In the Sahel, the number of people suffering from chronic food insecurity, high levels of poverty and vulnerability due to drought is increasing.
Food crises in the Sahelian region of West Africa can no longer be treated as limited events, caused by occasional hazards like a drought. Food and nutrition insecurity have become long-term, chronic problems. Acute food crises, such as occurred in 2005, and again in 2010, are short term peaks of an underlying trend of increasing chronic vulnerability. The growing level of poverty and inequality in the Sahel mean that there is no buffer when things go wrong. Even in years with good rainfall, many people in the Sahel struggle to survive. It only takes a small shock to send the system into a crisis.
However, many high level decision makers in the Sahel, within the Permanent Inter-State Committee for the Fight against Drought in the Sahel (CILSS), national governments, the UN agencies and donor agencies, (aside from a few exceptions) do not appear to consider the current high level of food and nutrition insecurity as a ‘crisis’. The brutal, unpalatable reality is that a pervasive, on-going, structural food crisis exists in the Sahel. In 2010, severe food insecurity impacted more than 10 million people across the region.
Escaping the Hunger Cycle: Pathways to Resilience in the Sahel by Peter Gubbels
In light of this reality, Groundswell’s Peter Gubbels has undertaken a study (Escaping the Hunger Cycle: Pathways to Resilience in the Sahel) to identify initiatives that have proven their potential to strengthen the resilience of communities in the Sahel, and reduce their vulnerability. Some of the “pathways to resilience” include: the “regreening” movement in the Sahel, led by farmers based on agroforestry the restores soil fertility, improved ways to prevent child malnutrition, strengthening local capacity for disaster risk reduction including adapting to climate change, improved early warning systems, the innovative use of cash transfers to secure people’s livelihoods and assets before the impact of a drought hits, and “social protection” programs that provide resources of the poorest families, to help them escape the hunger cycle.
The overarching challenge now is to strengthen the institutional capacity of governments and their partners to scale-up these proven initiatives to the national level. First, this requires significant, long-term efforts to strengthen governance and political leadership, particularly in fragile states, such as Chad, which currently could not effectively manage major increases in aid. This requires UN and donors to develop their staff capacity and leadership to apply international principles and guidelines for supporting fragile states. A second requirement is to better integrate humanitarian and development aid to address the chronic, not just acute, dimensions of the crisis, and the root causes, not just the symptoms. If the problem of advance preparation and an early humanitarian response to drought so as to prevent irreversible loss of assets and livelihoods is not solved, the impact of all other development strategies and investments will largely be lost.
A final challenge is to address high food prices, which the report shows clearly reduce poor people’s access to food and contributes to child malnutrition. In the Sahel, increased food reserves and buffer stocks at the regional, national and local levels can be a valuable tool for improving access to food and for stabilising food prices. Purchasing locally produced foodstuffs when prices are low to reduce supply, and selling when prices are high, can keep prices in check, protect farmers’ incomes and mitigate the effect of steep price rises.
The pathways to resilience in the Sahel are clear. Advocacy to change attitudes, policies and programs with proven potential to address chronic hunger and malnutrition is urgently needed.
Read the full report Escaping the Hunger Cycle: Pathways to Resilience in the Sahel, authored by Peter Gubbels, Groundswell’s Co-Coordinator for West Africa, for the Sahel Working Group. It is based on interviews with over 70 practitioners, researchers, representatives from donors, governments and the UN, as well as field visits in Niger and Chad, and relevant literature and reports. It is intended to guide decision makers to strengthen preparedness, early response and rural livelihoods; and emphasize policies on social protection, disaster risk reduction, malnutrition and food price volatility. The important research contained in the report has already generated considerable interest among the aid community and policy makers in the Sahel. The participating agencies that jointly commissioned this report are: Christian Aid, CARE International UK, Concern Worldwide, Oxfam GB, CAFOD, Plan UK, Save the Children UK, Tearfund, and World Vision UK.
