Niger has a population of approximately 16 million inhabitants and was ranked 186 out of 187 countries by UNDP’s Human Development Index in 2011.
Some 59.5 percent of the population is living below the poverty line. Agriculture is the engine of Niger’s weak economy, with 82 percent of the population relying on farming. The malnutrition rates in Niger are elevated; ten percent of children under five suffer from acute malnutrition and 44 percent of children suffer from chronic malnutrition.
Social indicators are also low: life expectancy at birth is only 44.7 years and the child mortality rate is 20 percent, suggesting that one in five children will never reach the age of five. Poor school attendance, especially among girls, contributes to Niger’s 71 percent illiteracy rate. In 2005, Niger suffered from a severe food security crisis aggravated by drought and locust invasions.
With a reduction in food availability and people’s ability to purchase what food there was, the crisis resulted in a drastic reduction in household food consumption, distress sales of livestock and other assets, higher than normal emigration as well as rising levels of acute malnutrition and admissions to health centres.
Thanks to the effective partnership between the government and humanitarian organizations, the first positive results have been seen.
According to the latest nutrition survey conducted jointly by the government, UNICEF and WFP, the rate of global acute malnutrition has decreased from 15 to 10 percent since November 2005 and the latest Government/WFP/FAO/UNICEF/FEWS-Net food security survey indicates that the proportion of households in severe food insecurity decreased from 15 to 9 percent during the same period.
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