Publication: Niger : Food Security and Safety Nets
Loading...
Published
2009-02
ISSN
Date
2014-12-17
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This study aims to assist the Government of Niger in developing a multi-sectoral approach to reducing the population s vulnerability to food insecurity. The study reviews food security policies and programs in Niger, and provides an action plan for strengthening the existing system and developing an effective safety net strategy. The study finds that targeting of food aid has been either weak with significant leakages. Moreover, although the need to support poor and food insecure households is substantial, safety nets are small, receive limited funding, and are designed for emergency food crises. The study recommends to improve the efficiency and scope of safety net programs in Niger and to promote effective strategies to improve food availability and the emergency response systems.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Aker, Jenny C.; del Ninno, Carlo; Dorosh, Paul A.; Mulder-Sibanda, Menno; Razmara, Setareh. 2009. Niger : Food Security and Safety Nets. Social protection and labor discussion paper;no. 1418. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20778 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Niger : Food Security and Safety Nets(Washington, DC, 2009-02-18)Niger is a very poor country that faces serious problems of poverty and household food insecurity. With a per capita gross national income (GNI) of US$240 and an estimated 62 percent of the population living below the poverty line, Niger is one of the lowest-ranked countries on the United Nations' human development index. Reducing vulnerability and ensuring food and nutrition security is an overarching priority for the Government. Maintaining food security at the national and household level is an important priority for developing countries in general, both for the welfare of the poor and for political stability. In order to ensure food security, governments have adopted various strategies, including efforts to increase staple food crop production, market interventions, and a variety of safety net programs, especially during emergencies. In Niger, where profound vulnerabilities combined with a high level of population growth have resulted in endemic food insecurity, the Government is faced with a serious challenge. In this context, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the existing strategy and assist the Government in developing a holistic, multi-sectoral, and institutional approach to reducing the population's vulnerability to food insecurity. This report adds value to the ongoing policy discussions in two ways: first, it presents new empirical analysis of: i) food insecurity and vulnerability of households during the period of food crises as well as during normal period, ii) the structure and integration of cereal markets within Niger and with markets in neighboring countries, and iii) causes of the 2005 food crisis, and lessons learned on implications of various levels of cross-border flows between Niger and Nigeria. Second, it provides concrete short- and medium-term recommendations for helping government to improve the performance of existing programs to increase food security, particularly related to preparedness for and responses to food crises, and to design efficient safety nets mechanisms for vulnerable population.Publication Assessing Safety Net Readiness in Response to Food Price Volatility(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-09)In 2008, when food prices rose precipitously to record highs, international attention and local policy in many countries focused on safety nets as part of the response. Now that food prices are high again, the issue of appropriate responses is again on the policy agenda. This note sets out a framework for making quick, qualitative assessments of how well countries' safety nets prepare them for a rapid policy response to rising food prices should the situation warrant. The framework is applied using data from spring 2011, presenting a snap?shot analysis of what is a dynamically changing situation. Based on this data safety net readiness is assessed in 13 vulnerable countries based on the following criteria: the presence of safety net programs, program coverage, administrative capacity, and to a lesser degree, targeting effectiveness. It is argued that these criteria will remain the same throughout time, even if the sample countries affected will be expected to vary. Based on this analysis the note highlights that though a number of countries are more prepared than they were in 2008, there is still a significant medium term agenda on safety net preparedness in the face of crisis. In this context, strategic lessons from the 2008 food crisis response are presented to better understand the response options and challenges facing governments and policy makers. The note concludes by calling for continued investment and scale up of safety nets to mitigate poverty impacts and help prevent long term setbacks in nutrition and poverty.Publication Niger : Investing for Prosperity - A Poverty Assessment(Washington, DC, 2012-10)This report examines poverty trends and distribution of the poor in this larger context, paying particular attention to the most recent past. The report contributes to our understanding of the progress made in combating poverty in three ways. First, it updates our knowledge of poverty outcomes by examining the trends in poverty and vulnerability, as well as the profile and distribution of the poor and vulnerable across the country. Second it looks at the most common shocks, and their scale and influence on the welfare of the population. Third, it highlights the progress the country has made in improving opportunities for acquiring human capital and increasing incomes in rural areas. In this respect the report examines changes in access to education and health and improvements in productivity and income in small holder agriculture. It also explores the potential impact of public investments in agriculture. The report finds that, the biggest achievement in the last decade has been the substantive improvement in opportunities to acquire human capital.Publication Tanzania Poverty, Growth, and Public Transfers : Options for a National Productive Safety Net Program(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-09)This report reviews the role that safety nets have played in Tanzania and explores options on how they can contribute in accelerating poverty reduction in Tanzania, focusing on mechanisms for giving transfers to the poor. The report shows that given the large numbers of poor in Tanzania and the country s limited resources, it is essential that safety net interventions be well-targeted and efficiently organized. Significant amounts of money are already being spent on transfer programs in Tanzania, but their impact has been limited. The report recommends that for Tanzania, a single intervention will not be enough to effectively tackle extreme poverty but a combination of different type of cash transfer options is more likely to make a difference in the strategy to reduce extreme poverty and food insecurity.Publication Tanzania Poverty, Growth, and Public Transfers : Options for a National Productive Safety Net Program(Washington, DC, 2011-09-21)Tanzania has made significant economic progress in the recent past, with per capita national income almost doubling from United States (U.S.) 230 dollars equivalent in the late-1990s to U.S. 440 dollars. This report explores the role safety nets and transfers can play in reducing poverty more rapidly in Tanzania. It presents the potential need and costs, to inform a debate of options. The report reviews existing programs, and provides recommendations for an action plan to strengthen the current system and develop a more unified national program, one which will have a greater impact on poverty levels at reasonable cost, in line with the Government's poverty reduction strategy, known by the Swahili acronym MKUKUTA. The report looks at transfers to the poor, including public works employment, subsidies, food distribution programs, cash and in-kind transfers, and vouchers. This paper is organized in following chapters: chapter one gives introduction; attempts to lay out what the options might be, within an analytical assessment of the nature of poverty and shocks faced by the poor in Tanzania is given in chapter two; chapter three examines the effectiveness of existing transfer programs; at a strategic level it then evaluates the capacity of the state to spend on transfers, and how safety net programs can fit into the wider national development agenda is given in chapter four. The paper concludes by discussing some of the institutional and administrative concerns that effect program design in chapter five; and outlines for a series of immediate steps to improve the effectiveness of existing programs; as well as a medium-term strategy for moving towards a more unified national program is discussed in chapter six.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.