ALERT LEVEL: NO ALERT MONTHLY FOOD SECURITY WATCH UPDATE WARNING JANUARY 2005 EMERGENCY

CONTENTS SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS Recap of emergencies ...... 1 Residents of western, central and southern Mauritania are increasingly dependent on coping Food security conditions ...... 2 Current crises ...... 2 strategies. Many poor households in livelihood zones 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (see Map 1) have already depleted their resources and face the specter of famine if appropriate measures are not taken by Food security and livelihoods...... 2 the end of February. Backlogs of outstanding loans are limiting the borrowing capacity of area residents vis-à-vis local traders. Thus, the main coping strategies are all basically reliant on community assistance, based on the sales of capital goods or remittances of food and cash from migrating family members working in the city. The sharp jump in prices for small stock animals, attributable, in part, to the celebration of Tabaski, a Muslim holiday, is also a reflection of the tightening of supplies on primary livestock markets in the eastern and central parts of the country, from where local animal herds have already departed for Mali. The operations of international NGOs active in Mauritania could be scaled back for budgetary reasons. Map 1: Livelihood zones Food Economy Zones ALGERIA 1 Pastoral nomads

2 Oases and pastoralism with wadi cultivation

TIRIS ZEMMOUR 3 Traditional coastal fishing

4 Zouérat Transhumant pastoralism 5 Agro-pastoral WESTERN 1

Nouadibhou ADRAR 6 Rainfed cultivation DAKHLET Atar

INCHIRI Akjoujt 7 River Valley 2 3

TidjikdjaTAGANT HODH ECH CHARGUI NOUAKCHOTTTRARZA

4 AlegBRAKNA Kîfa Ayoûn el 'Atroûs 5 HODH EL GHARBI ASSABA 7 GORGOL Nima SENEGAL GUIDIMAKA 6 Sélibaby 0 100 200 MALI Kilometers CURRENT HAZARD SUMMARY • Most extremely food-insecure households in zones 2, 4, 5 and 6 face problems accessing cereals and water shortages. • The inability of households in zone 7 and oasis areas of zones 2 and 5 to purchase seeds and market gardening tools prevents them from planting vegetables and off-season crops. • Rising prices for staple foodstuffs and interest limit household access to commercially marketed food products. FOOD SECURITY CONDITIONS Despite the visible deterioration in living conditions and the steady rise in food insecurity levels, there are still no emergency relief programs being started anywhere in the country. The World Food Program (WFP) is planning to start up a protracted relief and recovery operation (PRRO) early in February, in conjunction with a number of locally active international NGOs (OXFAM, World

FEWS NET/Mauritania TEL: (222) 525 39 10 c/o US Embassy FEWS NET is funded by the US Agency for International Development TEL & FAX: (222) 525 39 18 BP: 222, Nouakchott www.fews.net E-mail: [email protected] Mauritania

Mauritania: MONTHLY FOOD SECURITY UPDATE January 2005

Vision, LWF and ACORD).

The spatial distribution of food insecurity conditions has not changed since last month, but household crisis management capabilities have been sharply eroded by the depletion of their resources and rising prices for staple foodstuffs.

1. Extremely food-insecure area. The size of this area is steadily growing. In addition to the areas identified as extremely food-insecure back in November, it now includes: ™ Rainfed farming areas (zone 6), in which harvests of diéri crops, the only type of crops grown in these areas, were completely destroyed by desert locusts and the untimely end of the rainy season; ™ Agropastoral areas (zone 5), in which all households whose food access hinges on their crop production have been experiencing food insecurity problems since August of last year, encompassing all of Aftout and adwaba settlements in central Assaba and southern Hodh El Gharbi and Hodh El Chargui; ™ The Valley (zone 7) where, this past year, in light of the low level of the river, local farmers chose not to plant any of the main types of crops traditionally grown in this area and where irrigation schemes which could have helped reduce the food deficit are facing serious operating problems (farmer indebtedness, seed shortages and poor quality, obsolete facilities and equipment, etc.); ™ Structurally deficit northern farming areas (zone 2), with no prospect of seeing any grain transfers from Aftout and the Senegal River Valley; ™ Transhumant pastoral areas (zone 4) deprived of animal products and with no prospect of seeing any grain transfers from the south, in which regular, adequate food access has become a serious problem.

Sales of household and capital goods in Aftout and the Senegal River Valley have declined sharply.

