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W. African food crisis

Last reviewed: 08-02-2007

POVERTY FUELS CHRONIC VULNERABILITY


The Sahel region of semi-arid land stretching eastwards from Senegal and Mauritania through Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad has suffered chronic food shortages driven by extreme poverty since the early 1970s.

  • Poor rains and locusts fuelled 2005 crisis
  • Situation stabilising but still precarious
  • Long-term support required

    In mid-2005, a massive international relief operation swung into action in response to a renewed hunger crisis in the region, focusing on Niger, officially the poorest country in the world, according to the U.N. Development Programme.

    The intervention was launched amid estimates that some 8 million people in Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso were facing catastrophic food shortages, caused in part by poor rains in 2004 combined with a plague of locusts.

    The destruction of pasture land by the locusts weakened cattle and goats, leading to a collapse in the price of livestock. At the same time the poor harvest and fierce market pressures tripled grain prices in some areas. Hundreds of thousands of families were left dangerously short of food.

    The governments of Mali and Mauritania responded with food distributions. In Niger, the authorities decided to subsidise food prices, but the strategy failed because so many people could not afford even the lower prices. The government eventually allowed free food.

    Both the domestic and international aid response combined with a decent harvest in August and September to restore some stability by the end of the year, and the situation further stabilised in 2006 following another good rainy season.

    The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) said the food security outlook for the Sahel in 2007 was generally good, citing production estimates in all countries of average to above-average cereal harvests.

    Nevertheless, areas of Niger and eastern Chad and southern Chad still face localized food insecurity, it said. "In addition, while persistently high rates of acute malnutrition - rooted in poor care practices, poor water and sanitation, a lack of dietary diversity and inadequate healthcare - are likely to improve in the post-harvest period, high rates will reemerge later in 2007."

    By January, a record crop across the Sahel combined with good rainfall had improved the overall situation yet further.

    The World Food Programme (WFP), however, has stressed that millions of children across the region remain threatened by chronic malnutrition.

    Agencies are also warning that donor funds are lacking for the sustained development activities required to lift the region's population out of long-term food insecurity.

    As Oxfam points out on its website, the real cause of the crisis is ultimately chronic poverty, which across the region is only getting worse, exacerbated by years of chronic drought, no employment opportunities when people are not farming (up to six months of the year), lack of access to basic social services, poor government policies, and more recently regional trade barriers.

    "The most marginalised people, pastoralist and to a lesser extent, agro-pastoralist communities, have become locked into a cycle of poverty and debt. Every day is a struggle for survival; so people here are extremely vulnerable to any change in their economic or physical environment," the agency says.

    As a result, NGOs are now trying to focus on longer-term integrated programmes, such as cash distributions and cereal banks. Oxfam has also been vocal in advocating increased spending on agricultural production, as opposed to food and humanitarian aid.

    Further reading:
  • African hunger: A never-ending crisis
  • Famine resource file

    Key statistics


    Number of malnourished people 36.4 million (FAO)
    Percentage of malnourished people in total population 16 percent (FAO)

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