Sahel and West Africa: 33.4 million people expected to face crisis or worse (phase 3-5) June-Aug 2022

In the absence of appropriate measures, 33.4 million people could be in immediate need of food assistance during the lean season (June-August 2022), including 18 million in Nigeria alone; this is almost double the number of people who were affected in the 2020 lean season. Members recommend that States: (i) anticipate the formulation and implementation of response plans; (ii) facilitate access to humanitarian organisations for emergency interventions in areas heavily affected by the food crisis but with difficult access; (iii) develop programmes to support and build the resilience of people under food pressure in order to protect and avoid the erosion of their livelihoods; iv) support the initiatives of agro-pastoral organisations to prevent and manage the pastoral hunger gap, including the supply of livestock feed, the mobilisation of inter-state consultation and partnership frameworks for the smooth management of cross-border transhumance; v) continue and strengthen actions to prevent and manage malnutrition through updated response plans.