2. Highly food-insecure area. This area covers the entire south-central portion of the country, coinciding with the southern reaches of zone 6, forming a narrow belt extending from Department in Gorgol to Department in Hodh El Gharbi, including Sélibaby Department in Guidimakha and southern Department in Assaba, as well as urban slum areas of Nouakchott and Nouadhibou (zone 3). In fact, poverty in the latter two areas is increasing in the wake of mass rural-urban migration. CURRENT CRISES 1. As has been the case since December, the main crisis affecting the rural population has to do with the limited availability of coarse grains. All rural households are being forced to turn to imported food products (rice and wheat), whose prices are rising steadily. 2. The second crisis has to do with access to water resources for the human and animal populations of agropastoral and transhumant pastoral areas. Overgrazing in zone 5 and the eastern part of zone 6 is beginning to exhaust the meager surface water resources in these areas, heightening disputes between transhumant herders and local villagers over local watering holes. 3. The deterioration in the condition of grazing lands as a result of overgrazing or brush fires is affecting local herders and forcing transhumant herders to move their animals to more distant grazing grounds. FOOD SECURITY AND LIVELIHOODS Two important findings: 1. Right now, the only workable coping strategies for poor and middle-income households in all livelihood zones around the country are borrowing and skipping meals. The survival of these households depends on remittances from migrating family members. 2. Aside from the World Food Program (WFP), which is planning to start up a protracted relief and recovery operation (PRRO) sometime early in February, no other agency or organization, including NGOs and government agencies (CSA, CLCPDH, etc.) has mounted any assistance program. A number of international NGOs lament recent cuts in their funding, which could force them to scale back their operations in 2005. The government issued an appeal to its development partners on November 24th of last year for 111,000 MT of food aid, including 84,000 MT of grain and 27,000 MT of miscellaneous foodstuffs (oil, pulses and milk), and 135,000 MT of animal feed. As things currently stand, the status of scheduled programs aimed at improving food access is as follows (Table 1, following page):

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Mauritania: MONTHLY FOOD SECURITY UPDATE January 2005

Table 1: RECAP OF ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS ANNOUNCED AS OF JANUARY 2005

ORGANIZATION SERVICE AREA SCHEDULED PROGRAMS SOURCE(S) OF FUNDING *Animal sales in northern Brakna. Seeking £355,666 in funding for *Village water supply projects in the program implementation Aftout area. AFTOUT *Rehabilitation of the Aftout reservoir. *Village food security reserves. *Food for work program. OXFAM/GB Distribution of 2,809.9 MT of grain $84,297 in WFP funding AFTOUT AND AFFOLE for implementation of the WFP’s PRRO. Rehabilitation of area dams by the Funded by OXFAM/GB local NGO SLODA. (This NGO has AFFOLE taken over for OXFAM in the Affolé area.) *Distribution of small-scale market LWF funding already made available BRAKNA (25 SITES), gardening tools and vegetable seeds to GORGOL (25 SITES), HODH mitigate the effects of the locust LWF/DWS EL CHARGUI AND HODH plague. EL GHARBI (25 SITES) *Assistance in implementing the WFP funding WFP’s PRRO. *Distribution of 1,246 MT of USAID funding sorghum, 856 MT of WSB and 278 BRAKNA, ASSABA, MT of vegetable oil, free of charge, TAGANT AND beginning in February. WORLD VISION NOUAKCHOTT (THE 7 *Financing of small-scale income- USAID funding AREAS MONITORED BY generating projects through the DOULOS) monetization of 8,915 MT of wheat in March. HODH EL CHARGUI AND *Distribution of provisions for the WFP funding ACORD HODH EL GHARBI WFP’s PRRO. Distribution of provisions under its Total tonnage: Approximately emergency operations and PRRO. US$30.8 million for the procurement of 52,000 MT of provisions, or 32,000 MT for 2005 and 20,000 MT for the WFP following two years. The WFP has already obtained the following pledges of funding for this program: -Spain: 300,000 Euros -USA: 5,000 MT of food aid -Italy: 200,000 Euros GUIDIMAKHA, TAGANT, Distribution of provisions for European Union funding EUROPEAN TRARZA, HODH EL emergency operations and the PRRO. UNION CHARGUI, ADRAR, INCHIRI, TIRIS ZEMMOUR Source of data: WFP; Table developed by FEWS NET Mauritania

The food situation in most areas of the country whose local economy is basically dependent on agriculture has deteriorated to such an extent as to be likened to “pre-famine conditions”. In other words, if emergency relief programs do not begin in time (by early February or the beginning of March at the latest), all poor and middle-income households throughout Aftout, the Senegal River Valley, Tagant, northern Guidimakha, central Assaba and southern Hodh El Chargui and Hodh El Gharbi will be facing a famine. The destruction of wild plant foods by desert locusts, the diversion of grain imports from Mali and Senegal to large cities and the growing inaccessibility of commercially marketed food products for these increasingly impoverished households whose borrowing power has been sharply eroded, against a backdrop of spiraling prices for staple foodstuffs, are making the specter of famine all the more real.

