Updated version of the Sahel humanitarian Strategy emphasizes needs and response to the upcoming food and nutrition crisis in the region

(Dakar, Senegal – 10 February 2012). – An updated version of the Strategy document to prevent and mitigate a food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel is now available.

Humanitarian partners from the regional Inter-Agencies Standing Committee (IASC) launched on 15 December 2011 a strategy document termed “Preparedness for a food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel and neighboring countries». This early version focused on an analysis of the root causes as well as triggering factors that led to fear a new food and nutrition emergency in the region, only two year after the last acute crisis.

Renamed “Response to the food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel and neighboring countries” the updated version emphasizes the needs and the response. It takes into account the most recent food security and nutrition assessments conducted the Sahel and neighboring countries, including Senegal, northern Cameroon and northern Nigeria. It provides detailed data on needs by country, for a total of US$725 million, including $481 million for food security activities and $243.6 million for nutrition projects.

As examples, more than US$ 76.7 million will be needed throughout the Sahel to support activities in the field of agriculture, cattle breeding and livelihoods. In Mauritania alone, such programs will target 500,000 beneficiaries at a cost of $ 9 million. The World Food Program (WFP) estimates that another $404 million will be needed for food assistance in the region, either as food distribution, cash or food vouchers. The updated strategy also anticipates 1,027,900 cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition in the Sahel in 2012, including 175,000 in Mali and nearly 100,000 in Burkina Faso.

The updated document gives details on the fundraising mechanisms currently available in some of the Sahel countries, including the Consolidated Appeal processes (CAP) in Chad and Niger. It provides a view of the various humanitarian actors currently working in the Sahel and of their activities through a “3W” (“Who does what where?”) matrix.

The strategy also recalls that Humanitarian interventions and responses to crises will be indispensable to avoid a large-scale disaster, but they alone cannot overcome the existing vulnerabilities in the Sahel region.

They must be completed longer-term approaches to break the vicious circle of recurrent and severe food and nutritional crises, which weaken people’s resilience. It is essential for Governments, donors and the relief community to further strengthen and address humanitarian, recovery and development needs simultaneously.

The updated document in available online on OCHA ROWCA Website (in French only for the time being).