May 2010

FAOFOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION

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SUB-REGIONALEMERGENCY OPERATIONS AND REHABILITATION OFFICE FOR WEST AFRICA/SAHEL

Contact : José Luis Fernandez, CoordinatorFAO’s Sub-regional Emergency Operations and

Rehabilitation Office for West Africa/Sahele-mail: JoseLuis.Fernandez@fao.org

Tél. : (221) 33 889 16 22 – Fax : (221) 33 889 16 70FAO Dakar, Sénégal, BP 3300

www.fao.org/emergencies

Rainy season campaign April-December 2008: “Assistance to vulnerable populations

affected by soaring of cereal prices and the deficit of the agricultural campaign 2007/2008”

FAO assisted vulnerable populations through the emergencyprojects TCP/SEN/3104 and GCP/GLO/216/SPA and a contribution from the regional project OSRO/RAF/705/SWE.The targeted regions were the areas most affected by soaring food prices and by the deficit in the agricultural campaign 2007/2008. The activities assisted 48,596 vulnerable households (434,807 people) by providing agricultural inputs (crop and vegetables seeds and fertilizers) and technical and management trainings.

The objective of the Senegal component of the project OSRO/RAF/803/SWE was to contribute to improved food security, nutritional status and improved production capacities of vulnerable women groups producers of vegetable in the region of Tambacounda. This project falls under the plan: United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) Tambacounda. A total of 162 groups of women vegetable producers (5647 women) received agricultural inputs and technical and management trainings.

Rainy season campaign 2009 and dry season campaign 2009/2010: “Support to low-land rice activities of vulnerable households and to women gardening

groups in the regions of Kédougou and Tambacounda” (April 2009 - June 2010)

The rainy season 2009 program funded by the project OSRO/RAF/803/SWE and OSRO/RAF/908/SWE has assisted 1500 households of low-land rice farmers in the region of Tambacounda and Kedougou through the provision of agricultural inputs and thus allowing an increase of 43% of their food coverage.The program has also targeted 1500 individual households and 100 groups of women vegetable producers in Tambacounda to support vegetable production during the rainy season and thus helping these households to increase their revenues and diversify their food habits. During the dry season 2009/2010, 116 vulnerable women groups in the region of Kedougou, representing 5748 people severely affected by high prices and declining remittances from migrant families, were supported through the provision of agricultural inputs and technical trainings.

The overall objective of this joint FAO, WFP and UNICEF project is to strengthen national and decentralised capacities in monitoring the food security and nutritionsituation of the population, to prevent food and nutritional localised crises and to find timely and appropriate responses. This capacity building project (OSRO/SEN/901/USA) is funded by USAID/OFDA and it is implemented in partnership with the Executive Secretariat of the National Council for Food Securityin Senegal and the technical departments of the Government.

Basing its approach in disaster risk management, FAO aims to reduce countries' vulnerability to crises, threats and emergencies through better preparation and integration of risk prevention and mitigation into policies, programmes and interventions. FAO also supports countries and partners to respond more effectively to crises and emergencies through interventions focused on food and agriculture. Finally, FAO provides assistance to countries and partners so that they can foster the transition and linkages between relief, rehabilitation and development.

FAO’s Strategic Objective “Improved preparedness for, and effective response to, food and agricultural threats and emergencies" is the basis of the work of its Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division (TCE). Since its establishment in 2006 in Dakar, the Sub-Regional Office for Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation in West Africa/Sahel contributes to the achievement of this objective in the sub-region.

In order to support the FAO Representations in the sub-region, Emergency Operations and RehabilitationCoordination Units (ERCUs) have been established in those countries where emergency response and recovery interventions are needed. The FAO’s Sub-Regional Office for Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation in West Africa/Sahel has been created to coordinate emergency interventions in the sub-region with other regional humanitarian actors.

