Of the 9.5 million people in need of food and nutrition assistance in 2016, the majority are located in the Lake Chad basin, where civil insecurity is disrupting markets and destroying the livelihoods of local households. The Islamist Boko Haram insurgency is the main cause of acute malnutrition in this area and the Nigerian government declared a nutritional emergency in the state of Borno in June 2016. Read on

West Africa has an advantage over other African regions. Created more than 30 years ago, the Food Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA) unites all stakeholders – national, regional and international – under the political leadership of ECOWAS and UEMOA. Co-ordinated jointly by CILSS and the SWAC/OECD Secretariat, it has adopted the Charter for Food Crisis Prevention and Management (PREGEC Charter) and uses common tools such as the Cadre harmonisé to assess food and nutrition situation. Read on

West African agriculture has risen to the challenge of population growth: After two decades of stagnation, agriculture took off in the middle of the 1980s. In 30 years, agricultural production has increased at a much faster rate than the population and the supply of locally-produced food increased from 1 700 to 2 400 kilocalories per person per day (Kcal/person/day). In most West African countries, dependence on food imports has not increased. Read on

35 million people are still undernourished: Despite a significant decrease in undernourishment, many West Africans have been left behind. 10% of the population – around 35 million people – still suffer from chronic undernourishment or malnutrition. Among those particularly touched are the households of farmers excluded from the market, agro-pastoralists or pastoralists over-dependent on livestock and threatened by repeated droughts, and poor workers in the informal economy. Read on