West Africa Food Crisis: Millions Live on the Edge in Niger
29 July 2005
Oxfam's response includes food vouchers and a program to buy livestock.
Before the rains stopped short and the locusts came, Koumba Yacouba’s family owned a magnificent herd of cows—200 head strong. Now, just three remain, and all three are close to death.
Across Niger, the world’s second-poorest country, drought has shriveled pastureland and swarms of the migratory grasshoppers have stripped it clean, leaving livestock—and the herders who depend on those animals—desperately hungry, some to the point of starvation. The shortage of fodder, the worst in Niger’s history, has wiped out whole herds.
High cereal prices and decimated herds have combined to create a food crisis for 3.6 million people—nearly one-third of Niger’s population. Almost one million of those affected are children.
“It has been an extremely difficult time,” said Khadydiatou Labarang, a woman from a village in southeastern Niger. “We have been surviving on one small meal a day made of millet.”
Sand in Their Bellies
Natasha Kofoworola Quist, Oxfam Great Britain’s regional director for West Africa, saw just how debilitating the conditions were when she traveled recently to Dakaro—a dawn-to-dark drive from the capital, Niamey.
At first, Quist was struck by how green everything was. The rainy season has started, but the new shoots of grass can do little to make up for the months of slim growth on Niger’s pasturelands. The animals had gone hungry too long.
“In their efforts to scavenge the tiny morsels of vegetation left in the ground, they have also ingested a lot of sand,” said Quist. “This is now weighing them down and leading them towards a slow, drawn-out death.”
The death of their livestock—often a herding family’s only means of subsistence—is devastating.
“Over the past five months they have watched their livelihoods crumble away,” said Quist. “This is the equivalent of us watching our houses burn down, or discovering our bank accounts emptied.”
Like their cattle, people have had to resort to scavenging for whatever they can find to eat—roots, leaves, and wild berries. In some areas, people are surviving on one meal a day. One fifth of the children under age 5 have moderate malnutrition, but more severe cases may arise if they don’t get help soon. Aid groups that have set up therapeutic feeding centers in the region have seen the numbers of admissions skyrocket.
Pictures Prick World Conscience
International governments have been slow to respond to the food crisis, despite appeals for funding from the United Nations. It wasn’t until conscience-searing images began to appear in the news that the world woke up to the suffering in Niger.
“Why does it always take pictures of starving children to grab people’s interest?” asked Quist. “If the UN appeals had been met 10 months ago instead of trickling in over the past six weeks, we wouldn’t see the situation we have today.”
Although money has started to arrive, the World Food Program, which asked for $16 million in assistance, is still $7 million short. A UN emergency appeal of $30 million has yet to reach its goal.
Vouchers for Food
In response to the crisis, Oxfam and one of its local partners, the Association de Revigoration d’Elevage au Niger, or AREN, have set up a $2 million program in southeastern Niger. Benefiting nearly 131,000 people, it is providing people with vouchers in exchange for work so they can buy food for their families from local traders.
Through a second part of the program, Oxfam is buying, for a fair price, cattle that are too emaciated for herders to sell. This project is benefiting 28,000 people. Cattle prices have been plummeting and are now 90 percent lower than they were before the crisis. Even healthy animals are fetching only a fraction of their former value. A strong bull that once went for more than $500 now sells for as little as $18.
“Oxfam’s response is stimulating the economy by trying to use local markets,” said Mike Delaney, Oxfam America’s director of humanitarian response. But the programs aim to do more than just give a boost to the local economy; they also encourage the sustainable use of local resources.
“One of the factors contributing to the crisis is that people’s livelihoods are quite unsustainable,” said Oxfam’s Kelly Crothers, referring to the agricultural and herding practices used by many of them. “There are very limited natural resources, and they’re being used in a way that’s unsustainable.”
So, one of the work projects Oxfam has identified with communities is the construction of small reservoirs to catch and store rainfall for later use. Others include planting trees and burying animal carcasses before they contaminate the soil.
“Communities are working to replenish the environment that supports them,” said Crothers. “This could have a long-term effect in changing habits and making livelihoods sustainable.”
Herders Sell Cows to Oxfam
Another voucher-for-work project is linked to the cattle-buying program. Oxfam has already purchased 1,000 cows from local breeders for about $53 a head, providing people with money to feed both their families and their remaining animals.
Oxfam then has the cows slaughtered in the villages and inspected by veterinarians to make sure the meat is fit for consumption. Women involved in the voucher-for-work program dry or fry the meat. Oxfam gives some of the meat to them in exchange for their work, or distributes it through the rest of the voucher program.
“We cannot believe that we are now able to eat meat!” said Khadydiatou Labarang, whose daily diet had been the single meal of millet.
Oxfam’s program will help people get through this leanest period, which should end in October with the new harvest. But the agency intends to remain in the region beyond that time.
Looking Ahead: It’s Time to Tackle Poverty
“We are now putting plans together for how we will respond to the long-term aftereffects of the crisis,” said Crothers. “It’s going to take people two to three years to recover from this crisis. This isn’t the first time there has been a crisis in Niger and it won’t be the last.”
These people are living on the edge. Even the smallest shift in market or environmental conditions—a hike in cereal prices, poor rainfall—can push them over.
“What’s needed,” added Crothers, “is for the international community and world leaders to tackle endemic poverty in Niger.”