PRESENTATION OF ACTIVITIES Dry season campaign 2008/2009:

“Support to vulnerable groups of women in the region of Tambacounda” (October - June 2009)

Implementation of emergency and rehabilitation projects in Senegal A. In the framework of the Initiative against Soaring Food Prices (ISFP), the deficit in the agricultural season 2007/2008 and the effort to mitigate the impact of the global economic crisis, FAO has mobilized resources, thanks to the Spanish and Swedish cooperation and through its own funds, to support the Government of Senegal in the restoration of the productive capacity of the most vulnerable households through three assistance programs: a program for the 2008 winter campaign in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and two programs in cooperation with the Ministry of Family, National Solidarity,Women Entrepreneurs and Micro- Finance for (i) the dry season 2008/2009, and (ii) the rainy season campaign 2009 and dry season campaign 2009/2010. The objectives of these programs fall within the Global Framework for Action of the High Level Task Force of the United Nations Secretary-General on the Global Food Crisis.

May 2010

B. Support Project to the strengthening of the National Early Warning System for food security and nutrition monitoring in Senegal (April 2009 - March 2012)

From preventionto building back better

FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation teams in West Africa/Sahel

Mauritania

Mali

Senegal

Guinea

Cote d’ivoireGhana T

og

o

Nigeria

Niger

FAO Regional Office

& Sub regional Office

West Africa

Senegal Country Office and

FAO Sub regional Emergency

Operations and Rehabilitation

Office West Africa / Sahel

Sierra

Leone

Guinea

Bissau

Gambia

Burkina Faso

Benin

ChadCape Verde

Liberia

FAO Country Office

FAO Country Office with

Emergency Operations and

Rehabilitation Coordination Unit

• The Sub-Regional Emergency Office is actively involved in the regional Food Security and Nutrition Working Group (FSNWG): the monthly meetings of this group - comprising UN agencies, NGOs and donors - are mainly focused on the analysis of the food and nutrition situation. At these meetings, WFP and FAO make joint presentations on the analysis of the food situation. FAO, through the Sub-Regional Emergency Office, chairs the meetings in rotation with WFP, UNICEF and OXFAM. The secre-tariat is provided by OCHA.

• During the monthly meetings of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) chaired by OCHA, FAO and WFP also make joint presentations on the evolution of the food security situation and alert the meeting participants if necessary.

• The Sub-Regional Emergency Office is strongly involved in the Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) Working Group, and particularly in the initiative "Guinea + 6" aiming to establish coordinated contingency plans between the six countries neighbouring Guinea; the similar initiative "Cote d'Ivoire + 5"; the development of a contingency plan on pandemic influenza A/H1N1 and the preparation of the response to floods.

Coordination activities• The Sub-Regional Emergency Office contributes to the improvement, together with its partners, of those tools used in the Sahelian countries to analyze people's vulnerability to food insecurity. Meetings have been held between FAO, the CILSS and its partners and they have helped the enhancement of the “Cadre Harmonisé”, a tool for vulnerability analy-sis used by the CILSS in the sub-region. Elements of the “Integrated Food Security Phase Classification” (IPC), an approach developed by FAO at global level, have been used for this purpose. The group has identified the missing indicators, defined the thresh-olds specific to the five stages of food insecurity and selected the protocol map of the IPC as a basis for characterizing the severity of food insecurity and the risk of deterioration of a food security phase. In order to validate this new methodology, a pilot exercise has been successfully conducted in 2009 to determine the levels of food insecurity prevailing in Mauritania, Niger and Senegal. This approach should now be regularly adopted in other countries in the sub-region. In Côte d'Ivoire, where no early warning system was in place, the IPC has been developed since 2007 and now offers regular analysis of food security.

• Analytical notes on food security are prepared jointly by the Sub-Regional Emergency Office and WFP (Regional Office) and shared regularly with all relevant stakeholders. These notes provide an update on the food security situation (in urban and rural areas), on the evolution of the prices on agricultural markets, on the progress of the agricultural campaign (climate, vegetation, crop yields,food balance sheets...) and on the impact of disasters on food security and nutrition.

