West Africa Food Crisis: Q&A
Frequently asked questions about the West African food crisis.
Frequently Asked Questions.
- What is the situation like in West Africa?
- What has caused the problem?
- How are people being affected by the food crisis?
- Are some people more affected than others?
- Why do we need to pay specific attention to pastoralists?
- Is this as bad as the Niger food crisis in 2005?
- What is Oxfam doing?
- What does the international community need to do?
- How has ongoing insecurity in the Sahel area – including localised armed rebellions and the activity of groups linked to al-Qaeda in several countries – affected Oxfam’s programme responses?
- Now the rains are here and crops are growing, is the crisis over?
- How bad is the recent flooding and what impact will it have on our emergency response to the food crisis?
- What are the reasons for this repetitive cycle of food shortages in West Africa region?
- Why do you have so many logistical delays threatening the lives of thousands of people? Is this WFP's fault that they can only reach 40% of the most vulnerable in Niger? This seems unacceptable.
- Why are families only getting 50 kgs of cereal in Niger when they really need double that?
- Why can’t the Government do more to respond?
- Why are donors not meeting the shortfall? Are Pakistan and other emergencies diverting funds?
- You have called for an increase in institutional funding for Pakistan – with finite resources, which crisis is more important?
1. What is the situation like in West Africa?
Almost 10 million people across the Sahel region of West Africa are facing severe food shortages. The crisis is now at its peak – with at least two months to go before harvests.
Niger is at the epicentre (more than 7 million classified as facing hunger – about half the population), but other countries in the region are also affected, particularly Chad (around 2 million facing hunger) and Mali (hundreds of thousands affected in the northern part of the country). Though some more aid has arrived in the last weeks, particularly in Niger, it is still inadequate and very late.
In the Sahel, the ‘hunger gap’ period, when millions of poor people have exhausted their food supplies and assets before the next harvest, is at its critical peak with two to three months to go before the next harvests will be ready (October/early November).
In the affected countries, people are often surviving on just wild berries and leaves, leaving them weak and malnourished. Nutritional surveys suggest that malnutrition rates are alarming, with Global Acute Malnutrition reaching 18.5% in Ansongo Gao region, northern Mali (3% higher than the same period in 2009), 16.7% in Niger (more than 4% higher than in 2009 and reaching 22% in Maradi) and are thought to even higher in Chad – for example, a recent ACF survey recorded GAM rates over 20% in Western Chad, and as high as 28% in the worst affected areas (15% is considered the emergency threshold).
According to a June survey by the Niger government, 7.1 million or 47.7% of the population is suffering from severe and moderate food insecurity. Some 2 million people are also affected by the food crisis in Chad and possibly millions more across the region, particularly in Mali and parts of Nigeria.
Early warning systems raised the alarm last autumn yet the international community has been too slow to react. In northern Nigeria, a recent Oxfam assessment in Borno and Sokoto states found alarming levels of food insecurity and malnutrition affecting millions of people, yet almost no humanitarian assistance has so far been provided. Massive additional resources are needed to immediately in order to ensure millions of starving people receive the help they need.
2. What has caused the problem?
Erratic rains in 2008 and 2009 have led to poor harvests and a severe lack of pasture and water. The crisis is compounded by other factors including extreme poverty, the world’s highest birth rate (for Niger), poor health indices and a lack of adequate investment in livestock and agriculture.
How are people being affected by the food crisis?
This is the height of the hunger gap period. People have exhausted their normal coping mechanisms such as selling livestock and have resorted to eating wild berries and leaves. Ironically, there is food in most markets. The main problem is peoples’ ability to afford it. Moreover, livestock prices have fallen at the same time as food prices have increased, meaning that people have been forced to sell more animals in order to buy the same amount of cereal.
Are some people more affected than others?
The situation is particularly difficult for pastoralists (largely nomadic cattle herders who depend on their livestock for food and income), women and children.
Up until the start of the rains (in July) pastoralists were forced to sell their animals, many of which were literally dying of starvation. Prices for livestock dropped dramatically. At the same time, prices for cereals increased, and families struggled to afford food that was available in the markets. Now we are in the rainy season and pasture is recovering and water points are full. Pastoralists are now more reluctant to sell their remaining cattle as prices are very low and many animals are starting to recover. However, thousands of animals have been killed and many pastoralists have lost everything.
Cattle and livestock are a key source of income (or many places the only source of income) in the Sahel, but many herders have now lost this vital asset. Recovery will take years.
Why do we need to pay specific attention to pastoralists?
In West Africa, pastoralists are often a nomadic and “semi nomadic” population and they need specific responses corresponding to their way of life. Moreover, in the most arid areas of the Sahel, livestock represents the bulk of the local economy; its importance rises from 50% in agro pastoral areas up to 90% in pastoral areas. Animals are people's bank accounts. This is where they put their savings and is both their main source of livelihoods and their capital.
