A partir de hoy, los caficultores podrán optar a créditos del fideicomiso Apoyo Financiero para los Productores del Sector Cafetalero Guatemalteco, destinado a mitigar los efectos de la roya y renovar las plantaciones. Los fondos se encuentran en el Banco de Desarrollo Rural, S.A. (Banrural).

El fideicomiso cuenta con Q117.5 millones con tasas de interés anuales que van desde el 3% al 8% para los medianos y grandes productores, y del 2% al 7% para micro y pequeños caficultores.

Cada caficultor de la clasificación de grandes productores puede solicitar un máximo de US$500 mil; US$125 mil los medianos y US$8 mil los pequeños, luego de haber llenado los requisitos del banco.

“Todos los usuarios del fideicomiso pueden iniciar sus trámites para tener acceso a los fondos”, refirió ayer Élmer López, ministro de Agricultura. El funcionario añadió que el dinero servirá para mantenimiento de los cafetales, siembra, renovación de plantaciones, diversificación de cultivos, industrialización, comercialización y reestructuración de deudas existentes.

El fideicomiso vencía el 23 de octubre del 2016, pero debido al poco tiempo que tenían los productores para pagar fue ampliado por 10 años, hasta el 2026, según el decreto del Congreso de la República 12-2013.

El fideicomiso también incluye asistencia de carácter no reembolsable para implementar programas dirigidos a pequeños y medianos productores, con el objetivo de fortalecer la caficultura y los procesos productivos de ese sector.

“Emitiremos un comunicado para hacer un llamado a los caficultores y que se acerquen a Banrural a solicitar los créditos”, refirió ayer Nils Leporowski, presidente de la Asociación Nacional del Café. Según el ejecutivo, el dinero servirá principalmente para fumigar las plantaciones y evitar la propagación de la roya.

“El manejo debe ser integrado y se debe fumigar, pero también fertilizar, por lo que el dinero ayudará al sector”, añadió. Durante la cosecha 2012/2013 la producción de café fue de 4.1 millones de quintales oro, lo que representó una disminución de 15% con relación a la anterior 2011/2012.

En ese momento el 70% del parque cafetalero tenía presencia del hongo. Los departamentos con mayor impacto fueron Guatemala, El Progreso, Santa Rosa, Jutiapa, Jalapa, Zacapa y Chiquimula.

Próxima cosecha
Para la cosecha 2013/2014, que concluye en septiembre próximo, se calcula una producción de cuatro millones de quintales oro. “La cosecha podría llegar a disminuir hasta en 7% comparado con la anterior”, explicó Nils Leporowski, presidente de Anacafé. Debido a las acciones para contrarrestar la plaga de la roya en los cafetales, la siguiente producción 2014/2015 podría incrementarse entre un 5% y un 7%, según cálculos de Anacafé. Precio El precio internacional del grano llegó ayer a US$171.95, según la bolsa de Nueva York. Además de la roya, el año pasado el grano registró precios bajos. En septiembre del 2013 el quintal del grano se encontraba en US$111.05, el precio más bajo en cuatro años, según Anacafé.

06/15/2014 14:05 GMT

ALGIERS, June 15, 2014 (AFP) - Three armed groups from northern Mali announced in Algiers on Sunday that they have agreed to begin talks with the Bamako government aimed at resolving long-standing disputes.

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA) and the Arab Movement of Azawad (MAA) had signed the "Algiers Declaration" late Monday, demanding "inclusive" peace and political talks in their troubled country.

The top leaders of the MNLA and HCUA, formed by ethnic Tuareg who have since 1962 launched four uprisings to fight Mali's army over the territory they claim as their homeland and call Azawad, have been in the Algerian capital since June 5.

A ceasefire was signed with the Bamako government on May 23.

On Sunday, initial discussions were concluded with the three groups signing a preliminary accord that will now be presented to the Malian government, according to the document seen by AFP.

Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop is now expected in Algiers later Sunday.

His Algerian counterpart, Ramtane Lamamra, was reported by the APS news agency as saying that the talks between the three groups had allowed them to converge and clarify their positions.

Lamamra also insisted on the necessity of an "inclusive" inter-Malian dialogue.

• 'Negotiations a priority' -

After meeting Lamamra, the head of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said negotiations are now a priority.

"The region will be in danger if there is no reconciliation," state television quoted Albert Gerard Koenders as saying.

He added that it was "important to organise inclusive negotiations" with the aim of restoring peace to northern Mali.

In the document, the three groups agree to "engage with the government of Mali in a constructive manner on the path of dialogue and negotiations for a new government that responds to the profound and legitimate aspirations of the people of north Mali".

Among their demands is the release of prisoners and "better conditions for the return of refugees once a definitive agreement is signed".

In January 2012, Tuareg fighters began the first rebellion in three years in northern Mali and formed an alliance with Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda, who sought to impose a brutal interpretation of Islamic law in towns they controlled.

Mali's army was meanwhile thrown into disarray by a coup in Bamako in March 2012.

Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda gained the upper hand over the Tuaregs in several towns before military intervention by former colonial power France in January 2013, which helped drive the armed extremists to desert hideouts. The MNLA allied itself with the army to fight Islamist forces.

Representatives of the peoples in northern Mali previously held "exploratory consultations" in Algiers in January.