The Sub-Regional Emergency Office can provide strategic, technical and operational support on emergency and rehabilitation issues to the FAO Offices and ERCUs as needed. In addition to their own projects, the Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Coordination Units of FAO in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo can implement the country components of regional projects coordinated by the Sub-Regional Emergency Office. These projects aim, on one side, to improve the coordination of food security interventions and, on the other, to restore and support the livelihoods of those households affected by food insecurity. The projects are implemented according to humanitarian needs through distribution of seeds, fertilizer, tools and small agricultural equipment, veterinarian inputs, small ruminants and the development of market gardens. The improvement of nutritional status is also supported through the promotion of school gardens and community nutrition education sessions. The Sub-Regional Emergency Office contributes to the formulation of emergency projects in countries where no ERCU is in place and is also tasked of the imple-mentation of the emergency and rehabilitation projects in Senegal.

• The Sub-Regional Emergency Office ensures the liaison and information exchange with FAO headquarters and the ERCUs in the sub-region. It works in coordination with the regional offices of other agencies of the UN system, NGOs, the technical depart-ments of relevant ministries, donors and sub-regional organiza-tions. The network ensures the availability to the humanitarian community of up-to-date information and analysis.

• In collaboration with the technical divisions of FAO based in Rome, the FAO Representa-tions and the ERCUs in the sub-region, the Sub-Regional Emergency Office facilitates and coordinates the participation of FAO in joint evaluation missions of the agricultural production organised by the CILSS and by national and regional partners (FEWS NET and WFP) as well as in evaluation missions of food security and of agricultural markets.

The Sub-Regional Emergency Office also contributes to the surveys on food security and vulnerability in rural and urban areas that are implemented in certain countries by WFP and its partners.

• In the framework of the United Nations Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) for West Africa, the Sub-Regional Emergency Office prepares jointly with WFP and UNICEF the Food Security and Nutrition component of the Common Humanitarian Action Plan (CHAP). The Sub-Regional Emer-gency Office coordinates and consolidates the contributions of the other ERCUs in the sub-region for the CAP (project profiles) to ensure that these contributions are consistent with the strategies outlined in the CHAP. Under the CAP 2010, FAO has proposed fourteen project proposals on regional issues (Regional Coordination and Emergencies Preparedness) on one side, and on specific activities in several countries in the sub-region on the other (Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Maurita-nia, Niger, Senegal and Togo).

• Finally, the Sub-Regional Emergency Office organizes in Dakar the FAO annual meeting for the West Africa/Sahel region bringing together the FAO Representatives of the sub-region, the coordinators of emergency operations, the Regional Office for Africa and West Africa and representa-tives from FAO headquarters.

Analysis of food security and nutrition in West Africa/Sahel

Support to FAO Representations and Emergency and Rehabilitation Coordination Units in the countries of the Sub-Region

• As part of a capacity building process in Early Warning Systems (EWS) in West Africa, the Sub-Regional Emergency Office supports the organization of regional or national workshops for training, establishing or improving relevant methodologi-cal tools. During these work-shops, the lessons learned from experiences in some countries are shared and analyzed. The workshops are also an opportu-nity to update the participants on the basics of food security, market analysis and fundamen-tals of vulnerability.

• The Sub-Regional Emer-gency Office also develops the Dynamic Atlas for Senegal and West Africa. This is a mapping tool that allows the collection, organi-zation and sharing of infor-mation in order to better visualize food security inter-ventions.

• The Sub-Regional Emergency Office participates in the REACH (Renewed Effort Against Child Hunger) initiative launched by FAO, WHO, WFP and UNICEF and open to all stakeholders working on nutrition (governments, NGOs, donors, academia, regional organizations ...). The objective of this initiative is to bring together all stakeholders in the fight against child hunger and to advocate for a coherent and integrated approach to nutrition. FAO, through the Sub-Regional Emergency Office, is also involved in and co-finances the UNICEF, WFP, FAO, Helen Keller International and the Micronutrient Initiative (MI) joint initiative "Restoring the right of children to adequate nutrition in the Sahel: proposal for an analysis of the situation" (IYCN). The main goal is to compile, analyze and interpret available informa-tion on feeding practices and child and infant feeding prac-tices, as well as on the nutrition and health of children under 2 years in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Chad. The results of this initiative have enabled stakeholders to share the analysis of strengths and weaknesses of meth-ods to fight against malnutrition and to formulate appropriate recommendations. These two initiatives are managed and monitored at the regular meetings of regional partners work-ing on nutrition (United Nations, NGOs and donors) in Dakar.