Key messages
Food and nutrition crises are becoming more frequent in the Sahel region. Millions of people now face food insecurity and malnutrition on an almost permanent basis, regardless of whether harvests are good. To prevent the Sahel being hit by crisis year after year, much greater attention needs to be given to building the resilience of the most vulnerable population groups – for example, by making basic services available to mothers and their children during the first two years of their lives, or by ensuring that aid programmes prioritise assistance to the poorest people.
Increasing people’s resilience to future stresses and shocks has to be based on a thorough understanding of what makes them vulnerable so that aid can be better targeted and more effective.
Bridging the gap between humanitarian and development aid, and linking up with the efforts of affected governments is a precondition for ending the vicious cycle of nutrition crises in the Sahel. The European Commission has recently issued two new policy papers which will shape the EU's approach in this regard - one on Resilience in October 2012 and one on Nutrition in March 2013.
At the beginning of the 2013 ‘lean season’, the humanitarian situation is again critical in several areas of the Sahel despite a reportedly good harvest. Food prices continue to be high, insecurity in northern Mali and Nigeria persists, and crops in Nigeria, the region's granary, have been wiped out by floods.
Acute malnutrition rates continue to exceed critical levels throughout the region.
Emergency assistance is needed to support public services as a measure of crisis response but also to promote durable solutions.
