The UN World Food Program Responds to Food Shortages in Niger

 The United Nations World Food Program announced plans to scale up its operations inside the country of Niger, where more than one million people are in need of emergency food aid. According to humanitarian agencies, conditions in Niger are particularly bad this year, due to a poor harvest, drought, and insect attacks. The situation was worsened by the return of almost 200,000 migrant workers from Libya and Cote d’Iovire.

Gaëlle Sévenier, a spokesperson for the UN World Food Program, told reporters in Geneva that $60 million is required to fund food aid interventions for the most vulnerable over the next six months, as the country deals with an estimated deficit of 500,000 tons of cereal. Sévenier also added that the number of people in need could rise to two million, by the end of next year.

The UN Food Agency reassured the state of Niger that they would act quickly in the face of crisis. So far, the UN Food Agency has doubled the number of people it plans to feed in Niger during next month’s general food distribution.

- Madeline Lee 

SOURCE: UN News 

UN Rural Development Arm Responds to Niger Food Crisis

The United Nations rural development arm has begun responding to a growing food crisis due to drought in Niger. Scant and irregular rainfall in Niger this last year has left 7.1 million people hungry. "We are responding quickly to refill the village granaries, as well as provide inputs such as seeds and small tools to be used for the upcoming planting season to increase the resilience of rural households to deal with a crisis of this scale," said Mohamad Béavogui, Director of the agency's West and Central Africa Division. Béavogui visited the country recently to identify what steps needed to be taken in the near future, beyond emergency assistance, to address the problems of food insecurity, malnutrition and rural poverty. To support long-term development in Niger, the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is helping more than 50,000 women through cereal banks. These banks are traditionally built to store crops immediately after harvest to allow farmers to sell them later during the dry season when demand and prices are higher. In the past three decades, IFAD has sent $240 million in funding for eight different projects and programs in Niger. Earlier this month the UN World Food Program (WFP) announced that it would be doubling the amount of funding sent to the country.

- Clara Hill

SOURCE: "UN rural development arm helping respond to Niger food crisis" - UN News

Desertification Threatens Livelihood of Nomadic People

Today is the World's Day to Combat Desertification. It is part of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, an agreement that came into force in 1996 to counter the effects of desertification and widespread drought. The Sahara desert, covering most of Northern Africa, is the size of the United States. It is also expanding southwards by 6 kilometers per year. The mass desertification is a result of changes in climatic conditions and commercial mining. For the nomadic people who roam the desert with small herds of goats and cows in order to find adequate grazing land, desertification has had a crippling effect on their lives. Al Jazeera followed one Niger family's struggles with desertification.

-Matthew Thwaites