Is this as bad as the Niger food crisis in 2005?
Key players, including the UN, say the situation on the ground is worse than 2005, because the fodder and cereal deficit is worse. However, the international emergency response has been better (though still late) as key agencies already had programmes in place in Niger.
The new transitory military government that took power in a coup in February was quick to acknowledge that there was a problem and appealed, one month after taking office, for international assistance.
But the international response has still been too little and too late. The WFP only launched emergency operations in mid-July this year. Had they , other agencies and some donors acknowledged the situation sooner, mobilised faster, and crucially launched emergency appeals earlier, then the situation in Niger could have been very different. Oxfam began responding at the start of 2010 and has used more than £3 million of its own reserves.
Funding is still insufficient. The WFP faces a funding shortfall of $96m in Niger. As a result, the agency has had to scale-back its ambitions. Its programme now focuses on providing protection rations to 700,000 families with children under two. With the result that approximately 60% of the affected population will not be reached by WFP. While the government is also responding, it lacks the resources and capacity to cover this massive gap.
Furthermore, those families targeted for help will only receive 50kg of cereals – approximately half of what would be required by a family of seven for one month.
Logistical/pipeline issues resulting from the slow scale-up also mean that aid isn’t getting to the frontline agencies responding to the crisis quickly enough. Flooding has caused other logistical problems.
Oxfam is responding to the emergency in Niger, Chad and Mali to address ongoing urgent needs. We are working with local and national partners to respond in some of the worst-affected areas (e.g. Maradi, Tahoua, Northern-Tillabéry and Zinder regions in Niger; northern Mali and South Eastern and Central Chad).
In Niger, Oxfam has organised free fodder and food distributions, provided cereals and fodder at subsidised prices, voucher programmes for the poorest households and schoolchildren, carried out “destocking” activities – buying weak livestock from herders at above market levels and distributed the meat for free to poor families, as well as vaccinated animals and distributed seeds.
Particularly important in the current crisis is the early warning system developed by Oxfam’s partners in Niger. Data collected by the early warning system is broadcast on rural radio networks, giving herders and farmers information to act quickly. Oxfam and its partners began responding to the crisis at the start of 2010. This month (August) we are rehabilitating damaged wells and undertaking hygiene promotion initiatives.
In Chad, Oxfam is helping people in the Sila and Guéra regions by distributing food and running agricultural and livelihood support projects and will be sending assessment teams to the affected areas. To tackle the food crisis issue in Chad with adequate resources two new offices were opened at Mongo in the Guéra and Am-Dam in the Dar-Sila. In Mali, we have distributed food and animal feed to 25,000 households (benefiting nearly 200,000 people).
In the absence of an adequate and timely donor response, Oxfam drew on its own emergency reserves (more than 3.6 million euros or £3 million) to support 536,000 people in the region.
What does the international community need to do?
While recent announcements by some donors (such as ECHO, Dfid and OFDA) of extra funding are welcomed, the current aid available is still seriously insufficient and cannot meet large-scale needs. Only one third of the overall resources required to help save lives has been delivered.
Pledges of aid need to be swiftly turned into help on the ground for the frontline agencies responding.
In Niger, the World Food Programme recently announced (20th July) that it would be rapidly scaling up its operations to feed 7.9 million people this year. But this was too late, and insufficient resources and logistical difficulties mean the WFP is already scaling back its response to only cover 700,000 children under two and their families. This means that 60% of the affected population will not be reached, and will be left dependent on a massively under-resourced government and on NGOs.
In Chad, as the rainy season gathers pace triggering flooding in many areas, logistics are becoming a major challenge. Chad has been neglected by the international community and additional resources are also needed to immediately respond to the crisis in this country.
Oxfam believes that at this late stage, where appropriate, cash and voucher-based programmes should be used as quicker, cheaper and more effective alternatives to food aid. Only a fraction of the most affected communities are currently targeted for cash distributions, a number that must increase. Given the urgency of need and the fact that food is available in some local markets, international donors must help national governments, UN agencies and non-government organisations pool and coordinate their capacity to provide cash transfers to hungry people to help buy food locally where it is possible to do so.
The impact of a food crisis on poor households can last for years, even spanning generations. This is because it increases vulnerability to future crises by forcing families to sell assets such as livestock or take on debt whilst increasing people’s vulnerability to illness and disease. Therefore the international community must support mid to long-term recovery in order to build resilience and prevent vulnerable communities slipping back into food insecurity during the next “hunger gap” and in the future.
In Niger and Mali, there has been no disruption of programmes but Oxfam continues to review its security procedures and monitors the context carefully. In both countries, Oxfam works with partners who are able to operate in more remote areas.
In Chad, Oxfam has started to resume its emergency operations following security incidents in the east of the country.
