In 2013, Sourata Touré and her husband fled their home in Gao, northern Mali, to offer a safer environment for their six children. The country had suffered months of armed conflict and political insecurity after a government coup in 2012.

“The situation was unbearable,” says Sourata. “Our children were hiding and crying in the house all the day. They could not go as far as two meters from the house. They were so frightened by the armed groups and their gun shots.”

During and after the 2012-2013 crisis, 255,000 affected people moved from northern to southern Mali, flooding the capital, Bamako. They had run away from insecurity. They had lost everything. As internally displaced people (IDPs), they could at least receive help from the government and aid groups. But reality is different from their hope. Most of them are unemployed or work odd jobs.
They live off of their savings, credit, and the goodwill of generous people or organisations.

The armed opposition groups burnt Sourata’s husband’s shop in the Gao market. Sourata, too, had to stop her modest business as a fish and rice trader due to insecurity.

“We left Gao with nothing in our hands, not even a mattress,” she says. “We lost everything we had built over 20 years.”

To quickly respond to the population’s need, WV implemented the MICANA project with funding from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). 1,400 displaced households received $100 cash every month plus Non Food Items like mattresses, mosquito nets, hygiene kits, and kitchen supplies such as basins, buckets, and cookware.

Sourata and her family now live as IDPs in Bamako. From August through December 2014, they are receiving $100 per month through the Bamako Internally Displaced Persons Recovery Project (BIRP), which is implemented by World Vision Mali and funded by OFDA.

“This money has changed our life. Every month I spend $36 for 100 kg of rice and I pay $30 for the rent in this informal settlement [where we live]. We can only afford to live in a building under construction. We have nowhere else to stay. With the $34 remaining I pay for vegetables to eat with the rice, and I take care of my children’s health. [To make money], my husband has only been able to cut firewood to sell, and sometimes he comes back home without a penny.”

The project provides 1,200 vulnerable households in Bamako—about 7,200 people—with cash distribution. World Vision also trains beneficiaries on how to start a business and to try to regain some of the income lost when they were displaced. Sourata is happy because she is willing to resume her rice trading business in Bamako.

“Even if we live under difficult conditions, I can’t imagine what our life would have been like without assistance,” Sourata says. “The project has reduced our suffering so much. It is thanks to this project that my children eat, are in good health, sleep on a mattress, and can attend school. Today my children have regained the joy to play! They run freely in the neighborhood with no fear, and they are sure to have a plate of rice at night [for dinner]. When I look at them playing, I forget about everything I lost in Gao. The smile on their face has no price.”

Katy Migiro

NAIROBI, Nov 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Aid workers in Somalia, which faces worsening hunger three years after famine struck the country, believe the humanitarian system is "rotten" and are hamstrung by fears of being prosecuted for aiding terrorists, an expert said.

Read the full article on Alertnet

19 November 2014 – Insecurity is on the march again in the countries of Africa’s Sahel belt, where extremists have displaced 1.5 million people in Nigeria and the threat of Ebola is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis, the United Nations humanitarian regional coordinator said today.

“The Sahel, despite all the priorities around the world, continues to be a preoccupation for the United Nations and humanitarian teams,” UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, Robert Piper, said at a press briefing in Geneva on the “chronic emergency” confronting the countries of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, making up one of the poorest regions in the world.

Mr. Piper said the situation in northern Mali has deteriorated substantially through the course of the year; while immediately outside of the Sahel, insecurity in Darfur has sent refugees into Chad; and hundreds of thousands have fled the Central African Republic into Chad and Cameroon, and Libya continues to boil over.

He noted that Ebola has touched the Sahel in Senegal and Nigeria, but praised the governments in those countries for their success in stemming the virus’ spread.

“Mali is the next place of concern,” he said of the re-emergence of the Ebola virus there.

“Nigeria is, however, by far the biggest concern,” according to Mr. Piper, who said the situation has deteriorated dramatically this year, and that in the course of a few months, the number of people fleeing Boko Haram fundamentalists have jumped from 600,000 six months ago to more than 1.5 million people.

He said the displaced from Nigeria have been seeking shelter in neighbouring countries such as Niger, “the poorest country on the planet,” and Cameroon.

“The scale of the challenges there is truly very, very worrying,” he said.

The humanitarian coordinator noted that Burkina Faso is “relatively calm” in the wake of recent civil unrest, and he hoped the transition process continued to be a peaceful one.