They said they wanted to get full political and peace talks off the ground after discussions last year mediated by Burkina Faso on behalf of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Algeria, which has a long porous border with Mali criss-crossed by jihadist movements, is helping to mediate in the conflict affecting its southern neighbour.

abh/srm/bpz

06/15/2014 16:38 GMT

ALGER, 15 juin 2014 (AFP) - Trois groupes armés du nord du Mali ont annoncé dimanche s'être engagés à dialoguer avec Bamako pour trouver une solution définitive à la crise, dans une "plateforme préliminaire" signée à Alger.

Le Mouvement arabe de l'Azawad (MAA), la Coordination pour le peuple de l'Azawad (CPA) et la Coordination des Mouvements et fronts patriotiques de résistance (CM-FPR) sont convenus d'oeuvrer "à la recherche d'une solution politique, pacifique et définitive avec le gouvernement du Mali, à travers la facilitation de l'Algérie", affirme le document dont l'AFP a obtenu une copie.

Les dirigeants de ces trois mouvements sont à Alger depuis le 5 juin pour des consultations "exploratoires", après l'accord de cessez-le-feu signé le 23 mai avec Bamako.

Ils ont conclu dimanche ces discussions en signant une "plateforme préliminaire", qui sera remise au gouvernement malien afin de parvenir à un accord.

Le Mouvement national pour la libération de l'Azawad (MNLA) et le Haut Conseil pour l'unité de l'Azawad (HCUA), dont des dirigeants sont à Alger, devraient également signer cette plate-forme, a indiqué à l'AFP une source proche des négociations.

Le ministre malien des Affaires étrangères, Abdoulaye Diop, est arrivé dimanche après-midi à Alger.

Son homologue algérien Ramtane Lamamra a estimé que les discussions avaient permis de "rapproche(r) les points de vue" des trois mouvements et de "clarifi(er)" les positions, selon l'agence APS. Il a insisté sur la nécessité d'un dialogue intermalien "inclusif".

"Les négociations sont devenues prioritaires. La région sera en danger s'il n'y a pas de réconciliation", a déclaré le chef de la Mission des Nations unies au Mali (Minusma), Albert Gérard Koenders, à la télévision d'Etat, à l'issue d'un entretien avec M. Lamamra.

Il ajouté qu'il était "important d'organiser des pourparlers inclusifs" en vue de parvenir à la paix dans le nord du Mali.

"Nous pensons que c'est une avancée vers le début des pourparlers inclusifs entre Maliens. Je félicite le gouvernement algérien pour le travail fait pour en arriver là", a déclaré le Haut Représentant de l'Union africaine (UA) pour le Mali et le Sahel, Pierre Buyoya, cité par l'agence APS à l'issue d'une rencontre avec M. Lamamra.

"La situation au Mali nécessite d'aller vite vers un accord de paix", a ajouté M. Buyoya.

Dans le document, les trois mouvements conviennent de "s'engager avec le gouvernement du Mali de manière constructive sur la voie du dialogue et de la négociation pour une nouvelle gouvernance répondant aux aspirations profondes et légitimes des populations du nord du Mali".

Ils demandent par ailleurs "la libération de prisonniers et de créer les meilleures conditions de retour pour les réfugiés dès la signature d'un accord global définitif".

Le CPA comprend essentiellement des Touareg, et le MAA majoritairement des Arabes, tandis que la CMFPR regroupe des groupes d'auto-défense, comprenant essentiellement des communautés noires.

L'Algérie, qui partage avec le Mali une longue frontière traversée de part et d'autre par des jihadistes, joue les médiateurs dans le conflit malien.

Une intervention militaire internationale au Mali, toujours en cours, a débuté en janvier 2013, à l'initiative de la France, pour libérer le nord du pays de l'emprise de groupes islamistes.

abh-amb/emb

Out of school and out of luck

New Reports show that many will never set foot in a classroom

DAKAR/NAIROBI, 16 June 2014 – Despite major progress over the past decade, sub-Saharan Africa is still home to more than half of all the out-of-school children of primary school-age in the world. Moreover, millions who are in school are learning little.

On the Day of the African Child, a set of reports from UNICEF and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics say that over 30 million children of primary school age in sub-Saharan Africa remain out of school, with more than two-thirds of them in West and Central Africa.

Between 2000 and 2007, considerable gains were made in improving access to primary education. However, progress has stalled since 2008. The Global Initiative on Out of School Children reports reveal that opportunities to go to school are significantly reduced if the child is a girl, lives in a poor family, is from a rural area or is head of a household.

“In West and Central Africa, one out of five school-aged children will never enter a classroom,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa. “More classrooms and more qualified teachers are required, but these alone will not be sufficient to get millions of the most marginalized children into school. Families often cannot afford school fees or the cost of basic school supplies.”

“West and Central Africa has the world’s highest out-of-school rate, at 28 per cent, which means that about 19 million primary school-age children in this region are excluded from education,” said Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta, Director of UNESCO’s Regional Office for the Sahel. “This is largely the result of two factors: First, countries must overcome a historical legacy of limited access to education for the rural populations. Second, they are struggling to keep up with the rising demand for quality education from a growing school-age population.”

The second pressing challenge noted by The Global Initiative on Out of School Children is the poor quality of the education offered in many schools; a challenge that is often referred to as a ‘learning crisis’.

