Introduction

1. In a letter dated 20 December 2010 (S/2010/661), the President of the Security Council agreed to extend the mandate of the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) until 31 December 2013 and requested me to report to the Council every six months on the implementation of the revised mandate of the Office.

2. The present report, which covers the period from 1 July to 31 December 2013, provides an overview of national, cross-cutting and cross-border developments in West Africa and outlines the activities undertaken by UNOWA in the areas of good offices, preventive diplomacy and political mediation, in addition to efforts to enhance regional capacity to tackle threats and challenges to regional peace and stability. It also provides a description of the cooperation of the Office with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Mano River Union and the African Union to promote peace and stability in the region. Pursuant to the statement by the President of the Security Council of 16 July 2013 (S/PRST/2013/10), it provides an update on initial efforts by UNOWA in support of the implementation of the United Nations integrated strategy for the Sahel. Lastly, it contains recommendations regarding the renewal of the mandate of UNOWA.

HUMANITARIAN CONTEXT

The humanitarian situation has improved since the 2011 famine, but needs remain vast and the gains are fragile: 870,000 people are unable to meet basic food requirements without assistance and a further 2.3 million only barely meet their food needs and rely on sustained support for other necessities. Malnutrition rates also remain among the highest in the world, with 206,000 children under the age of five acutely malnourished, down from 215,000 in January. Humanitarian workers are preparing for a possible downturn in food security due to climactic shocks, including river flooding and flash floods induced by the tropical storm that hit the Puntland coast in November, to ensure appropriate response.

THREE-YEAR PLANNING STRATEGY TO STRENGTHEN PROGRAMMING

The Somalia Consolidated Appeal covers a three-year period. The funding appeal for the second year of the 2013-2015 CAP is US$928 million, and the appeal includes 298 project proposals from a cross-section of 137 UN agencies and non- governmental organizations.

In 2013, the CAP was only half funded at year end. Consequently, fewer people were reached than planned and the implementation of longer-term programmes to shore up resilience was limited. The second year of the three-year CAP has been revised to reflect current needs, the capacity to implement, and the priority to build the resilience of the Somali people. Other priorities include the needs of the returning refugees and very vulnerable displaced people in country. There is also a strengthened focus on protection issues, as the UN and its partners are building up the capacity to address and prevent violations such as gender-based violence, forced recruitment and abuse of children.

Libya/Mali - Upon request of the Malian Government, IOM carried out last week an operation to assist the voluntary return of 163 Malian stranded in Libya for several months.

Most of the stranded migrants in this group had initially left Mali for Algeria. With the money earned working in the Northern African country they jointly bought a boat to make their way towards Lampedusa in late July, an island known as a prime transit point for migrants wanting to enter Europe, particularly those originating from Africa.

On their way to Lampedusa, the migrants got lost at sea until they were rescued by a Gibraltar ship in Libyan national waters and transported to Tripoli.

Migrants were transferred to the Alhamra center in Libya (80 km away from Tripoli), in the wait of returning home.

“The plight of these stranded migrants had been weighing on us for some time, and IOM Tripoli was keen to see them safely home,” says Othman Belbeisi, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Libya.

IOM ensured that the migrants, who lost most of their belongings during their difficult journeys, were returned with as much support as possible. IOM purchased and provided each returnee with clothes and shoes. The eldest of the returnees was 49 years of age, and the group included also four minors. The group was accompanied by an IOM operational escort and an IOM medical doctor from Tripoli to Bamako, the latter to provide support to a migrant suffering from a medical condition.

“I cannot believe that after all these months of struggle, I will be going home to my family,” said one of the migrants expressing his great excitement prior to getting on the plane.

The return of these migrants took weeks of preparation to ensure that the returnees were fit to travel, had the necessary documents and were taken home in a dignified and safe manner.

Upon arrival, the migrants were welcomed by the Malian Government. The General Directorate for Civil Protection (DGPC) in coordination with IOM Mali moved the migrants to a reception center in Bamako where they were provided with food, health and shelter.

After having been registered by IOM and DGPC, the migrants received assistance from IOM psychologists and protection specialists. Telephones were made available for the migrants to contact their families.

Out of the four minors identified within the group, two were reunited with their families upon arrival. The Malian National Directorate for the Promotion of Children and the Family (DNPEF) agreed to temporary guardianship of the two other minors until they are reunited with their families.

Transportation to the final destinations is now being arranged by the Malian Government.

“IOM would like to ensure that the returnees are not made vulnerable to exploitation or additional dangerous journeys, by providing them with economic options and stability to continue their lives,” said Belbeisi. “But we need additional financial support to provide reintegration assistance to the migrants and their families.”