Mr. Piper also stressed that Ebola preparedness needs to be given more attention in the Sahel region.

“Work has begun,” he said, and “preparedness teams are visiting the countries one by one…but funding is very short. We seek $25 million in Ebola preparedness.”

Describing the extent of the humanitarian crisis, Mr. Piper noted the number of internally displaced peoples, refugees and returnees who have been “wrenched from their homes and their livelihoods” has jumped from 1.3 million at the beginning of the year to 3.3 million today.

Further, since the beginning of the year, the number of people considered food insecure had jumped from 20 to 25 million in the Sahel, and half of the 1.2 million severely malnourished children died last year in the region.

The regional humanitarian appeal of some $2 billion is currently 54 per cent funded. Ten years ago, the region’s needs amounted to some $200 million, he recalled.

To reverse the dire situation in the Sahel, Mr. Piper noted that there needs to be a focus on basic structural and governance issues, as well as on challenges like climate change, access to basic health services and clean water, and countering the demographic growth projected in the region.

Without addressing “structural vulnerability,” he said, it is like saving a girl from acute malnutrition, and then returning her to the same household without access to clean water and with possibility of marriage looming by the times she is 15 years of age.

“These issues need to be addressed successfully for us to imagine an exit strategy,” he said.

Guatemala, 19 de Noviembre 2014

Fuente: Prensa Libre

El secretario de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional de Guatemala, Germán Rafael González, aseguró este miércoles en la sede de la FAO en Roma que su país trabajará para reducir la desnutrición, que afecta a uno de cada dos niños guatemaltecos. González defendió los avances del país en materia alimentaria y nutricional en la Segunda Conferencia Internacional sobre Nutrición (CIN2) celebrada en la capital italiana y organizada conjuntamente por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO) y la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS).

En su discurso, defendió las actuaciones de Guatemala para reducir el hambre y aseguró que el camino que sigue el país “está dando resultados” porque, en un año, ha logrado disminuir un 1.7 % la desnutrición crónica y un 4.5 % la anemia en menores de cinco años.

En el caso de la desnutrición aguda, dijo que se ha reducido a un fallecido por cada cien casos detectados y 1.4 puntos porcentuales en la desnutrición crónica.

“Estos resultados nos marcan la hoja de ruta de que en los próximos años podemos hacer reducciones más precisas y mayores para reducir el flagelo que afecta a uno de cada dos niños”, incidió.

Unos esfuerzos que, según dijo, han sido reconocidos a nivel internacional, del que diferentes organismos internacionales destacaron los avances de Guatemala, al que el índice HANCI (Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index) situó como “el país con mayor voluntad para combatir la desnutrición en el mundo”.

Mostró satisfacción por la celebración de esta reunión internacional, que se celebra 22 años después de la primera cumbre y en la que destacó que “la lucha contra el hambre y la malnutrición son un asunto prioritario Guatemala”.

También transmitió el compromiso con la nutrición del presidente de su país, Otto Pérez Molina, de quien comentó que mantiene reuniones frecuentes con organizaciones, expertos y representantes de la sociedad civil para atajar el problema de manera conjunta.

“Empeñaremos esfuerzos de manera multisectorial para que en un futuro cercanos podamos ver resultados”, concluyó, tras reiterar su apoyo a la Declaración de Roma y el Marco de Acción aprobados en la reunión.

Bamako, Mali | AFP | jeudi 20/11/2014 - 12:51 GMT

Une localité de l'ouest du Niger proche de la frontière malienne a été attaquée mercredi soir par des jihadistes, qui ont tué au moins un militaire nigérien, a-t-on appris jeudi de sources concordantes.

L'assaut a été revendiqué auprès de l'AFP à Bamako par le porte-parole du Mouvement pour l'unicité et le jihad en Afrique de l'Ouest (Mujao), Walid Abou Sahraoui, mais jusqu'à jeudi en milieu de journée, aucun commentaire n'avait pu être obtenu au Niger.

Mercredi soir, "des terroristes ont attaqué la localité nigérienne de Bani Bangou, située à la frontière malienne. Ils ont saboté le réseau téléphonique, tué un sous-officier nigérien, et blessé au moins deux autres", a déclaré à l'AFP une source sécuritaire africaine au sein de la Mission de l'ONU au Mali (Minusma), jointe depuis Bamako.

Selon cette source basée dans le nord du Mali, les assaillants ont utilisé des motos, moyen de locomotion fréquemment utilisé par les groupes islamistes armés pour viser les forces de sécurité locales et internationales.

