United States Donates US$45 Million To Build Resilience During Niger’s Lean Season
NIAMEY - The United States has provided a critical lifeline to more than half a million vulnerable people in Niger during the hungriest time of the year, with an in-kind, US$45 million contribution to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). This will help provide food assistance and enhance resilience-building, including in areas affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.
“This donation gives much needed hope to people struggling to provide food for their families through the June-to-September lean season,” said WFP Niger Country Director Benoît Thiry.
The annual lean season before harvest is a time when stocks are low and market prices high. The poorest households are often forced to migrate in search of work, abandoning their farms and herds.
The assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will allow WFP to provide lifesaving support to some of the country’s most vulnerable inhabitants, including children, people affected by Boko Haram violence in the southwest Diffa region, and refugees along Niger’s border with Mali.
It will fund WFP’s cash transfers, emergency school meals and asset creation in more secure areas, helping people recover from conflict and other shocks, and build their self-reliance and resilience.
The donation will also contribute to WFP’s work with Niger’s government and partners to build a more stable and durable future, in a country where more than two million people are battling hunger and one in 20 is at risk of acute malnutrition.
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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.
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For more information please contact:
Tiphaine Walton/WFP/Niamey : tiphaine.walton@wfp.org / +227 92 19 16 81
Elizabeth Bryant/WFP/Dakar: Elizabeth.Bryant@wfp.org/+ 221 639 4271