This is also a wish shared by the returnees. “Reintegration assistance would really help us to re-establish our lives. If there is more help in Mali, not many people would leave to look for work,” said one of the returnees on his way home.

IOM works in close partnership with the Libyan Government to assist migrants in need. This important return effort was made possible with funding support under IOM Libya’s programmes which are funded by the Italian Government and the European Union.

For more information, please contact

In Libya:

Othman Belbeisi
Chief of Mission
Tel: +218 91 220 3957
Email: obelbeisi@iom.int

In Mali:

Stefano Pes
Emergency and Post Crisis Coordinator
Tel: +223 90 50 00 02
Email: spes@iom.int

WFP supports more than 12,000 people affected by HIV in Burkina Faso. In addition to providing nutritional support, WFP helps them start their own businesses so they can sustain themselves and their families.

Christine is in her mid-fifties and lives in south-western Burkina Faso. Few of her friends and family know that she is infected with HIV. She takes great pride in wearing bright, colourful outfits sewn from pagne fabric.

"I'm lucky," says Christine (not her real name). "I’m well-fed, just as an African mother is supposed to be!"

Getting treatment

While she exudes positivity, Christine's lot has not been easy. In 2009, she fell ill and lost a lot of weight. When she finally contacted the local health centre, she was informed of her HIV status and began treatment.

WFP provides maize, beans, oil and a fortified blend of corn and soya to 12,000 people living with HIV, as well as to children orphaned by AIDS in the areas of Burkina Faso most affected by the disease. With treatment and WFP’s support, Christine was able to regain her strength and start rebuilding her health and life.

A new business

In addition to providing food rations, WFP partners with non-governmental organisations to help beneficiaries start their own income-generating activities. Following training, Christine was given the opportunity to open her own business and was given a loan to buy her first batch of pagne. This opportunity would change Christine's life. In just one year she was able to earn enough to pay off her debts and start saving money of her own.

"WFP has made it possible for me to give food to my family and children,” she explains. “It makes me happy to see my children eat and thrive, and this gives me peace to sleep at night."

Supporting families

Households affected by HIV are especially vulnerable. Christine looks after six children orphaned by AIDS of family and friends who have died, in addition to her own 10 children.

Thanks to WFP, she is able to take care of her extended family, and they all benefit from group discussions and courses on how to prevent HIV and AIDS. To this day, none of Christine's children is infected with the virus.

Huge progress has been made in recent years in reducing the HIV epidemic in Burkina Faso where the prevalence has dropped from around 7 percent in the late 1990s to around 1 percent today. Many thousands, however, are still infected every year. Through WFP assistance, they are given a chance to regain their health and create sustainable livelihoods for themselves, their families and children.

**LES TITRES **

 Davantage d’investissements sont nécessaires pour réduire les inégalités entre les hommes et les femmes dans le monde rural au Tchad (Oxfam, 18/12/13)

 La Coopération Suisse accorde un financement de 7.6 millions de francs suisses au programme Eau Hygiène et Assainissement au Tchad (UNICEF, 18/12/13)

 Tchad : vers une annulation de la dette avant 2015 (French.China.org, 19/12/13)

 U.N. changes tack to slow worsening hunger, poverty in Sahel (Reuters, 13/12/13)

 Tchad : Royoumbaye Nadoumngar nommé à la tête de la Commission électorale nationale (French.China.org, 19/12/13)

The synthesis report by FAO’s Monitoring African Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) team, is the first ever attempt to systematically analyse agriculture and food security policies in several African countries, using common methodology over years. The report found that in the period between 2005 and 2010, the policy environment and performance of domestic markets depressed producer prices in the ten African countries analysed, though the trend is improving. Most governments resorted to market and trade policies to protect consumers and keep food prices down in the reference period whilst budgetary transfers, were mainly been used to support producers. The report concludes that producer prices would improve significantly if inefficiencies in domestic value chains were eliminated through better targeted policies. These inefficiencies however seem to be increasing in all ten countries surveyed. The current MAFAP partner countries are: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.

Bénin Burkina Faso Cap Vert Côte d’Ivoire Gambie Guinée Guinée Bissau Mali Mauritanie Niger Sénégal Tchad Togo

Dans ce numéro :

• 1ère édition de la foire aux savoirs au Sahel et en Afrique de l’Ouest

• Lancement des programmes de coopération technique entre le CILSS, l’IGAD et la FAO.

• Partenariat CILSS-USAID

• 29ème réunion annuelle du Réseau de Prévention des Crises Alimentaires au Sahel et en Afrique de l’Ouest (RPCA) - les indicateurs et outils méthodologiques de mesure de la résilience passés à la loupe

• Conférence de presse de lancement de la commémoration du 40ème anniversaire du CILSS

Risques d’insécurité alimentaire localisée dans la région malgré une production agricole moyenne au Sahel et supérieure à la moyenne dans les pays côtiers.

