West Africa Food and Nutrition Crisis Situation and Response
For the third time in a decade, food crisis hits West Africa
SITUATION:
2012 is shaping up as a crisis year due to poor harvest, drought, high food prices, and declining food stock. This is compounded by escalating conflict in the region.
In West Africa the so-called "hungry season" normally runs from May/June to September. This year, because of failed harvests in 2011, it is expected to start within weeks.
Who and where:
- Several countries in West Africa – Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Senegal are prone and experiencing food insecurity.
- Approximately 23 million people live in the affected areas
- In the countries of West Africa where World Vision works – Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Chad, Senegal - approximately 13 million people are being affected. In Niger alone, over 9 million people - representing 58% of the population - are vulnerable and thus at risk.
- These figures are alarming considering a rise of 3 million people in Niger (in January 12) since the previous assessment carried out in September 2011 (Source: joint Government of Niger and UN, NGOs/bodies report)
- World Vision supported communities: Over 2,300,000 people being affected live in World Vision’s Area Development Programs, including over 100,000 children.
Context:
- Even in a ‘non-crisis’ year, 300,000 children die of malnutrition or related diseases.
- The countries of the West Africa are among the poorest in the world. Of the 187 countries listed in the 2011 UN Human Development Index, Niger is ranked 186, Chad 183, Burkina Faso 181 and Mali 175.
- The current food crisis is aggravating an already difficult situation.
- Recurrent crises have severely diminished the capacity of the people to cope: if they struggle to cover basic food needs in a 'normal' year, this year the depletion of their few productive assets and livestock is compounded for many by high levels of indebtedness.
- Even during a year with normal harvests the poorest households spend most of their income (around 70%) on food.
- The underlying causes of this persistent food insecurity and high acute malnutrition rates are irregular rains and environmental degradation, aggravated by rapid population growth (3% per year), poor access to basic services, including health and water, poverty.
- Moreover, the Sahel populations are still trying to recover from the 2010 hunger crisis. The gap between the previous food crisis (2009-2010) and the current worsening food crisis is of barely two years. Although the arid Sahel region is prone to droughts and food shortages, a period of five to ten years used to separate major crises, allowing sufficient time for communities to recover.
- The recent conflicts in West Africa, the return of hundreds of migrant workers from Libya, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, and the displacement of 55,000 Malians (20,000 of them taking refuge in neighbouring countries such as Niger and Mauritania) are also adding to the increase in the region’s vulnerability.
Consequences:
- In Niger alone, out of the 9,081,827 people at risk, 1,324,435 (8.5%) are severely vulnerable with no food stock in reserve and are already involved in harsh coping mechanisms while 4,134,436 (26.4%) are moderately vulnerable with about less than one month food stock in reserve. The remaining 3,622,956 population (23.1%) are at risk to become either moderately or severely vulnerable with one month food stock in reserve as at December. There is a high probability that those with one month food reserve in December do not have anything today.
- The erratic rains and poor harvests of 2011 are now leading to rapidly rising food prices, pushing many households into crisis and uncertainty over how to feed their families.
- Rise of food prices is a concern, especially with products such as millet and sorghum – staple food in West Africa – having increased in some areas up to 96% in December 2012(compared to three months before). Cereal prices have also increased by 35% to 50% (compared to last year). They could triple in the coming months, leaving the poorest and most vulnerable locked out of the market.
- 1.3 million children are currently suffering from acute malnutrition across West Africa, 400 000 of them are suffering from its most severe form.
- Food and water shortages are also giving rise to increased migration among pastoralist communities. It is estimated that pastoralists will bring 8 million livestock over the border from Mauritania to Mali and Senegal in search of grazing for their animals, in turn increasing risks of local conflict.
- The crisis is escalating and is becoming more and more complex and multifaceted. In Niger there have been outbreaks of cholera, the general security level has decreased, and the arrival of the 15,000 refugees from Mali has had implications not only on food security and nutrition but also in areas of sanitation and hygiene, and security.
Coping mechanisms:
- A number of the populations (including youth) are migrating out of the village communities to the cities or to neighboring countries in search of work.
- Reports of families eating wild leaves from trees and bushes or animal feeds.
- Selling of animals – often families’ only livelihoods - even though their price is getting lower whilst food price is getting higher.
- Increased migration among pastoralist communities. It is estimated that pastoralists will bring 8 million livestock over the border from Mauritania to Mali and Senegal in search of grazing for their animals.
RESPONSE:
World Vision – together with its partners, including governments, World Food Program, UNICEF and Food and Agriculture Organization - aims to support over 1.7 million people affected by the food and nutrition crisis, including more than 100,000 children.
As the crisis is due to a range of issues, some of them short-term, and some of them relating to the long-term vulnerability of communities, World Vision’s response is two-pronged.
One part of the response looks at the short-term needs, such as preventing children from becoming acutely malnourished in the first place, and helping to keep them alive if they do. Another part of the response looks at dealing with the long-term issues, such as access to reliable public health services or clean water supplies.
World Vision has long-term programs running in Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Chad and Senegal and in all five of those countries, there are people affected by the crisis in our areas of long-term programming.
World Vision runs programs to improve health, education, food supply and water access across West Africa in an effort to remove some of the factors that make communities so vulnerable to food insecurity and nutrition crises, and it continues to run them even during times of crisis, as this long-term view is essential to preventing crises arising in the first place. These include Disaster Risk Reduction interventions in form of Cereal Banking and Vegetable Gardening.
However in the short-term as this crisis continues to build, World Vision has stepped up its emergency response activities. World Vision is already running food-for-work and cash-for-work schemes, assisting cereal banks, and handing out seeds in Niger. It is also running child nutrition programmes, monitoring and treating children who are suffering from malnutrition and educating parents to ensure that they keep their children healthy in Niger, Mauritania and Chad.
“Our objective with the emergency response is to stabilize the situation so that it does not get any worse and it sets up a platform by which we can do longer term work so that we build up community resilience to these types of disasters, and do not always have to do an emergency response,” said Paul Sitnam, the West Africa director for emergency hiumanitarian affairs at World Vision.
“World Vision is digging boreholes for better water access. We’re helping communities to grow vegetable gardens. The gardens allow families not only to have access to fresh, nutrient rich produce during lean times, but it also generates income as they can sell their surplus,” Sitnam added.
World Vision is also looking at vaccinating livestock, so they do not die of common diseases, educating communities on basic disaster risk reduction, and assisting with projects that increase the community’s opportunities to earn cash.
Positive outcomes to date:
- World Vision’s partnership with World Food Program for Cash for Work & Food for Work projects in Niger has resulted in a number of community members remaining in their villages in World Vision’s ADPs; there have been also reports of community members starting to return to their villages when informed of the Cash and Food for Work activities.
- World Vision Niger was one of the first organisations to assist the Government of Niger in addressing acute malnutrition, and in Chad, World Vision in partnership with UNICEF set up the first Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition program in the country. Last year in Niger, out of the 6,330 severely acute malnourished children, 5,451 have been rehabilitated, and 25,162 moderately acute malnourished children were also cared for.
- Communities that are benefitting from vegetable garden projects set up by World Vision as medium to longer-term interventions (by setting up water points, distributing seeds and tools) in face of reoccurring drought are better equipped and coping with the food crisis.