Ending the Everyday Emergency: Resilience and Children in the Sahel

By World Vision & Save the Children

A recent study by World Vision and Save the Children entitled “Ending the Everyday Emergency” highlights the underlying factors in West Africa that are contributing to the food crisis and putting more than one million children at risk of severe malnutrition. It also identifies the opportunities being missed by governments to fix them.

Hit by successive food crises in 2005, 2008 and 2010, the people of Sahel need to build their resilience to such shocks that have been occurring more frequently, barely providing families enough time and ability to fully recover from the previous crisis. A united approach is needed to tackle the root causes of massive food shortages and ending recurring malnutrition in the region.



The study recommends the following:

•    Make reduction of child under-nutrition central to resilience, through coordinated national plans especially prioritizing children under two and pregnant women;

•    Harness small-scale agriculture for resilience and improved nutrition, ensuring sustainability and resilience and not just an increase in production;

•    Invest in social protection and services for the poorest households, particularly for households that are chronically food-insecure as distinct from those periodically suffering from shocks; and

•    Develop a new plan for how the national governments, international donors, and agencies should work together to prevent hunger crises, breaking down the barriers between development and humanitarian approaches, between ‘normal’ and ‘crisis’ responses.

To download a copy of the report, click here.