• La production céréalière prévisionnelle en Afrique de l’ouest estimée en novembre 2013 est en hausse de 16 pour cent par rapport à la moyenne avec toutefois un niveau de production moyen au Sahel du fait des retards de semis et de l’arrêt précoce des pluies.

• L’approvisionnement des marchés demeure globalement satisfaisant dans la région en raison des récoltes des différentes cultures en cours. Ceci contribue à la baisse saisonnière des prix pouvant améliorer les disponibilités alimentaires auprès des ménages qui dépendent des marchés

• La situation nutritionnelle évaluée en juin-aout 3013 demeure préoccupante chez les enfants de 0 à 5 ans de la région.

• Selon les résultats de l’analyse de la vulnérabilité avec le Cadre Harmonisé dans la région, 1 671 000 personnes ont besoin d’une assistance humanitaire immédiate

Situation remains serious along Red Sea coast

The current Desert Locust situation remains particularly worrisome in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Eritrea.

In Yemen, ground control operations continue on the northern and central coast of the Red Sea and, on a much smaller scale, on the Gulf of Aden coast where hopper bands were decreasing as fledging occurred and new immature groups and swarms were forming in all areas. A few immature swarms were seen in the foothills near the Saudi Arabia border and Sada’a, and northwest of Aden.

In Saudi Arabia, groups of mature adults and a few swarms formed and laid eggs on the central Red Sea coast near Qunfidah and the southern coast near Jizan. Aerial and ground control operations are underway.

In Eritrea, groups of mature adults were seen laying eggs on the central coast to the north and south of Massawa in early December. Ground control operations were in progress. The situation is less clear on the northern coast near the Sudan border.

In Sudan, breeding continues in the Tokar Delta on the Red Sea coast where hopper groups are present and adult groups are maturing and laying eggs. Hopper bands have formed in the northeast subcoastal areas in Wadi Oko near Tomala. Control operations are in progress in both areas. Only solitarious adults have been seen on the southern coastal plains near the border of Eritrea.

In Northern Somalia, small-scale breeding is in progress on the escarpment north of Burao where low numbers of hoppers and adults are present. Previously reported hopper bands on the northwest coast were not seen during surveys in the second week of December. The current situation is being clarified in Puntland where a swarm was reported in early December.

In Mauritania, the situation is improving in the northwest as a result of 50,000 ha of control operations and drying vegetation. Small groups of mainly late instar hoppers and adults persist in some areas.

In Niger, small-scale breeding occurred in parts of Tamesna and the Tenere, while scattered adults are present in the southeast Air Mountains and the Tadress area.

Millet, rice, and sorghum constitute the basic staple foods for the majority of the Malian population. Millet has traditionally been the most widely consumed, but since 2005 rice has become a popular substitute in urban households. Sorghum is generally more important for rural than urban households. Markets included are indicative of local conditions within their respective regions. Ségou is one of the most important markets for both the country and region because it is located in a very large grain production area. Bamako, the capital and largest urban center in the country, functions as an assembly market. It receives cereals from Koulikoro, Ségou, and Sikasso for consumption and also acts as an assembly market for trade with the northern regions of the country (Kayes and Koulikoro) and Mauritania. Markets in the deficit areas of the country (Timbuktu and Gao) receive their supplies of millet and rice from Mopti, Ségou and Sikasso.

Most households in Southern Africa depend on maize as their main source of food and energy, given the high volumes and ease with which it is produced. Alternative food crops that are consumed as substitutes include rice, wheat, sorghum, millet, and tubers such as cassava and potatoes. Consumption of these substitutes occurs mainly when maize is not available or among those households in areas where such substitutes are more easily available (for example, cassava in northern Mozambique). The majority of rural households do grow the other cereals — especially sorghum and millet, which are more drought resilient — in relatively small quantities as a buffer in bad production years for maize.

Furthermore, wealthier households (especially in urban areas) with access to a variety of costlier cereals (such as rice and wheat) do consume them to diversify their diets. While wheat is widely consumed in the form of bread, it is produced in relatively small quantities in the region. South Africa is the only country that produces substantial amounts, but still in quantities insufficient to meet domestic requirements. South Africa is also the region’s major producer of maize and acts as a major supplier and exporter. In years of relative maize surplus, sizable amounts of both formal and informal cross border trade occurs between neighboring countries.