L'attaque de mercredi à Bani Bangou a été confirmée à l'AFP par une seconde source sécuritaire contactée dans la région.

"Un véhicule de l'armée nigérienne a été détruit, un véhicule de la gendarmerie locale a été emporté, ainsi que de nombreuses minutions. Un sous-officier a été tué, et trois gendarmes ont été gravement blessés", a précisé cette source.

Selon le porte-parole du Mujao, les jihadistes ont fait "plusieurs morts" dans le camp adverse.

"Les moudjahidine ont (...) attaqué à Bani Bangou les ennemis de l'islam qui travaillent avec la France, notre autre ennemi. Nous avons tué plusieurs ennemis de l'islam", a affirmé Walid Abou Sahraoui dans une brève déclaration téléphonique à un journaliste de l'AFP à Bamako.

"Nous avons pris des armes, des voitures chez l'ennemi, et nous allons continuer à combattre la France et ses complices", a-t-il ajouté.

Le Mujao, un des groupes islamistes armés ayant contrôlé les régions du nord du Mali pendant près d'un an entre 2012 et début 2013, a revendiqué ces derniers mois plusieurs opérations jihadistes dans ces vastes zones du pays frontalières du Niger et de l'Algérie.

Fin octobre, des jihadistes avaient mené des attaques simultanées au Niger dans des localités de la région de Tillabéri (ouest): ils avaient visé le poste de sécurité du camp de réfugiés maliens de Mangaïzé, la prison de Ouallam ainsi qu'une patrouille militaire à Bani Bangou.

Selon le gouvernement nigérien, neuf membres des forces de sécurité, une civile et deux assaillants avaient été tués. Les attaques ont aussi fait quatre blessés et trois disparus parmi les forces de l'ordre.

Dans le nord du Mali, les islamistes armés ont multiplié depuis des mois leurs opérations, mêlant pose d'engins explosifs, tirs d'obus et attaques de villes ou positions militaires, dans lesquelles ont péri plusieurs militaires maliens ainsi que des membres des forces françaises et de la Minusma.

L'assaut le plus meurtrier contre l'ONU avait été perpétré le 3 octobre dans une localité de la région de Gao (nord-est) contre un convoi de militaires nigériens, dont neuf avaient été tués. Il a été revendiqué par un jihadiste malien proche du Mujao.

Malgré des frontières poreuses, le Niger est considéré comme un îlot de stabilité dans une zone en proie aux troubles. Outre le Mali, deux autres de ses voisins, la Libye et le Nigeria, sont confrontés à des groupes jihadistes.

sd-cs/hba

© 1994-2014 Agence France-Presse

Under President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative, the U.S. Government is supporting [oung people across the African continent to spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security. This year, the initiative brought 500 Mandela Washington Fellows to the United States for academic coursework and leadership training that will give these bright young men and women the skills to lead their organizations, communities and countries toward a better future.

In support of Feed the Future’s goal to drive agriculture-led development and food security, the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) awarded 36 of these Fellows $25,000 entrepreneurship grants to expand or launch new ventures, many of which are creating jobs, providing training for youth and expanding affordable food supplies in the Fellows’ home countries.

Emmanuel Hamaro, who manages a pig farm in central Tanzania, is one of the recipients of a USADF entrepreneurship grant that he plans to use to help grow his region’s small-scale piggery industry. In addition to increasing pig production, Hamaro is increasing the number of permanent structures on his pig farm and investing in a drip irrigation system to cover five acres of intensive farming. He is also starting up an agriculture academy to train and mentor local youth in agribusiness and social responsibility.

In Mali, Mandela Fellow Amina Sidibe is driving a sustainable and healthy supply chain in the poultry market. In the capital city of Bamako where she grew up, she is using the USADF grant she received to expand her business, Chez La Fermiere, and help meet a growing local demand for eggs and chicken. As her hen farm grows in capacity – Sidibe is building enough hen houses for 15,000 chickens – her production is projected to increase three-fold, and she is positioned to expand the company’s staff by 10 people, creating more jobs for young people in the area who are seeking work. Relying on an extensive network of partners from smallholder farmers to veterinarians, retailers, household consumers, schools, hospitals and restaurants, Sidibe is building a solid business and distribution plan that will help stabilize and grow the local poultry market.

