This week has been a busy one at USAID Headquarters in Washington, D.C.! Read more >>
Tag archives for Sahel
Helping Families Build Resilience and a Better Future for Kids
Whenever I’m asked to describe the scale of the hunger crisis in the Sahel, I see Moussa’s face. I met him in August during a trip to Mali when he was two months old, but he was so small and frail that I worried he would die in my arms. Read more >>
Does the New Resilience Policy Have Staying Power?
The global “resilience” agenda is exciting – and overdue. The idea that aid should invest not just in responding to crises, but also in preventing, mitigating, and helping people adapt to them, has been around for a long time. Read more >>
Chronic Crisis in the Sahel Calls for a New Approach
Originally published in the Huffington Post. It is the lean season in the Sahel, a spine of arid and dry lands that runs from Senegal to Chad in western Africa, and once again we are seeing the devastating images of children gaunt with hunger. This is a region that faces high childhood malnutrition and underdevelopment [...]
Responding to Acute Malnutrition in the Sahel
I recently returned from Niger and Mauritania, in Africa’s Sahel region, assessing nutrition-focused humanitarian assistance. This was not my first trip to the region, as I was also there with USAID in 2010 when a failed harvest and poor pasture conditions led to food insecurity conditions nationwide and a significant rise in acute malnutrition among [...]
Moving Food Faster to Those Who Need it Most in the Sahel
This week, urgently needed food – 33,700 tons of sorghum from American farmers – will depart the United States for West Africa, as a part of the U.S. Government’s response to the drought in the Sahel. Due to poor harvests, high food prices, and a number of conflicts in the region, a dire humanitarian situation [...]
Responding Early and Building Resilience in the Sahel
Originally posted at Huffington Post. In the village of Tougouri, in Burkina Faso, I stood with the four women squinting in the sun. They each held a digging tool. Between them, they had 31 children and no husbands. Safieta, wearing a bright yellow scarf, noted the rains were bad last year. No, she said, none [...]
Connecting Early Warning to Early Action: Building Resilience in the Sahel
Due to erratic rainfall and failed harvests, high food prices, and rising conflict, more than seven million people across the Sahel region of western Africa are at risk of plunging into crisis when the lean season begins this spring. We know this as a result of our investments into early warning systems that monitor rainfall, [...]