Now the rains are here and crops are growing, is the crisis over?
It does look green in most of the affected countries. Pasture is growing and water points are full, and crops are growing. But it hasn’t put food on peoples’ plates. It will take two more months before crops will be ready to eat.
In addition, some families say they are not able to plant anything as hunger has forced them to eat seeds that were available. Due to flooding in some areas, it will be harder to get aid to where it’s needed – in Chad, Niger and Mali. Some fields have been flooded, destroying crops. Floods also put people, particularly children, weakened by malnutrition, at greater risk of contracting water-borne diseases such severe diarrhoea or of contracting other diseases such as malaria.
In some cases, the drop in temperature associated with the rains has resulted in livestock deaths where animals were already seriously weakened. Floods have already killed thousands of animals in Niger; washed away vegetable gardens and destroyed homes.
In Niger, according to the most recent UN/govt figures (17 August) 111,881 people have been affected by the recent flooding; and more than 6,000 households have been destroyed. At least six people are reported to have been killed. Heavy rains and floods have also affected some parts of Chad and northern Mali (eg the Civil Protection Service reported that in Sikasso region, 272 hectares of fields and 220 houses were destroyed, with 340 people killed; while in Tombouctou, 934 families are reported to have been killed and 634 houses destroyed).
In Niger, Oxfam with its partners is helping to provide hygiene and cleaning kits; install water tanks in schools and community buildings where displaced families have been temporarily rehoused (in the capital Niamey). In Filingué, we distributing relief items to affected people.
The floods have washed away some roads and, more generally, are causing logistical problems. Journeys can take twice as long as normal.
The floods have wiped out many crops and vegetable gardens that would have provided crucial sources of food for people.
Oxfam is responding to the new flood emergency – but resources are being stretched to the limit at a time when we are also responding to one of the worst food crises to hit Niger in living memory.
What are the reasons for this repetitive cycle of food shortages in West Africa region?
Since 1974 the region had faced cyclical droughts resulting in food shortages. But in countries where governments have taken decisive long terms action, food shortages are not as serious as in Niger or Chad. A stronger commitment from regional and international governments and donors to re-invest heavily in the agricultural sector is needed to tackle deep causes of this crisis. Africans Head of States committed to invest at least 10% of their national budget to agricultural sector in Maputo in 2003. They need to be supported by international community to achieve it.
Early warning systems raised the alarm last November yet many donors, and international and national politicians failed to take action quickly enough.
In December 2009, a government-led National Survey in Niger indicated that over 7 million were at risk following failed harvests. The UN plan for Niger was launched in April 2010 but was only escalated on 16th July 2010, following a new national food security survey which confirmed that over 7 million people (almost 50% of the population) was in need of assistance.
While the new government in Niger has been quick to respond, WFP only launched its Emergency Operations (EMOP) in late July. Yet it can take up to three months to bring food into Niger from other countries in the region and across the world. This partly explains the problems we have today.
With the ongoing rainy season bringing floods and hampering aid distribution, international agencies and donors need to urgently intensify aid efforts before it is too late.
Had WFP and other agencies acknowledged the situation sooner, mobilised faster, and crucially launched emergency appeals earlier then the situation in Niger could have been very different.
The result is that funds are insufficient – the WFP faces a funding shortfall of $96m in Niger.
Meanwhile logistical/pipeline issues resulting from the slow scale-up mean that aid isn’t getting to the frontline agencies responding to the crisis quickly enough.
Why are families only getting 50 kgs of cereal in Niger when they really need double that?
A lack of funding and logistical delays mean that WFP only has enough stock to feed families with children under the age of two. While the very young children will receive special food aimed at preventing malnutrition, their families will get only 50 kilogrammes of cereal. This is half the amount an average family needs each month and is below humanitarian aid standards (known as SPHERE standards). Families who do not have enough to eat, but do not have children under two years will receive nothing from the WFP.
Why can’t the Government do more to respond?
Niger is the world’s least developed country and the government lacks the capacity and resources to respond to massive needs. Over seven million people, or nearly 50% of the population of Niger are in need of assistance.
Despite these difficulties, the government of Niger did act early to identify the seriousness of the situation and request assistance. However, some international donors and agencies have been slow to respond.
Why are donors not meeting the shortfall? Are Pakistan and other emergencies diverting funds?
The money Oxfam is asking for in international terms is very little. Commitments have been made at Gleneagles and elsewhere but these affordable promises have not been kept.
Although we are seeing an increase in emergencies, more predictable long-term funding will help local people, governments, and aid agencies respond early and save both lives and money.
At this late stage, we desperately need donors to commit funds to help WFP and other agencies respond to the crisis affecting millions of people.
If we’d invested in long-term funding in West Africa over the years, or even months ago, when Oxfam and others were warning of this crisis, we would be calling for less funds now.
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