Ruka De-Liman is another Mandela Fellow in the poultry business. As the chief executive officer of Jamilullah Farm Enterprise in the Sagnarigu District of northern Ghana, where many young people are unemployed or underemployed, De-Liman has been operating her business for less than a year, initially working with a poultry capacity of about 200 guinea fowls. With the entrepreneurship grant she received from USADF, she is expanding her stock of live, mature birds, leading to expanded sales and a growing network of more than 50 producers. In addition to creating additional jobs in agribusiness for her peers, De-Liman is making nutritious poultry meat and quality eggs more widely available in the region.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). The fellowship provides leadership training and professional development opportunities to extraordinary young Africans. Learn more about YALI and see profiles of other Fellows working in agriculture, business, and more.

The global breeding programme for taro (Colocasia esculenta) and cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) is gathering pace. The International Network for Edible Aroids (INEA) is part of the five-year project Adapting clonally propagated crops to climatic and commercial changes funded by the European Union (EU).

Implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, in collaboration with the Vanuatu Agricultural Research Training Centre, the breeding programme is a major component of the project, with 15 partners in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.

In the Pacific, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Samoa are members of the project and are actively carrying out breeding activities, with good progress so far.

The taro lines provided by SPC Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT), in particular the Samoan breeding lines, have been rated highly worldwide for taste, yield and vigour over the local varieties. Importantly, they are tolerant to taro leaf blight (Phytophthora colocasiae).

These lines, which are part of the taro collection supported by funds from the Global Crop Diversity Trust, have been widely distributed by CePaCT under the auspices of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Moafanua Tolo Iosefa, SPC plant breeder based in Samoa, and also a local coordinator for the Pacific Agribusiness Research for Development Initiative and INEA projects, has successfully developed these breeding lines using Pacific and Asian varieties.

The breeding in INEA country partners is supported by Professor Anton Ivancic, a plant breeder, who will visit partners, including some in the Pacific. He recently visited Cuba and trained local scientists to germinate and raise seeds of taro from Vanuatu.

Other members of INEA reported good progress on breeding. In Nigeria, Dr Charles Amadi, plant breeder, succeeded in pollinating taro flowers, which was possibly a first for Africa.

India started breeding taro more than 30 years ago and Indonesia more than ten years ago. Costa Rica, Burkina Faso, and Madagascar have recently started, with crosses between taro lines provided by SPC CePaCT and local, wild taro. The local varieties do not flower naturally and will need to be treated with gibberellic acid to induce it.

In Indonesia, the breeding programme has recently produced hybrids between Samoan lines and local cultivars. The programme also involves exchange of open pollinated seeds. Taro seeds from India have been germinating well in Vanuatu. Both Indonesia and India have requested seeds from Vanuatu.

The INEA global project is unique for the Pacific region, being multi-regional, multi-institutional and multi-partner. It includes several work packages: in vitro culture and distribution, breeding and on-farm selection and evaluation, DNA fingerprinting, drought resistance, physico-chemical characterisation and analysis, and virus detection.

The Pacific region, through SPC and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, is coordinating the project.

For more information contact: Valerie S Tuia, SPC Genetic Resources Coordinator/INEA Manager valeriet@spc.int; Dr Vincent Lebot, Scientific Coordinator INEA lebot@vanuatu.com.vu; Dr Graham Jackson, INEA Communication/Website coordinator, SPC LRD helpdesk lrdhelpdesk@spc.int

“The humanitarian situation, response and its linkages with resilience and longer-term solutions”

Your Excellency Minister Bare,
State Secretary for Development Policy Hermann,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen

Today, as we look to support the people of Somalia achieve the peaceful and prosperous future they deserve; we unfortunately have to raise the alarm again about the humanitarian situation.
We have cautioned against being too quick to conflate the positive political and security narratives of Somalia with an end to the humanitarian crisis in the country. Over the course of these two days, we have acknowledged and commended the progress made on the political and security front since the establishment of the Federal Government of Somalia in September 2012, despite recent political turmoil and upcoming challenges. These gains can, however, still be reversed if the current humanitarian crisis is not properly acknowledged and addressed. Drought, conflict, displacement, floods and the lack of adequate basic social services continue to undermine the ability of millions of Somalis to feed themselves, and to withstand the impact of disease outbreaks, as well as other natural and manmade hazards.

Many figures have been mentioned already but I would like to flag that there are a number of humanitarian indicators that today are similar to the situation in 2010 ahead of the famine. For the first time since 2011, over 1 million Somalis are unable to meet their basic food requirements. A further 2.1 million people are on the verge of slipping into acute food insecurity, bringing the total number of people in need of humanitarian assistance to 3.2 million. This is against a backdrop with some of the lowest human development indicators in the world.

