A Childrens Crisis in the Sahel

A UNICEF Appeal, March 2012

A Childrens Crisis in the Sahel

A UNICEF Appeal, March 2012

Fast Facts on the Emergency: The Sahel is a vast strip of semi-arid land in north-central Africa, encompassing eight countries. The Sahel extends from Senegals Atlantic coast to Sudan, lying between the Sahara desert and humid savannas to the south. An emergency response is needed to treat an estimated one million children who will suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2012. The nutrition crisis threatens the children of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Senegal. UNICEF is seeking $67 million to address the needs of the regions children and women in the first half of 2012. A Childrens Crisis in the Sahel The Sahel region of western and central Africa does not often make the news. But now it is imperative that it does. Children in eight countries Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger and the northern regions of Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegalare at risk. An estimated one million children stand on the brink of severe acute malnutrition, and UNICEF is calling for an intensive and immediate response to the crisis. The Sahel is one of the poorest regions in the world, and children already face daunting odds of survival. Without immediate humanitarian aid, an already desperate situation will deteriorate. Inadequate rain, poor harvests and rising food prices have left hundreds of thousands of children vulnerable and weak.

Photo cover Mali: A girls upper arm is measured with a midupper arm circumference (MUAC) armband to assess her nutrition status. UNICEF/ Olivier Asselin

MAURITANIA MALI NIGER CHAD

SENEGAL

BURKINA FASO NIGERIA

CAMEROON

SAHEL REGION

A Childrens Crisis in the Sahel

Photo right Niger: A woman holds a pail and a food voucher for her child, waiting in a queue for food rations at a UNICEF-supported food distribution site. UNICEF/Pierre Holtz

The lean seasonwhen food from the last harvest runs outis expected to begin as early as March in some countries. Each year, the period between the rains and the new harvest brings a lean season when mothers in the Sahel struggle to feed their children. But last year there was no rain. This years lean season has come three months early. Without rain, the pasture for livestock disappears; the goats produce less milk for the children; and the few crops that do grow, grow poorly. Families compete with birds and locusts for what crops manage to survive. Men and older boys often leave to search for better pastoral land or piecemeal work. Unfortunately, droughts are all too common in the Sahel. Still worse, theyre becoming even more common due to changing climatic conditions. This is the third drought to hit the Sahel in less than a decade. In most industrialized parts of the world, droughts are rarely deadly. But here, deep poverty, rising food prices, environmental degradation, and chronic under-development make droughts disastrous and lethal. In Niger, where more than 300,000 children are at risk of severe acute malnutrition this year, some families have not yet recovered from the last drought in 2010. Some may ask, How is the situation in the Sahel this year different from droughts in years past? The answer is simple: whereas droughts in 2005 and 2010 were felt most in Niger and parts of Chad, this years crisis engulfs the entire region, from Chad westward to the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, food prices in the region are much higher than they were in 2010, and many familiesstressed by previous droughtshave fewer resources to fall back upon. Still others find it hard to keep Africa on the relief agenda nowadays and bristle at the constant need to compare and compete between African emergencies. Will the Sahel be as bad as last years famine in the Horn of Africa?

A Childrens Crisis in the Sahel

One key lesson from the Horn of Africa crisis is the importance of taking warning signs much more seriously. When humanitarian agencies and the international community act in time, we can avert large-scale loss of life. The window of opportunity to prevent children from descending into life-threatening malnutrition in the Sahel is now and quickly closing. We know what is coming, and we know what to do to save lives. We need resources now to respond immediately. UNICEF is determined to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. REGIONAL CASELOAD: CHILDREN WITH SEVERE MALNUTRITION
NIGER 331,000 NIGERIA 207,700 MALI CHAD BURKINA FASO 99,200

175,000 127,300 CAMEROON, SENEGAL, MAURITANIA 87,700

TOTAL:

1,027,900

Figures rounded to the closest hundred.