Only pastoral communities in the northern and central parts of the country (zones 1 and 2) have any hope of seeing an improvement in their food situation anytime in the next three months. In fact, rainfall in the north should stop local herders from migrating southwards by helping to speed up the regrowth of natural vegetation and the replenishment of groundwater resources. This change in local climatic conditions should allow area households to carry on their traditional livelihoods. Household access to commercially marketed food products is being bolstered by sales of imported products from the Sahara, and Algeria on

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Mauritania: MONTHLY FOOD SECURITY UPDATE January 2005 markets in Zouerate, Bir and Nouadhibou at subsidized prices.

The breakdown of the country’s food-insecure population presented in the following table could dramatically change over the next few months. Everything depends on the prompt mounting of relief programs, as poor residents of urban slum areas strive to help family members back in the countryside cope with the current food crisis.

Table 2: BREAKDOWN OF THE FOOD-INSECURE POPULATION AS OF JANUARY OF 2005

PERCENTAGE PERCENTAGE TOTAL AT-RISK (%) OF THE (%) OF THE LIVELIHOOD ZONES POPULATION POPULATION LOCAL TOTAL POPULATION POPULATION

AGROPASTORAL AREA (Z0NE 5) 781,117 410,009 52.49 14.35 RAINFED FARMING AREA (Z0NE 6) 444,353 368,413 82.91 12.89 RIVER VALLEY AREA (Z0NE 7) 348,082 282,573 81.18 9.89 TRANSHUMANT PASTORAL AREA (ZONE 4) 120,069 85,189 70.95 2.98 PASTORAL-OASIS AND FLOOD RECESSION 353,246 208,062 58.90 7.28 FARMING AREA (Z0NE 2) PASTORAL AREA (ZONE 1) 84,960 29,218 34.39 1.02 COASTAL AREA (Z0NE 3) 726,173 472,884 65.12 16.55 TOTAL 2,858,000 1,856,347 64.95

Agropastoral area (zone 5): Agropastoralists whose main source of income is the cultivation of rainfed crops account for the largest share of the food-insecure population. This group is especially numerous in Aftout where, in the wake of the departure of all able-bodied men, entire households are now leaving the area. Households whose main livelihood is herding (generally small stock animals) have somewhat better food access, with their stronger purchasing power or better terms of trade for their products.

Rainfed farming area (zone 6): Farmers without any small stock animals are experiencing especially serious food access problems. This group of farmers is especially numerous in adwaba villages bordering the country’s agropastoral area. Right now, most households in this area are still resorting to coping strategies grounded in the exploitation of local ecosystems (the gathering of wild plant foods, sales of fuelwood, charcoal, etc.) Migration into Mali (to the Niger River Delta) has intensified.

Alluvial plain area (zone 7): Having already sold off their capital goods and jewelry, poor households are now determined to leave the area, since the only feasible farming activity at this time involves growing irrigated crops, which is not an option for them since they do not have the money with which to pay corresponding water user charges to the Crédit Agricole (the farm loan bank). Right now, this entire area is surviving on remittances from workers in the civil service and private sector and from emigrants. Poor households are relying on community assistance.

Transhumant pastoral area (zone 4): Households whose animal herds have left for points east are experiencing especially serious food access problems. In general, these areas are remote, and food prices on local markets are visibly higher than in areas closer to main roadways. Access to water is yet another problem. The area’s major arteries are lined with herders who have put off their seasonal migration, able to purchase animal feed with monies earned from selling milk to pasteurization plants. However, the local livestock agency in Trarza is reporting stepped-up seasonal migration to Senegal from the Rosso ferry crossing and the Diama dam over the course of this past month.

Northern areas (zones 1 and 2): Rainfall in the northern part of the country is expected to improve the food situation for pastoral households. However, the breakdown in traditional trade channels with crop-producing areas in the central (agropastoral areas) and southern (Senegal River Valley and rainfed farming areas) parts of the country is going to force these households to turn to commercially marketed grain products. Recent trade overtures with the North African countries should improve food access for households in these areas.

Peri-urban areas (zone 3): The at-risk population in the country’s coastal area includes residents of slum areas of coastal cities (Nouakchott and Nouadhibou), which accounts for its size. Already overcrowded poor households in urban slum areas are being forced to take in newcomers to the city looking to stay with close friends and relatives whose small, irregular incomes are destabilizing their own food access.

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