“With overcrowded classrooms and insufficient learning materials and teachers, large numbers of children repeat grades and drop out from school without mastering the basics,” says Leila Gharagozloo-Pakkala, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa. “This is a particularly serious concern given the close links between learning outcomes and national economies.”

The reports highlight the importance of addressing income poverty, as well as issues of location and gender. They stress that culture, language, security and the environment are vital considerations in improving education. The reports also underline the need for greater analysis and more evidence-informed planning in order to reach excluded children.

“Business as usual isn’t working,” said Mohamed Djelid, Director of UNESCO’s Regional Office for Eastern Africa. “Special efforts are needed to reduce the real costs imposed on families for sending their children to school. Parents need to be encouraged to keep their children in school, especially girls from marginalized communities and vulnerable groups, and children with disabilities who are too often at risk of being out of school or dropping out of school.“

UNICEF and UNESCO are calling on African governments and donors to refocus their efforts to provide free, high quality education. The ultimate goal is to ensure that all children, regardless of their backgrounds or circumstances, are in school and learning.

Notes to the editors

This report was produced as part of the Out-of-School Children Initiative, a partnership between UNICEF and UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics active in more than 30 countries to identify who is out of school, why they are out of school, and what strategies will help them access school.

Supported by multiple partners, including the Global Partnership for Education, the second phase of the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children is already underway, with more than 20 new countries joining.

For more information on the reports, please visit http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_61659.html

About UNESCO and its Institute for Statistics

As the lead agency coordinating the global drive to achieve Education for All (EFA), UNESCO works with a wide range of partners to make education a top priority on international, regional and national agendas. UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics is the official source of data used to monitor progress towards EFA and related goals. For more data on out-of-school children, visit www.uis.unesco.org

About UNICEF

UNICEF promotes the rights and well-being of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere. To learn more about UNICEF and its work, visit www.unicef.org

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

For more information, please contact:

In Nairobi
James Elder, UNICEF, Tel: +254 20 762 22127, Cell: +254 71558 1222, jelder@unicef.org
Masakazu Shibata, UNESCO, Tel: +254 20 7622347, m.shibata@unesco.org

In Dakar
Laurent Duvillier, UNICEF, Tel: +221 338 69 76 42, Cell: + 221 77 740 35 77, lduvillier@unicef.org
Anne Muller, UNESCO, Tel: +221338492342; Cell: +221778260154, a.muller@unesco.org

Results & Achievements

• Teams rapidly completed a baseline assessment of pre-project preparedness and capacity, providing a benchmark for long-term project goals and accomplishments.

• Nearly 3,000 people have been trained in disaster risk management under the project, including 943 women.

• In the first year of the project, teams have successfully integrated disaster risk management into 10 community development plans, ensuring sustainable and resilient growth.

• The Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction Project is part of nearly $113 million in ongoing climate change and disaster risk reduction programs funded by the World Bank, Global Environment Facility, and GFDRR.

In the Sahel, the climatic and geographic transition into the Sahara desert creates enormous and unpredictable risk for drought and water scarcity. This often translates into food insecurity in surrounding countries, including Niger, which is almost 80 percent covered by the Sahara desert.

More frequent and intense natural disasters are hampering the recovery of vulnerable communities as new crises aggravate the lingering effects from older ones. To help mitigate these and other risks, the World Bank and the Africa Caribbean Pacific - European Union Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Program (ACPEU NDRR), an initiative of the ACP Group funded by the EU and managed by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), have financed an almost $1 million disaster risk reduction project in Niger to build capacity of local communities for early warning and response.

Governments and international development organizations are becoming increasingly interested in building resilience throughout the Sahel as a changing climate threatens to create even more volatility in rainfall patterns and the availability of water. Supported by GFDRR and the ACP-EU NDRR Program, the Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction Project is mainstreaming disaster risk management practices into development activities to prevent droughts and other disasters from upending social progress and economic growth.

Approach

As a capacity and resilience building initiative, the Oxfam-implemented project first worked to understand existing local coping mechanisms for disasters for potential systemization and leveraged investments. Along with providing technical support, advanced seminars and guidance for documentation, and information gathering, the project also:

• Conducted extensive communal interviews along with focused capacity assessments that revealed inefficiencies and critical needs in dozens of existing weather monitoring stations.

• Improved the functioning of five sub-regional committees to help streamline communication between local and other levels, in order to better incorporate locally-informed and targeted responses.

• Trained thousands of community members in disaster risk reduction, and reactivated 10 municipal- level monitoring observatories along with 20 community early warning systems.

Lessons Learned

Inter-organizational communication is essential for effective disaster risk mitigation. Often, top-down approaches to disaster risk reduction can overlook the existing knowledge and resources of local communities. The project made streamlined communication between various organizational levels a priority, putting in place feedback mechanisms to better incorporate communal strengths in policy and capacity building efforts. Overall, the project encountered enthusiasm and high levels of participation among communities given a voice in the project, especially with regard to gender and sustainability concerns.

Outdated equipment can create information and communication bottlenecks. World Bank teams found that inadequate or outdated hardware and capacity in existing monitoring stations throughout the region were preventing easy access to previous disaster and management records, slowing project efforts and constraining the effectiveness of existing systems. This prompted an overhaul of 23 offices to modernize monitoring equipment and digitize records, enhancing communication between sites and rendering disaster risk data more readily available.

