West and Central Africa Regional Report 2019

The West and Central Africa Report 2019 outlines Action Against Hunger’s key activities, reach and achievements in all the countries where we work in the region.

Published: 2020

The year 2019 was marked by the impact of events for that have affected West and Central Africa for several years. Poor funding for response plans has contributed to the worsening of the countless crises in the region that reached previously untouched areas. The hotbeds of tension have multiplied in Central Africa and the Central Sahel with an expansion towards coastal countries; the impact of climate change was still felt throughout the region, stretching from the Sahel with pockets of droughts over several years as well as bad rainfall to the coastal countries where severe flooding led hundreds of thousands of people to migrate.

The epidemics also played their part in the list of calamities that severely impacted the region in 2019The Ebola fever epidemic continued to devastate populations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in addition to measles and cholera. Political instability and armed conflicts have gained the upper hand over the fight against hunger and social inequalities, and over the little respite the region could have enjoyed with a so-called “normal” harvest year. Insecurity in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin regions has aggravated the needs in the most vulnerable areas.

In 2019, nearly 10.8 million people were identified at risk of food and nutritional insecurity, and 7.3 million children under 5 years of age were affected by global acute malnutrition, including 2 million suffering from SAM (WHO 2019). Our action reached nearly 8 million people in West and Central Africa, thanks to the contribution of our technical and financial partners. This enabled us to reach 3.2 million persons with our nutrition and health programmes, assist 1.2 million food insecure people, and support 2.5 million people through the installation and rehabilitation of water, hygiene and sanitation infrastructure.

Our holistic and multi-sectoral approach aims to reduce the impact of seasonal peaks linked to structural vulnerability in the region; build the capacities of communities to enable them to better prepare for and respond to shocks while strengthening their livelihoods; facilitate their access to basic social services (health, water, hygiene, sanitation, etc.); respond directly or indirectly to emergencies, and finally influence policies to meet their commitments in relation to the fight
against malnutrition and its various causes as well as taking malnutrition into account as a public health priority.

Download the report to read how we addressed the needs of the people in need across the West and Central African region.