UNICEF in Action UNICEF is one of the largest service providers in this crisis with unrivaled access and influence. UNICEF is appealing for an initial $67 million to address the immediate needs of children and women affected by the crisis in the Sahel for the first half of 2012. UNICEF and partners will support the treatment of severe acute malnutrition for more than one million children and moderate acute malnutrition for an additional 1.6 million children. UNICEF treats children suffering from severe acute malnutrition using a community-based approach that helps build local and national capacity to combat the life-threatening condition for the long term. UNICEF will provide the sweet, peanut-based therapeutic food, of which one brand is PlumpyNut, therapeutic milk, vitamin A tablets, oral rehydration salts to

Photo right Niger: A health worker uses a mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) band to measure a boys arm in an intensive nutritional rehabilitation centre. UNICEF/ Giacomo Pirozzi

A Childrens Crisis in the Sahel

treat diarrhea, zinc and other micronutrients, enough nutrition professionals in the field to work at the feeding centers, and more. As families migrate to look for food, UNICEF will also ensure that children are not at risk of exploitation or trafficking. Together with emergency efforts to treat malnutrition, UNICEFs response in 2012 will focus on health, water, sanitation and hygiene, HIV, education, and child protection. UNICEF will work with partners to reach more than 3.2 million children under the age of five to prevent polio, measles, meningitis, malaria, and cholera in Niger. In Chad, UNICEF aims to improve access to safe water for 300,000 people. Water, sanitation and hygiene activities at schools will teach children about protecting themselves against diseases. The provision of potable water and construction of separate latrines will encourage school attendance and retention, especially for girls. In Mauritania, UNICEF will supply 550,000 children under five with vitamin A and de-worming tablets. Throughout the Sahel, UNICEF will help ensure continued access to quality education for 400,000 pre-school and primary-school children. In Mali, UNICEF will support the training of 45,000 pre-school and primary school teachers in good nutrition practices. While it is crucial to combat acute malnutrition across the Sahel in order to save lives, an effective response also needs to tackle the underlying and structural causes of malnutrition. Therefore, a second stage of the response will aim at strengthening the resilience of vulnerable families and improving basic service delivery and social protection systems. Approaches focusing on community resilience have proven to be highly cost effective, as they eliminate the need to use precious assets to overcome hardship, freeing them up for productive investment. In Burkina Faso, UNICEF will continue to advocate with the government for the implementation of social policies and safety nets to protect the most vulnerable households.

Photo right Chad: A malnourished boy consumes readyto-eat therapeutic food at a UNICEF-supported nutrition centre. UNICEF/Patricia Esteve

Photo far right Chad: Workers prepare boxes of ready-to-eat therapeutic food for distribution in a UNICEF supply warehouse in NDjamena, the capital. UNICEF/Patricia Esteve
A Childrens Crisis in the Sahel 4

 In Senegal, UNICEF will support the distribution of cash grants to 20,000 vulnerable families with children for a six month period. In Niger, UNICEF will ensure that 8,000 women, children, and victims of abuse receive gender-sensitive psychosocial support, reintegration services, and legal services. Immediate Funding Needs More help is urgently needed to meet the growing needs of children whose lives are under threat from the nutrition crisis. While the priority needs for the period covering January through June 2012 total approximately $67 million, the total requirements for 2012 are approximately $120 million.
Sahel Belt Countries Priority Funding Needs (January- June 2012) Total 2012 Requirements

Cameroon Senegal Nigeria Mauritania Mali Burkina Faso Chad Niger UNICEF Regional Support Total

$4.9 million $1.4 million $8.6 million $1.5 million $15.4 million $7.0 million $11.2 million $15.4 million $1.4 million $66.8 million

$8.1 million $2.4 million $17.1 million $3.2 million $25.9 million $11.7 million $18.8 million $30.6 million $1.7 million $119.5 million

This childrens crisis is going to be immensely challenging. UNICEF does not issue such warnings lightly, but the scale demands an appropriate response that needs to start now and not later. A tragedy will only be averted by an unprecedented effort in the Sahel. To do so, the right UNICEF professionals must be the ground with the right supplies in order to contain the threat of opportunistic diseases amongst the weakened populations. Your support will allow UNICEF and its partners to carry out our lifesaving efforts for children and women throughout the region.

U.S. Fund for UNICEF 125 Maiden Lane New York, NY 10038 1.800.4UNICEF www.unicefusa.org

UNICEF has saved more childrens lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world. Working in more than 150 countries, UNICEF provides children with health and immunizations, clean water, nutrition, education, emergency and disaster relief, and more. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF supports UNICEFs work through fundraising, advocacy, and education in the United States. UNICEF is at the forefront of efforts to reduce child mortality worldwide. There
A Childrens Crisis in the Sahel

has been substantial progress: the annual number of under-five deaths dropped from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010. But still, 21,000 children die each day from preventable causes. Our mission is to do whatever it takes to make that number zero by giving children the essentials for a safe and healthy childhood.