Next Steps

GFDRR will continue to scale up the project, ultimately training more than 7,000 people and supplying a population of over 1.2 million with updated monitoring systems, risk reduction training programs and further capacity building in 2014. These fundamental measures will help enable other disaster risk reduction and humanitarian efforts throughout Niger.

Résumé exécutif

Quel est le contexte régional ?

Permettre à tous les enfants d’accéder aux opportunités d’un enseignement de qualité est un prérequis au développement pour toutes les nations. Pourtant, malgré des progrès importants, l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre (AOC) est très nettement la région du monde qui compte le plus d’enfants non scolarisés. Les dernières données de l’Institut Statistique de l’UNESCO (ISU) montrent en effet qu’en 2010 cette région représente 36% des enfants non scolarisés dans le monde alors qu’elle ne représentait que 22% en 1999. Si l’AOC a connu une diminution du nombre d’enfants non scolarisés, celle-ci a cependant été moins importante que dans les autres régions du globe. Composée de 24 pays en très forte croissance démographique, la région compte une population de 433,5 millions d’individus soit 6,2% de la population mondiale. Le contexte éducatif, mais aussi économique et sanitaire de la région reste particulièrement problématique ce qui explique que 19 pays de la région soient classés comme ayant un faible indice de développement humain (PNUD, 2011).

Si le nombre d’enfants pris en charge par les systèmes éducatifs des pays d’AOC a fortement augmenté depuis les années 2000, le contexte démographique et économique difficile fait que cette région reste la plus en retard au niveau mondial en ce qui concerne l’exclusion scolaire. L’équité selon le lieu d’habitation, le genre et le revenu reste particulièrement problématique. L’enseignement primaire obligatoire et gratuit est pourtant officiellement garanti par plus de la moitié des pays de la région. La parité fille-garçon au primaire dans les pays de la région est en moyenne de 0,93, plus d’un dixième des élèves sont des redoublants et seulement 70% des enfants inscrits au primaire en atteignent la 5ème année1 . La qualité de l’offre éducative et ses résultats en termes d’acquis scolaires des élèves sont assez faibles dans la région. Un enseignant du primaire de la région fait en moyenne face à 41 élèves et moins de deux tiers des enseignants sont formés à leur métier. Si de manière relative, l’effort budgétaire des États en matière d’éducation est très important, la faiblesse du PIB par tête et la forte croissance démographique font qu’en terme absolu les montants alloués par élève sont encore très faibles en AOC par rapport aux autres régions du monde.

Afin de s’attaquer spécifiquement à la question des enfants non scolarisés, une initiative mondiale en faveur des enfants non scolarisés a été lancée en 2010 par l’UNICEF et l’Institut de Statistiques de l’UNESCO (ISU). Avec pour objectif d’accélérer les interventions en faveur de la scolarisation primaire universelle d’ici 2015, les principes d’action de cette initiative mondiale sont d’améliorer le système d’information et l’analyse statistique relative aux enfants non scolarisés ainsi que d’identifier les facteurs de blocage expliquant cette situation et les stratégies à disposition. Dans ce cadre et en complément des études pays produites en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), au Nigéria, au Ghana et au Libéria, nous utilisons les enquêtes ménages disponibles entre 2005 et 2009 dans 21 pays de la région pour analyser au niveau régional qui sont les enfants non scolarisés, pourquoi ils ne vont pas à l’école et les moyens à disposition pour agir.

Seasonal forecasts call for generally good conditions for the growing season

Key Messages:

April and May rainfall led to favorable conditions for crop development throughout the region as the season ranges from fully underway in the south to just beginning in the north.

In the northern part of the Sudanian-Sahlian zone where planting has not yet begun, timely sowing/planting is expected given the favorable medium term forecast for that area.

In contrast to earlier seasonal forecasts, more recent seasonal forecasts call for above-average rainfall totals for the season over most of the region, which should lead to good crop and pasture development.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The social structure of Sahelian communities has changed considerably over the years. This change is chiefly manifested in the redefinition of roles and responsibilities within households. The 2012 food crisis has revealed that women have taken on increasing responsibilities from a number of standpoints. Their contribution to maintaining their households in times of crisis is tacitly expected, even though this increased responsibility within the household is not always reflected in increased power within the community. In the eyes of the community, women remain under the guardianship of their husbands or, if they are not married, that of their brothers or their eldest sons. The social perception of the role and place of women in these communities has influenced general attitudes regarding access to factors of production. Indeed, because they have only a subsidiary role in relation to household responsibilities and are relegated to the sidelines when it comes to community-based management in general, women continue to have limited access to factors of production. This should limit their ability to increase the support they provide for their households in times of crisis. However, it appears many are able to make a substantial contribution to household members‟ survival through low-return opportunities that are safe and cautious.

Women‟s participation has low social visibility, and this has repercussions on social development strategies implemented to support or assist vulnerable households. When such efforts are directed toward the head of the household, female heads of households appear to be a significant focus of this attention, as a result of their perceived level of vulnerability. However, within households, women who are „responsible for their households‟, despite being under the influence and supposed protection of a spouse, lack visibility, and it is still difficult to gain direct access to this category of women.

