New from the Oakland Institute:

Sahel: A Prisoner of Starvation?

A Case Study of the 2005 Food Crisis in Niger

The Sahel, which stretches over 3,500 km from Mauritania in the west to Chad in the east, is one of the most dangerous places for children. According to the United Nations some 300,000 children under the age of five face the risk of death from malnutrition each year in the region. In light of this ongoing crisis, the Oakland Institute’s new report, Sahel: A Prisoner of Starvation? examines the 2005 food crisis in Niger to explain the cause of this chronic emergency and recommends strategies that can help make hunger in Sahel a thing of the past.

In 2005, Niger’s poverty and widespread hunger hit the world news. Some 230,000 children under the age of five were treated by NGOs–surpassing past records of relief intervention. And despite this effort, thousands of children died of hunger-related causes. While the 2005 crisis has been blamed on locust invasion and drought, Niger did not face an exceptional drop in production in the 2004-2005 agricultural year. Malnutrition remains pervasive even in years of bountiful harvest.

What is the cause of this chronic emergency, if not a natural disaster? How have several decades of development programs failed to eradicate hunger and malnutrition? What needs to be done to end this cycle of poverty and famine? Each Sahelian country has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which recognizes each person’s right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing, housing, and the continuous improvement of living conditions. What does this widespread hunger, year after year, mean in terms of the right to food in the region? What if any are the obligations of the international community during these food crises? These are the key questions that Sahel: A Prisoner of Starvation? intends to answer.

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