Historically a gateway between North and Sub-Saharan Africa, Niger is a vast country partially consumed by the dunes of the Sahara desert. The majority of its 12.9 million population live in the Southern band of the country, traditionally earning a living through agriculture or cattle breeding.

Oxfam worked closely with local partner AREN (Association to Revive Herding in Niger), whose long term experience of working animal breeding communities in some of Niger’s remotest zones greatly helped us to locate beneficiary communities and to understand their needs.

Programme activities centred on an innovative voucher-for-work scheme, but also included de-stocking, seed fairs, the subsidised sale of animal feed and emergency preparedness training.

Oxfam GB in Niger

Oxfam GB opened an office in Niger in May 2005 as part of our humanitarian response to the food crisis.

Although we did not have a team based in Niger previously to this, Oxfam GB have worked for over four years on a number of projects in the South Western region of the country that form part of our work with pastoralist communities across the Sahel, and our education work across the whole region.

In light of increasing warnings of a degrading food security situation in Niger from regional food security monitoring networks and our local partners on the ground, Oxfam carried out a rapid food security assessment in country in April 2005. The findings revealed an alarming situation, and we had to move quickly to set up a humanitarian intervention.

By May 2005, a team was in place to launch a $2 million programme in the South Eastern Dakaro region.

Oxfam's programme in 2005

Between May and November 2005, Oxfam directly supported over 130,000 people in the Dakaro region of Niger. Beneficiaries were mainly pastoral and agro-pastoralist animal breeders, who are amongst the most marginalised communities in the Sahel and the worst affected by the crisis.

Oxfam worked closely with local partner AREN (Association to Revive Herding in Niger), whose long term experience of working animal breeding communities in some of Niger’s remotest zones greatly helped us to locate beneficiary communities and to understand their needs.

Programme activities centred on an innovative voucher-for-work scheme, but also included de-stocking, seed fairs, the subsidised sale of animal feed and emergency preparedness training.

Oxfam's programme in 2006 and into the future

In December, Oxfam launched the second 15-month phase of our humanitarian programme across the Sahel, made possible by the £4.6m of funds received from the Disasters Emergency Committee and Oxfam appeals.

In Niger, we will continue to carry out food-for-work activities to enable the most vulnerable people to have access to food, especially during the difficult hunger period from May to October. However, the programme also aims to help those pastoral and agro-pastoral households most affected by last year’s crisis to rebuild their assets, and to develop local resources and capacity to reduce the impact of future crises.

The programme supports over 130,000 pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in the Dakaro and Tillaberi regions. Our main activities include:

• Animal livestock fairs and vaccination campaigns
  Many pastoralists lost up to 70 per cent of their animals in last year's crisis. Oxfam will help them to rebuild their devastated livelihoods by providing them with new animals.
  
  
• Rehibilitating and constructing water points
  Improving the water supply for human, animal and agricultural consumption will reduce future vulnerability.
• Public health promotion
  Public health campaigns, and the distribution of mosquito nets and other hygiene items, will improve public health, and reduce morbidity and mortality rates.
• Strengthening the capacity of Oxfam partners
  Training partners so that they have the skills to better respond and assist people in future crises.

Niger is amongst the very poorest countries in the world and its population will face recurring food crises into the future. Oxfam plans to remain in Niger in the long term to work with our local partners and communities to tackle the root causes that keep them in poverty and make them so vulnerable to crisis. We will do this in line with two of our current development programmes that already work with pastoralists in the Sahel, the Regional Pastoralist Programme and Regional Cross-Border Education Programme.

Last updated: March 06