In most of the zones targeted by our survey, women ensured household resilience by regularly taking responsibility during the hungry season. They contribute to familial nutrition in conjunction with the contribution of production by the family or the man, and sometimes assume responsibility for their own production or, when this is not possible, with revenue from small, daily income-generating activities (IGAs). Resilience is inconceivable without rural women.

Households in which women have greater participation in decision making regarding food are more resilient. Indeed, women‟s involvement in supplying cereals and processing food helps enable food diversification and preparation of dishes that are better suited to the budgets of rural households.

Women‟s ability to negotiate or influence decision making within their households enhances household food security, in particular through: • diversification of food stocks with the introduction of numerous foods that are not necessarily produced locally; • longer-term availability of food stocks, through frugal management of the millet produced (and choice of methods of preparation); • better organization and planning of supplies, since joint decisions and joint financing of spending are unusual.

Participation or consultation around the management of food security is more difficult to achieve in polygamous households, where the tendency of consumption sub-units to emerge around the different wives constitutes a daily threat to family cohesion. This tendency is even stronger when the relationships between wives are strained and the head of the household is away for extended periods of time, particularly periods longer than the lifetime of the food stock set up for his wives prior to his departure.

The men and women surveyed recognized that monogamous households with a limited number of children were more resilient and better equipped to seize new opportunities in terms of mobility and education. The more children the women have, the more they are in charge and the more vulnerable they become within theirs households. In this regard, the analysis shows that women‟s family responsibilities are increasing, even when they are not household heads, nor even recognized as having responsibility for their households. The place and role of women in Sahelian communities has evolved over years of food insecurity, gradually leading to their exclusion from access to natural resources. Despite of this, and in response to the growing need to generate useful resources to sustain their households in times of crisis, women continue their involvement in agricultural and pastoral production, while simultaneously becoming experts in diversification of IGAs.

Most women involved in IGAs ensure a relative well-being for their households, even in times of crisis, and ipso facto earn greater consideration within their households and communities. Despite their limited resources, these women become important actors in household food security and prove to be skilled managers of endemic shortages.

The perception of the role of women in Sahelian society is evolving, with the concept of an ideal woman as one who has a greater involvement in taking care of household needs.

'The ideal woman is an energetic woman who carries out economic activities and has financial income and property' (Hausa Women Focus Group Banibangou, Niger).

The image of the woman who expects her husband to provide for everything seems to be increasingly a thing of the past. A clear understanding of the dynamics underlying the management of family assets can help to develop more appropriate support for household resilience.

Targeting the consumption‟s sub-units, or more specifically the heads of households or responsible persons of their households, would therefore be a more appropriate approach for support in cases of food crises, since it would enable efforts to be directly targeted to improve the organization and consumption of food resources. By taking account of household realities, it should be possible to reach all of the most vulnerable family units.

In 2012, food aid was delivered to the rural communities surveyed in a timely manner, in relatively sufficient quantities, and in a variety of forms.

Several organizations came to the assistance of vulnerable households, and each one developed approaches and tools to ensure that they effectively reached those households most in need. Direct food aid was cited by the people interviewed as being the most effective form of aid in a food crisis. Methods that involved intermediaries between the organizations and beneficiaries were deemed less effective, due to risks of speculation in light of the beneficiaries‟ pressing need. Some of those methods, such as coupons to be exchanged for goods with local merchants, were considered to be less effective for beneficiaries, even though it was recognized that they made a positive contribution to strengthening the local economy. These methods need to be appropriately monitored to ensure that the beneficiaries receive the goods without having to pay an additional cost for the transaction.

A good combination of local strategies and humanitarian aid has allowed directly and indirectly targeted households to survive through the protracted crisis. Other development actions have also helped to build more sustainable strategies within households, thereby reinforcing their resilience.

carte en 7 pages

Auteur: Marthe Diarra Doka (CERDES), Djibrilla Madougou (AIMS) et Alexandre Diouf (A & B Consulting)

Le présent rapport aborde les questions ou, mieux, les réponses données à la crise alimentaire de 2012 au Sahel, sous l’angle genre. Ce travail de recherche réalisé sur le terrain de trois pays, à savoir le Burkina Faso, le Mali et le Niger, traduit les dires des populations et prolonge les travaux antérieurs. Les opinions et les interprétations, ici exprimées, sont celles des auteurs et n’engagent pas nécessairement Oxfam et les pays concernés.

La structure sociale des communautés sahéliennes a fortement changé au fil des années. Ce changement se manifeste rincipalement par une recomposition des rôles et des responsabilités au sein des ménages. La crise alimentaire de 2012 a permis de voir que, sous plusieurs angles, les femmes ont gagné en responsabilités. Leur contribution à l’entretien du ménage en temps de crise est tacitement attendue, même si cette augmentation de responsabilité au sein de leur ménage ne se traduit pas toujours en augmentation de pouvoir au sein de la communauté. Aux yeux des communautés, les femmes restent sous la tutelle de leur mari ou, en l’absence de celui-ci, de leurs frères ou fils ainés. Cette perception sociale du rôle et de la place de la femme dans ces communautés a fini par influencer les attitudes de chacun concernant l’accès aux facteurs de production.

N´DJAMENA/BRUSSELS, 16 June 2014 - The European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) has provided €1.3 million to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to combat severe acute malnutrition among children under five in the Sahel belt of Chad, UNICEF announced today.

