmiers seulement sont rentrés car ils savent que des ONGs sont sur place et apportent des médicaments. Ce sont les ONGs qui assurent les soins de santé dans le nord et ce sera certainement le cas jusqu’à la fin de l’année.

Quels sont les problèmes majeurs dans le domaine de la santé ?

Le manque important de soins préventifs et médicaux, la barrière financière qui empêche les plus pauvres d’avoir accès aux soins de santé ainsi que des structures de santé peu fonctionnelles sont les principaux problèmes constatés. Trop de personnes, et surtout des enfants de moins de cinq ans, meurent de paludisme et de diarrhées, faute de soins. Le Mali affiche le troisième taux de mortalité infantile le plus élevé au monde.

Au nord de Mopti, nous découvrons également un taux de malnutrition sévère. Globalement, depuis l’année dernière, nous observons une dégradation de la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle comme partout ailleurs dans le Sahel. La situation est toutefois probablement pire au Mali en raison d’une prise en charge d’enfants mal nourris qui a fait défaut dans le nord suite au conflit et, d’une manière générale, à la faiblesse des services de santé étatiques. Un dépistage actif des cas de malnutrition n’est toujours pas possible dans tous les villages. Ceci dit, la référence des cas détectés d’enfants mal nourris et leur prise en charge se sont nettement améliorées grâce aux ONGs qui ont su rester actives et présentes au Mali.

Quelle est la stratégie d’ECHO par rapport au secteur de la santé ?

En décembre dernier, ayant identifié des lacunes majeures en terme de couverture sanitaire, nous avions demandé aux ONGs présentes si elles pouvaient étendre leur rayon d’action et nous avons contacté de nouveaux partenaires pour compléter le dispositif. Aujourd’hui, la couverture sanitaire dans le nord du pays est bien meilleure même si elle n’est pas encore totalement satisfaisante.

Nous essayons d’offrir un paquet minimum de soins médicaux et préventifs, un traitement correct de la malnutrition et un système de référence fonctionnel. Ce paquet minimum n’est pas respecté partout, mais nous essayons de faire en sorte que chaque district ait un centre de santé de référence qui fonctionne correctement. Nous ne pouvons pas siéger partout comme une administration. Nous privilégions donc les endroits fortement peuplés, les axes routiers, les villes et les gros bourgs afin de réduire une part importante de la population qui n’a pas accès aux soins de santé. J’estime que globalement nous soutenons en moyenne 40% des structures de santé existantes et que ces structures couvrent les besoins sanitaires de 60 à 70 % de la population totale du Nord du Mali.

Quelles sont les conséquences de l’insécurité persistante ?

Cela peut paraître paradoxal, mais avant l’intervention militaire internationale, les interlocuteurs étaient connus par les ONGs qui avaient réussi, petit à petit, à créer un espace humanitaire étroit. Les cliniques mobiles pouvaient circuler sans être ‘rackettées’ ou sans courir le risque de sauter sur des explosifs. A présent, la plupart des cliniques mobiles sont suspendues/à l’arrêt. La tendance est de soutenir des centres de santé de façon plus permanente grâce à du staff qui reste en place. Cela pose évidemment un problème, notamment lorsqu’il faut faire face aux épidémies quand des déplacements sont nécessaires pour faire les investigations et qu’il faut contrer ces épidémies. Heureusement les épidémies de rougeole de ces derniers mois à Kidal et Ansongo ont pu être correctement gérées par des ONGs.

Pour quand la passation aux autorités sanitaires ?

Il existe un plan de retour des autorités mais vu la situation d’insécurité, les conditions ne semblent pas encore réunies pour que cette transition ait lieu très prochainement. Quand la majorité des services de base sociaux et administratifs seront remis en route, nous pourrons y songer.

Les médecins qui se sont réfugiés à Bamako ont aidé les ONGs à trouver des référents, c’est-à-dire des personnes qualifiées qui sont restées sur place. Au quotidien, celles-ci s’associent à l’administration de Bamako et à l’ONG. Cela se passe relativement bien.