Against this backdrop and despite continued early warnings and appeals for timely and adequate funding, resources made available for humanitarian programs are dwindling. The humanitarian appeal for 2014 is funded at only 39 per cent, the lowest we have seen since 2008. In absolute terms, we have received US$546 so far in 2014 according to what is reported to the OCHA managed Financial Tracking System. While better than in 2010, the trend has a frightening resemblance with the decline in humanitarian funding that was recorded in the three years ahead of the 2011 famine.

As a result, humanitarian partners are currently unable to provide life-saving and livelihood support at the scale required. We are for the first time since the end of the devastating famine seeing an increase in the number of people in Somalia who struggle to meet their daily food needs.

To keep the international humanitarian budget in Somalia as tight and targeted as possible, we have reviewed the planned activities for 2015. We have identified areas where we realistically can expect programmes of a longer-term nature to pick up the pace in 2015 and start to take the pressure off some of the humanitarian operations. This includes various resilience initiatives and sector specific programmes, for example for health, water and sanitation. As such, in spite of the increase in needs of about 20 per cent compared to 2014, we are reducing the request for 2015 by 7 per cent. In total, we are requesting $862 million for humanitarian programmes in Somalia in 2015, with an expectation that the current crisis is adequately addressed and that other long-term programmes will be able to address some of the drivers of the humanitarian emergency in Somalia.

Excellencies and Colleagues,

As mentioned by Minister Bare, humanitarian access is a major challenge in parts of Somalia and is an aggravating factor, particularly in south and central Somalia, not least in newly recovered areas. The difficult access to newly recovered areas in South and Central Somalia is a key concern, and while some supplies have been brought in by humanitarian air cargo flight, we urgently need to secure the major supply routes to allow for unhindered movement of commodities and people.

Meanwhile, we continue to partner with local organizations to deliver assistance to areas where UN and international NGOs cannot operate directly. This does not go without risk, but we have stepped up our monitoring and risk management systems and enhanced measures have been instituted, such as follow up by phone with beneficiaries, and more systematic vetting of partner organizations. As a result, our capacity to detect misuse or diversion of aid has increased and we continue to take legal steps to recover embezzled funds.

In 2014, humanitarian partners have also stepped up coordination with the Government, particularly the Ministry of Interior and Federalism, as well as with the Ministerial Emergency Response Committee. This has already proved useful when the Emergency Response Committee actively has organized extensive distributions of food assistance received from bilateral partners, preventing duplication and ensuring joint identification of priority areas. We also seek to work closely with the Federal Government of Somalia, regional states, and local authorities to improve the operating environment, particularly with regard to easing bureaucratic impediments. The country needs clear regulatory frameworks which are applied uniformly across the regions.

Excellencies and Colleagues,

As we enter the second year after the signing of the Somali New Deal Compact, with the expectation that this will be the year of delivery, there is scope for strengthening the strategic and operational linkages between humanitarian and development programmes. During my visits to sites for internally displaced and drought and flood affected areas, I have seen first-hand the very real and positive impact it can have when we with flexible funding are able to implement coordinated and integrated life-saving and resilience programming. Initiatives such as cash or food for work, and durable solutions for the displaced, allow us to address immediate life-saving needs, while increasing communities’ agricultural and livestock production and improving their access to markets.

The humanitarian programmes will continue to first and foremost be based on needs and prioritize life-saving activities. But huge gains can be made by better integrating humanitarian and development activities. Humanitarian work lays the ground for development by providing safety-nets to communities. Likewise, long-term development programmes address the underlying causes of vulnerabilities, and in doing so, avert or reduce the impact and frequency of humanitarian emergencies.

I have been asked many times, what do we mean by resilience? Where we used to talk about a sequential continuum between humanitarian and development programming, we now work to ensure that humanitarian, resilience and development efforts all take off jointly and address short, medium and longer-term priorities at the same time.

To cement the synergy between life-saving programmes and longer-term development initiatives that address the underlying causes of vulnerability, humanitarian organizations will continue to focus on strengthening community-level resilience while state-building efforts aim at building the resilience of national institutions and socio-economic infrastructure. The two existing frameworks, i.e., the Humanitarian Response Plan and the New Deal Compact cover both humanitarian and longer term programming. However, there is a need for strengthened coordination between the two, including through more systematic information sharing between humanitarian and development partners.