“We are profoundly grateful that ECHO has once again committed to the children of Chad who suffer from malnutrition, a serious condition that can mark them for life,” says Bruno Maes, UNICEF Country Representative. “ECHO´s support will allow us to continue to tackle the nutrition challenges in the country, maintaining and improving the response of nutrition interventions and ensuring Nutrition Cluster efficient coordination.”

Nutrition remains a key concern in Chad, especially in the 11 regions of the Sahel belt, including the capital city of N´Djamena. The latest Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART) nutrition survey conducted in July 2013 found that 5 out of those 11 regions have malnutrition rates above the emergency threshold (15%) while 4 others have rates above the alert threshold (10%), as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO).

During the first months of the year, the number of children admitted for acute malnutrition in feeding centers supported by UNICEF and ECHO across Chad has drastically increased. According to current estimates, 180,000 children will need to be treated for severe acute malnutrition in 2014. This situation is extremely worrying.

“The levels of acute malnutrition in Chad are a major concern. With this additional funding to UNICEF, our three main objectives are to secure the pipeline of therapeutic food for malnourished children, ensure effective coordination of the nutrition sector and support nutritional surveys,” says Thomas Dehermann-Roy, Head of Office for the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) in Chad.

In close coordination with nutrition partners, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, UNICEF will support existing systems to improve the quality as well as increase the accessibility of basic services in 33 health districts of the Sahel belt, in a total of 471 health facilities.

UNICEF, as the Nutrition Cluster lead, in collaboration with the Director of Nutrition Department from the Ministry of Health, will help to improve the coordination and monitoring of actions among implementing partners and among the various clusters intervening in the Chad emergency areas. This will lead to increased efficiency and effectiveness of partners' interventions towards the treatment and prevention of severe acute malnutrition.

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About UNICEF UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. For more information about UNICEF and its work visit: www.unicef.org

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About the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) funds relief operations for victims of natural disasters and conflicts around the world. Its aid is provided in an impartial and neutral manner to people in need, regardless of their nationality, religion, gender, ethnic origin or political affiliation. ECHO is among UNICEF’s largest humanitarian donors. For more information visit: http://ec.europa.eu/echo

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For further information, please contact: Lalaina Fatratra Andriamasinoro, Chief of Communication, UNICEF Chad +235 66 36 00 42
lfandriamasinoro@unicef.org

Anouk Delafortrie, Regional Information Officer, European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO): +221 77 740 92 17, anouk.delafortrie@echofield.eu

I. Introduction

1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 2100 (2013), by which the Council established the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and requested me to periodically update it on the situation in Mali and the implementation of the Mission’s mandate. The present report covers the period from 24 March 2014 to 26 May 2014.

I. Introduction

1. Le présent rapport est soumis en application de la résolution 2100 (2013) du Conseil de sécurité, par laquelle le Conseil a créé la Mission multidimensionnelle intégrée des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation au Mali (MINUSMA) et m’a demandé de le tenir régulièrement informé de la situation au Mali et de l’exécution du mandat de la Mission. Il couvre la période allant du 24 mars au 26 mai 2014.

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation - Mon, 16 Jun 2014 11:00 GMT
Author: Soumaila T. Diarra

BAMAKO, Mali (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Talking with his neighbours under a neem tree, Madou Kone relates how he is late planting his sorghum crop this year – even though the usual time to plant is now.

Read the full article on AlertNet.

Training, equipment helps food processors multiply sales

June 2014—In Mali, women-owned and -operated farms for sorghum and millet crops are common, but it is rare to find women managing the companies that transport and process these grains that are staples in Malian diets.

That is just one reason Danaya Cereals is remarkable among food processors in Mali. Led and largely staffed by women, Danaya has become an industry leader in recent years, creating more income and jobs as demand grows for the company’s popular line of cereal products. At the head of the 36-person firm is Aissata Thiam, who is training her daughter, and Danaya’s current finance and operations manager, Halatou Dem, to eventually take over the family business.

Since 2009, when Feed the Future—the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative—began working with the company, Danaya Cereals has more than doubled its annual sales. To help meet increased demand, Feed the Future helped the company partner with a wholesaler for the first time, leading to a contract with Keita Cereals that enabled Danaya to aggregate purchases from more than 120 farmers, guaranteeing a more consistent supply of raw material. This grain is also higher in quality—Feed the Future recently financed a new grain blower to help Keita reduce impurities from 10 percent to less than 1 percent.

Danaya staff are also receiving training in accounting, marketing and supply chain organization, as well as assistance in business negotiation so the company can seek financing from banks. “Before working with [Feed the Future’s] business development team, our finances were disorganized and difficult to track. Now, we have a computer and finance software—and I can manage our accounting properly,” says Dem.

In 2013, Danaya secured a $158,000 loan from Mali’s BICIM Bank to finance a new production plant. With this money and the new space and industrial equipment, the company can now triple its production capacity.

Productive enterprises like Danaya are critical for growth in Mali’s agriculture sector, since processing companies boost demand for smallholder farmers’ crops and allow them to sell more of their surplus. More revenue for both smallholder farmers and business owners means Malians across the agricultural value chain can improve food security and invest in their families’ futures.

