Over the next five years in Senegal, Feed the Future aims to help an estimated 445,000 vulnerable Senegalese women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 188,000 children will be reached with services to improve nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.
To meet its objectives, Feed the Future Senegal is making core investments in five interrelated areas:
- Increased productivity and market linkages in key value chains. This investment works to improve the value chain of three staple grain value chains—rice, maize and millet—selected for their potential to achieve impact in reducing poverty and malnutrition. These activities aim to bring 50 percent more rice, 40 percent more maize, and 35 percent more millet to the local marketplace that meet local standards of quality to the benefit of many grain producers and consumers. The program will also work to improve Senegal’s sizable fisheries sector through policy and sustainable management reforms. Fisheries make a high-value economic and nutritional contribution in Senegal, but are a diminishing resource.
- Scaled-up Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA). Essential Nutrition Actions (ENAs) include seven internationally-acknowledged maternal and child health actions that improve nutrition and reduce maternal and child mortality. Feed the Future in Senegal will integrate nutrition activities into food-system economic activities, strengthening the link between increased food production, increased incomes, and increased consumption of quality and nutritious foods, particularly by women and children. Plus, ENAs will be promoted nationwide through capacity building of health facility personnel and increased access to Senegal’s health hut network.
- Enhanced policy reform. Feed the Future policy reform efforts in Senegal focus on: enhancing the business environment; developing and testing new policies and management structures for the fisheries sector; and helping to move agricultural law toward implementation, including decreasing subsidies in the agricultural sector.
- Improved rural infrastructure. To ensure long-term agricultural productivity, Feed the Future in Senegal will improve the infrastructure for post-harvest operations, including processing, storage and access to finance. In addition, investments are revitalizing up to five seed certification labs and seed conditioning facilities in order to increase the capacity of the seed system to address food insecurity.
- Increased human resource capacity. Investments in human resource capacity will ensure access to and development of next-generation agriculture technologies in Senegal. The program will improve agriculture research capacity and associated higher-education institutions, strengthen human resource capacity across public and private sectors, and increase entrepreneurship and management capacities.
In addition to these five core areas, environmental sustainability and gender are integrated as cross-cutting issues in all programs and activities as guiding principles. In addition, Feed the Future in Senegal coordinates with many other agencies of the U.S. Government, along with other USAID initiatives such as the Global Climate Change initiative and the Global Health Initiative.
Target Regions
Feed the Future is primarily focusing its rice activities in the Senegal River Valley, maize activities in the Southern Forest Zone, and fisheries activities in the Sine Saloum Delta. Augmenting this geographic focus are the Essential Nutrition Actions (ENA) program, which will be promoted nationwide through Senegal’s health hut network, seed lab development, and the related capacity building associated with each.
