Niger | �鶹��Ƶ

Niger is a landlocked country in the Sahel. With nearly 80 percent of its population living in rural areas, soil degradation and limited access to arable land and water are major drivers of food insecurity. With erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, desertification and frequent droughts and floods, Niger loses nearly 100,000 hectares of productive land each year.

Multiple, interconnected crises have eroded communities' resilience, leaving 3 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Persistent conflict, climate shocks and economic instability continue to exacerbate humanitarian needs, particularly in regions where livelihoods have been severely weakened by recurrent shocks, and displacement pressures continue to intensify.

A total of 2.4 million people face severe food insecurity and 1.6 million children face acute malnutrition, including 400,000 with severe acute malnutrition.

The Government remains committed to its national development priorities, which aim to reduce poverty and food insecurity while building climate resilience through sustainable agricultural development.

The �鶹��Ƶ (�鶹��Ƶ) provides both short-term relief for vulnerable communities and long-term solutions through its integrated resilience programme and social protection systems. �鶹��Ƶ works in partnership with the Government, UN agencies and civil society organizations.

What the �鶹��Ƶ is doing in Niger

Emergency preparedness and response: �鶹��Ƶ provides vital food and nutrition assistance to crisis-affected populations, including internally displaced people, refugees and their vulnerable host communities, as well as to migrants and severely food- insecure households. �鶹��Ƶ also invests in extreme weather preparedness by engaging communities in planning, readiness and anticipatory actions, in response to extreme events like floods.
Adaptative social protection: �鶹��Ƶ works with the Government, the World Bank, UNICEF and other partners to strengthen a nationally led, shock-responsive social protection system. �鶹��Ƶ supports the design and scale-up of adaptive social protection programmes that reach vulnerable populations before, during and after crises. Through regular cash transfers complemented by shock-responsive components, �鶹��Ƶ helps protect livelihoods, reduce negative coping strategies, and address food and nutrition insecurity. �鶹��Ƶ also strengthens national capacities, such as the social registry and early-warning mechanisms to ensure propmt, targeted responses that build long-term resilience.
Climate-sensitive livelihoods and asset creation: �鶹��Ƶ helps vulnerable communities build resilient livelihoods through sustainable ecosystem and resource management. �鶹��Ƶ supports communities with land and pond restoration, as part of the integrated resilience programme. Since 2014, more than 317,000 hectares of degraded land have been restored, and more than 12 million trees planted. All of this increases the space available for agriculture and livestock. �鶹��Ƶ works with institutions like the National Meteorological Department to help vulnerable communities prepare for climate risks through anticipatory actions, aiming to raise awareness and improve access to weather services. We also supports communities with cash and insurance protection during extreme weather events.
Support for smallholder farmers: �鶹��Ƶ organizes training for smallholder farmers and uses community radio to increase access to key information that facilitates production, storage and links to local markets, in order to increase production. This approach also allows smallholder farmers to improve their business skills and access markets to sell their produce. �鶹��Ƶ also buys local produce for its school meals programme, food and nutrition assistance operations. Since 2012, �鶹��Ƶ has bought nearly 27,000 metric tons from smallholder famers cooperatives. This has contributed to meeting local food needs while boosting farmers' incomes.
School meals: �鶹��Ƶ supports Niger's efforts to eliminate barriers to access and quality education for children, mainly girls. Through our school meals programme and scholarship initiative for adolescent girls, �鶹��Ƶ ensures that over 380,000 schoolchildren receive hot meals, and more than 33,000 girls receive cash assistance to remain in school, including those living in areas affected by conflict. �鶹��Ƶ also helps smallholder farmers provide food for home-grown school feeding implemented in 360 schools in three regions.
Nutrition: �鶹��Ƶ plays a key role in preventing malnutrition and supplementing moderate acute malnutrition through its emergency and resilience programmes, focusing on children aged 6 to 59 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls. It supports health centres with screening and nutritional products. �鶹��Ƶ also promotes community-based nutrition by placing caretakers, especially mothers at the heart of learning and rehabilitation centres. Through peer-support groups, mothers engage in awareness sessions and cooking demonstrations to prepare nutritious meals using locally available, affordable foods. The goal is to strengthen community support, reduce travel and dependence on imported foods, and boost local supply and demand. �鶹��Ƶ continues its community-based approach through FARNs (Nutritional Rehabilitation and Learning Centres) �C an integral part of the resilience programme �C where mothers and caregivers receive guidance on preparing recipes from locally available foods.