Poor households in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua dependent on subsistence farming and coffee-growing activities have faced climatic and economic shocks adversely affecting their food security for the past two years. These households have depleted their food reserves from previous harvests and are largely dependent on market purchasing for their food supplies. Based on current below-average harvest forecasts for 2014/2015 due to the erratic rainfall associated with El Niño events and with the continuing income effects of the coffee rust outbreak, very poor households in parts of eastern and western Guatemala are expected to face Crisis levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3) between July and November. Other municipalities in these same areas and in coffee-growing mountainous areas of El Salvador and western and southern Honduras will face Stressed levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 2) through September.

The harvest of Primera crops (in August/September) normally marks the end of the yearly lean season. However, with a 59 percent probability of the development of El Niño conditions over the three-month period from June through August, this year’s harvest is expected to be below-average. Yields from Postrera crops (harvested in November/December) are also threatened. Certain crops in eastern Guatemala are already reportedly water stress due to the rainfall anomalies in that area, with the rains starting late in parts of northern and southern Guatemala, eastern Honduras, and the Atlantic Zone and Dry Corridor of Nicaragua. This compounds the unfavorable weather forecast for the Primera growing season.

For the last two years, the purchasing power of very poor households across the subregion (day laborers and small farmers) affected by crop failures in the Dry Corridor has been weakened by income losses from casual labor in the coffee sector, even with the low price of white maize compared to last year and the five-year average. In Guatemala in particular, production losses from the coffee rust outbreak on plantations beginning in late 2012 were assessed at 22 percent for the country as a whole (for 2013/2014) and as high as 100 percent for small coffee growers. In addition, a sharp drop in the selling prices of coffee beans (by 60 percent compared with April 2011 prices) slashed the incomes of day laborers by up to 80 percent. With these cash earnings normally used to purchase food during the annual lean season from April to September, this represents a 50 percent loss of household purchasing power for this year. Thus, Guatemala has the highest levels of food insecurity in the region. The combined effects of smaller staple grain harvests and continued low incomes from shortfalls in coffee harvests due to the rust outbreak will create food consumption gaps between July and November of this year, during the lean season. In addition, the unusually high prices of red beans and seasonal rises in prices for black beans and white maize will curtail food access.

According to on-the-ground reports, this combination of factors has forced the poorest households in Guatemala to resort to unusual coping strategies which, by the end of July, could result in the accelerated depletion of their livelihood assets, which would put some 615,000 residents of certain municipalities in the eastern and western parts of the country in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) between July and November. The other regional countries have also been affected by the rust outbreak and crop failures, though to a lesser extent. Approximately 110,000 members of households of day laborers and small farmers in coffee-growing mountain areas of El Salvador and western and southern Honduras will face Stressed levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 2) until the September harvest of Primera crops, marking the end of the lean season. Thereafter, in general, households in these countries are expected to experience Minimal acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 1) between September and the November/December harvest of Postrera crops, though there will still be small pockets of Stressed households.

For the time being, the governments of these countries have no plans to declare a state of emergency or request outside assistance. Future humanitarian assistance programs are curtailed by continuing funding gaps and ongoing operations will not suffice to mitigate the effects of expected shocks in the near future, which are likely to extend into 2015.

Central America alerta de seguridad alimentaria, Junio 2, 2014 (Spanish)

There is great reward in planting trees, reviving dead land and feeding people and animals alike - but with vast swathes of land becoming dry and arid desert across Africa every year, it's vital that we act now to keep the land alive. Help us turn the desert green!

Donate

“Never does a Muslim a plant a tree or sow a crop and a bird, human being, or beast eats from it without earning the reward of charity.” (hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, narrated by Bukhari and Muslim)

In West Africa, a worrying phenomenon is making life increasingly difficult for the people of Niger, Chad, Mali and other countries of the Sahel region. Every year, areas of land which were once fertile are becoming dry and arid – a process called desertification.

As the desert spreads, thousands of families once dependent on farming traditional crops, like millet and sorghum, to feed themselves and earn a living are left unable to support themselves. It was always hard when the rainy season came and little rain fell, causing drought – but now even the wet years are difficult, as the hard, dry land simply doesn’t absorb the water and the crops just don’t grow.

It’s a vicious cycle: land which already has vegetation absorbs water well, as the leaves help stop the water running off the surface of the land and the plants keep the soil moist and permeable – but in order to grow vegetation, the land needs to absorb water in the first place. What’s the solution?

In countries like Niger, Islamic Relief is working to restore this dry land by teaching the community to plant trees and use an ingenious water-catchment technique.

“We dig a demi-lune (half-moon) in the ground, and in the middle we dig a small hole and plant a seed,” the women in the Nigerien village of Kanda, Ouallam told us, demonstrating in the hard ground with one of the spades Islamic Relief provided. “Now, when the rain falls and runs away over the hard ground, the demi-lunes catch it and keep the soil around the tree moist so it can grow.”

The deep semi-circular demi-lunes are positioned according to the slope of the land and the direction in which rainwater usually runs off the surface, ensuring the maximum amount is caught. In this way, we work to fulfil what Allah tells us in the Qur’an: “We send down pure water from the sky, so that We can revive a dead land with it.” (25:48-9)

It’s a technique which has been used for years by local environmental NGOs in Niger, and near to Kanda village is a large swathe of land where demi-lunes were dug many years ago – now covered in trees. The women of Kanda who earn a weekly wage from Islamic Relief for their work, told us, “when the land is restored, we can grow crops again to eat – we’re very grateful to Islamic Relief for showing us how to do this.”