Entretemps, la majorité du personnel médical a été réaffecté vers d’autres régions. Dans le nord, les banques restent fermées, il y a une pénurie de ‘cash’, de vivres, et toujours de l’insécurité… Nous serons certainement encore en mode d’urgence jusqu’à la fin de l’année.

Pour plus visitez http://ec.europa.eu/echo/
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New health centres and community outreach tackle Chad's nutrition crisis

By Laure Poinsot, UNICEF CHAD

 

A new report by UNICEF to be issued on 15 April 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.

 

MONGO, Chad – The father wipes his eyes with the sleeve of his white boubou. “We did all we could,” says Dr. Kaimbo. “Unfortunately, the boy was too weak.”

 

Days like today weigh heavily on Dr. Kaimbo, who is part of a UNICEF-supported programme aimed at saving the lives of children affected by nutrition crisis in Chad. The programme is funded, among others, by the European Union humanitarian aid department (ECHO).

 

UNICEF reports on how new health centres and community
outreach are targeting the vicious circle of disease
and malnutrition in Chad.

 

Chad experiences chronic drought, among its harsh and erratic climatic conditions. The country is also faced with massive developmental challenges. Nearly 20 per cent of children die before their fifth birthdays. During periods of drought, many children suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

 

“[I]t’s not just drought and famine that causes malnutrition,” says UNICEF Chad Representative Bruno Maes. “There are three big factors in the vicious circle of disease and malnutrition. One is food insecurity due to bad harvests and rising food prices. Second is the poor health services. And the third is the parents’ lack of knowledge about food and basic hygiene. Then there’re also the risks associated with child marriages and polygamy.”

 

Scaling up the response

 

© UNICEF VIDEO
The programme is reaching out to the growing number
of malnourished children in Chad.

In response to nutrition crisis in Chad and the Sahel Belt region, UNICEF, the Government of Chad and partners such as ECHO have scaled up services and facilities to treat the growing number of children affected by malnutrition. “The number of treatment centres has doubled, from 210 to 425,” says Mr. Maes. “Two hundred thirty paramedics have been trained and despatched; hundreds of tonnes of supplies and materials have been delivered to reach as many children as possible.”

UNICEF recruits, trains and deploys paramedics. It also supports establishing therapeutic nutrition centres and outpatient nutrition centres, setting up nutrition outreach efforts and purchasing supplies.

 

Health official in the Guera region Dr. Honoré Dembayo says that these efforts have helped to alleviate some of the shortages of medicine and healthcare staff. “All this explains the good results seen in Guera – a cure rate of over 75 per cent.”

 

Screening and treatment for malnutrition

The success in Guera region is largely the result of careful screening of children at the community level and at health centres to make sure they receive the treatment they need – when they need it. Children are tested for malnutrition by checking their height and weight, the circumference of their mid-upper arm and any swelling. Depending on the results, they may be admitted into the nutrition programme.

 

The children then take an appetite test. They are given ready-to-use-therapeutic food made up of a peanut butter paste enriched with sugar and vitamins.

 

“Children who struggle to eat [the therapeutic food] have reached a highly advanced stage of malnutrition,” says UNICEF Nutrition Officer Jean-Pierre Mansimadji Mandibaye. “They are immediately taken to hospital, because their lives are in danger.

“The others can benefit from our programme and receive packets of therapeutic product. They must return every week until they’re cured.”

 

Outreach in communities

Once the children are back home, outreach volunteers monitor progress throughout the treatment period. They also teach families about good hygiene and nutrition, to keep the problem from recurring.

 

“It’s a lot of work, but I’m proud of saving children,” says Abderrahim Massadi, an outreach volunteer in Koulji, 15 km from Mongo.

 

There are 250 families in the village of Koulji, including about 1,500 children. One of these children is Saidja’s son. The little boy has successfully completed his treatment, and now Saidja is applying the skills she’s learned to keep him healthy. With support from the outreach volunteers, she has learned to make a healthier porridge for him, using fresh ingredients when she can afford them.

 

“I put in millet, some beans, a bit of peanut butter and sugar,” she says. “Since I started making him this porridge, he doesn’t get sick anymore. They also taught me to use soap to wash his hands and mouth before meals, and how to properly clean the kitchen utensils.”

 

For more go to www.unicef.org

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