This past year, Feed the Future grants from the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) benefitted another 30,000 smallholder farmers in eight African countries in addition to those reached last year. In 2013 alone, USADF invested more than $7.1 million in 46 new food security projects that directly empower under-served and marginalized communities and enterprises. USADF Feed the Future grants help organizations create tangible benefits for agricultural producers and processors, such as increasing or sustaining the number of jobs in a community, improving income levels and strengthening agricultural value chains.

More than one third of USADF’s new Feed the Future grants this year were capacity-building projects, which serve to strengthen grantees’ skills in planning, production and marketing. One such grantee is the Noidaga Rice Producers group in Mali, a cooperative that engages in the harvest and sale of rice and vegetables in a conflict zone. USADF funds will be used to support and improve Noidaga’s financial and organizational management, as well as effectively irrigate their land, giving members and their families a sustainable and secure source of food and income.

1. MAJOR CHANGE SINCE THE PREVIOUS VERSION OF THE HIP

In order to match the needs and current context in the Horn of Africa, it was decided to enable a transfer of EUR 1 900 000 from the Food Aid Budget Line to the Humanitarian Aid Budget Line.

This change aims at better reflecting the realities of the projects selected in the different countries.

Près de 1.000 soldats togolais sont engagés au Mali au sein de la MINUSMA, la Mission des Nations Unies. Le contingent va recevoir dans quelques jours de nouveaux moyens de transport ainsi que des équipements sanitaires pour augmenter les capacités d’accueil d’un hôpital de campagne.

L’ensemble des équipements ont été présentés mardi à la presse par Atcha Mohamed Titikikpina (photo), le chef d’Etat-major des Forces armées togolaises.

‘Nous remercions le gouvernement qui nous permet d’être efficace sur le terrain afin d’aider la population malienne à recouvrer son intégrité’, a déclaré M. Titikikpina.

Le Togo est engagé sur de nombreux théâtres d’opération en Afrique : Côte d’Ivoire, Darfour et Mali sous les couleurs des Nations Unies.

Posted on Thu, Dec-26-2013

When Faadumo Cabdi Coofle arrived at Mohamed Mooge A, a settlement for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somaliland, two and a half years ago, she was pregnant with her sixth child. Her dreams had been consumed by a drought that engulfed some villages in the northern region of Somaliland and wiped out most of the livestock that her family depended on for their livelihood.

Faadumo and her family are amongst hundreds of IDPs who have been selected by Somaliland’s Ministry of Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (MRRR), IOM and partners for voluntary relocation and integration that will provide a permanent shelter on land donated by the local municipality.

“In addition to transportation, permanent shelters, and land, the families will also receive micro-finance support intended to increase their ability to move beyond day-to-day survival, and towards a sustainable future, in the hope that they can break the vicious cycle of poverty and vulnerability,” explains Dr Samir Hadjiabduli, IOM Head of Sub-Office in Hargeisa.

Working with the Ministry of Health, IOM’s mobile health team will provide free, critically needed, primary health care services, which include ante-natal and post-natal care, day treatment and stabilization prior to hospital referral and medication.

The resettlement operation, which began in mid-December, is expected to take seven weeks to complete.

IDP settlements sweep across the urban landscape in Somaliland. It is estimated that 84,000 persons are currently living in these camps where living conditions are unbearable.

In an effort to re-establish cities and villages that were destroyed and abandoned after years of conflict and drought, local authorities are persuading IDPs to move to new homes that have been built on the outskirts of towns, so that reconstruction of streets and other basic infrastructure can begin.

A similar operation is expected in the eastern outskirts of Hargeisa where IDPs from Stadium and State House, as well as those living in Burao, where a significant number of IDPs are living in similar conditions as the ones in Mohamed Mooge ‘A’ and ‘B’.

The relocation and reintegration activities are being coordinated by IOM, UNOCHA, UNHCR and international NGOs including the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), in partnership with MRRR, the Mayor of the Municipality of Hargeisa, the local NGO Kaaba Micro-Finance Institute and committee members from Mohamed Mooge ‘A’, and ‘B’ settlements.

With the aim of having MRRR and local government representatives take the lead in future operations, and in an effort to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) during emergencies, IOM has conducted hands-on training on: preparation of passengers manifests, tagging of belongings, transportation, embarkation and disembarkation screening, loading and offloading of belongings, engaging trained helpers from community, placing security preconditions, preparation and movement of convoy and timely sharing of information with partner agencies and authorities including community committees.

This operation is part of IOM’s Livelihoods Programme and Migration Health Programme, and is funded by the Government of Japan.

For more information or for interviews, please contact

Dr Samir Hadjiabduli Head of Sub-Office IOM in Hargeisa, Somaliland shadjiabduli@iom.int