There are other techniques to revive the land – one technique we use in Mali is to plant a crop called sisal. It’s extremely drought-resistant and can grow in very dry conditions; once it has been used to successfully restore the land, other crops can be planted too. In 2009, Imam Zaid Shakir visited this ‘Greening the Desert’ project in Mali and spoke to Emel magazine on return about how moving his visit had been.

To help us restore desert land and give families a way to feed themselves, donate to our Food projects and reap the reward.

EL NIÑO – Definition and historical episodes

El Niño is a recurrent weather phenomenon that takes place approximately every two to seven years and usually lasts between 12 and 18 months. An El Niño event is defined by a high Oceanic Niño Index (ONI), which is based on Sea Surface Temperature (SST) departures from the average in a central equatorial Pacific region. An El Niño episode is associated with persistent warmer-than-average SSTs and consistent changes in wind and rainfall patterns. Despite their periodic and recurrent manifestations, El Niño episodes do not have a deterministic trend, with fixed occurrence periods and a constant intensity.

As a result, stochastic models have been developed to predict the beginning and the intensity of El Niño episodes. However, while the accuracy of these models in predicting the onset of an El Niño episode is relatively high, forecasting the intensity is more uncertain due to random atmospheric disturbances which may dampen or amplify the intensity.

As a result, since El Niño episodes cause major global weather and climate fluctuations and have a significant impact on agriculture and food security, El Niño conditions are closely monitored by major meteorological institutes, and forecasts are updated accordingly.

Between 1950 and 2013 a total of twenty-two El Niño episodes had occurred. Figure 1 highlights the occurrences of moderate and strong El Niño and La Niña events (red lines on the upper half of the chart refer to El Niño, blue lines on the lower part to La Niña).

Iraq: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and its allies have overrun all of the northern governorate of Ninevah and significant areas of neighbouring Salah al Din and Kirkuk governorates, as well as part of northern Diyala. Access is severely limited, and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Paraguay: An estimated 159,200 people affected by flooding, as heavy rainfall has caused rivers to overflow from Alto Paraguay department in the north to Ñeembucú in the south. Three departments and five districts have declared a state of emergency.

South Sudan: 300 more cases of cholera in Juba bring the total to 1,700. In Western Bahr el Ghazal, areas of Buseri were taken by armed men just days after the Government and SPLM-in-Opposition signed a peace deal.

Updated: 17/06/2014 Next update: 24/06/2014

Global Emergency Overview Web Interface

(Bamako, 16 juin 2014) – Les acteurs humanitaires au Mali lancent, aujourd’hui, la plateforme web ORS (Online Reporting System, en anglais), un nouveau système de suivi en ligne des programmes contenus dans le plan de réponse humanitaire stratégique régional pour le Sahel (SRP).

«Je suis fier qu’aujourd’hui, le Mali soit le premier des neufs pays du Sahel à utiliser ce système innovateur,» a dit David Gressly, le Coordonnateur Humanitaire pour le Mali. «Cet outil est décisif pour nous permettre de suivre de façon coordonnée et transparente la mise en oeuvre des programmes humanitaires destinés aux personnes les plus vulnérables dans le pays» a ajouté M. Gressly.

L’ORS permet de mieux évaluer l’ampleur des besoins, la présence géographique des acteurs sur le terrain et de suivre l’avancée des interventions humanitaires en temps réel. «Les résultats de ce système de suivi vont nous permettre d’avoir une meilleure appreciation de la situation sur le terrain et donc des fonds nécessaires. Nous pourrons mieux démontrer l’impact de nos différentes interventions. Les donateurs pourront aussi s’y référer dans leur processus de décision» a déclaré M. Gressly.

Le plan de réponse stratégique (SRP) pour le Mali, lancé en février 2014, couvre une période de trois ans et a pour objectif d’apporter une assistance d’urgence tout en renforçant les solutions durables. Il vise ainsi à améliorer l’accès aux services sociaux de base, surtout dans les zones au nord du pays touchées par le conflit. Il permet également d’apporter une réponse adéquate à la malnutrition chronique et à l’insécurité alimentaire qui affectent des millions de personnes sur toute l’étendue du territoire.

Les fonds requis pour la mise en oeuvre du SRP pour le Mali s’élèvent à 568 millions de dollars. A ce jour, 125 millions de dollars (soit 22 pourcent de financement) sont mobilisés.

Le SRP pour le Mali fait partie intégrante du SRP pour le Sahel couvrant la période 2014-2016. Le plan de réponse pour les neuf pays du Sahel est d’un montant de 2 milliards de dollars.

Le lien pour accéder au système de suivi des programmes humanitaires pour le Sahel est le suivant: http://ors.ocharowca.info/

Pour obtenir des informations supplémentaires, veuillez contacter :

Katy Thiam, Chargée de l’Information Publique, thiamk@un.org +223 75 99 34 97
Diakaridia Dembélé, Chargé de l’Information Publique, dembele@un.org,+223 7599 5581
Guido Pizzini, Chargé de la Gestion de l’Information, pizzini@un.org, +223 75 99 73 86
Les communiqués de presse d’OCHA sont accessibles à www.unocha.org et www.reliefweb.int