I propose to explore the possibility of finding a space within the Somali Development Reconstruction Facility architecture where resilience and specific sectoral discussions can take place.
I recognize that globally we are facing an unprecedented number of large-scale emergencies, and resources are limited. In comparison with many of these places, Somalia is a country coming together. After declaring the 2011 famine, we said “never again”. Let us reaffirm our words through our deeds and show that we have learned the lessons of the famine and respond in time.
We cannot afford complacency.

THANK YOU

SITUATION OVERVIEW

Mali is still facing a complex humanitarian crisis. Despite continued progress in the political stabilization and in the restoration of the State authority and of administrative and public services in conflict-affected regions, the context remains marked by security incidents recorded in the North.

As of October 2014, IOM (DTM) estimates that 86,026 internally displaced persons remain in the country and UNHCR estimates that there are still 143,530 Malian refugees in neighboring countries. The consequences of the 2012 - 2013 conflict and of the pre-existing food security and nutrition crisis continue to have an impact on Malian's vulnerabilities. About 1,500,000 people are in need of immediate food assistance while 2,100,000 people are moderately food insecure. This year, 136,000 children under five are at risk of acute malnutrition.

APERÇU DE LA SITUATION

Le Mali fait toujours face à une crise humanitaire complexe. Malgré des progrès continus dans la stabilisation politique, la restauration de l'autorité de l'État, de l'administration et des services publics dans les régions touchées par le conflit, le contexte reste marqué par des incidents de sécurité enregistrés dans le Nord.

Au 31 Octobre 2014, l'OIM (DTM) estime que 86 026 personnes déplacées demeurent dans le pays et le HCR estime qu'il y a 143 530 réfugiés maliens dans les pays voisins. Les conséquences du conflit 2012-2013 et de l’insécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle pré-existantes continuent d'avoir un impact sur la vulnérabilité des maliens. Environ 1 500 000 personnes ont besoin d'une aide alimentaire immédiate, tandis que 2 100 000 personnes souffrent modérément d'insécurité alimentaire. Cette année, 136 000 enfants de moins de cinq ans sont menacés de malnutrition aiguë.

(Addis Ababa/Jeddah/N'Djamena, 21 November 2014): A high-level mission today wrapped up a week-long visit to Chad raising attention for the human suffering and calling for more engagement of the international community in the Central African Country.

The five-day mission was jointly led by the African Union Commission (AU), the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Participants included representatives from the Arab League, Azerbaijan, Germany, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Qatar, USA and partners from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charities from different Gulf States.

“We have seen the effects of food insecurity and malnutrition in the Sahel zone and the impact of population movements due to violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) and other neighbouring countries," said H.E. Dr. Aisha L. Abdullahi, Commissioner for Political Affairs of the AU. "We are here to raise awareness about the human suffering caused by these chronic and sudden impact crises. Chad needs our African and international solidarity."

The participants discussed with local authorities and communities affected by crises during field trips to a nutrition centre and a farmer collective for women in Mao, Kanem region, in Chad's Sahel zone, and in the temporary camp of Maingama, Moyen Chari region, at the border with CAR.

"We were able to get a firsthand impression of the difficulties people in Chad face every day, notably the extremely vulnerable populations in the Sahel and the Chadian returnees from CAR who are struggling to get back on their feet," said H.E. Mr. Hesham Youssef, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs of the OIC. "We also saw the great efforts made to bring relief to the most vulnerable and the excellent work done by humanitarian teams in cooperation with the Government. But huge needs remain to be covered."

In Chad, 2.6 million people - a quarter of the population - are living in food insecurity and over 63,000 children are malnourished, notably in the Sahel zone. Early in 2014, an estimated 150,000 people fled violence in CAR to Chad and continue to need assistance.

"Humanitarian and development actors have to work together closely in order to build communities' resilience," said Mr. Rashid Khalikov, Director of OCHA Geneva. "Continued donor engagement and new innovative partnerships are necessary to alleviate the acute human suffering and lift people out of vulnerability."

The mission to Chad was the fourth high-level partnership mission organised by OCHA and the OIC, with the AU co-leading for the first time.

For further information, please contact:
Augustin Zusanné, OCHA Chad, zusanne@un.org Phone: +235 63 90 09 13 Abdoulaye Kebe, OIC Jeddah, kebe@oic-oci.org Michel Nshimba, AU Addis Ababa, nshimbam@africa-union