Commission scales up assistance, launches partnership for resilience in Sahel
18/06 - The European Commission is increasing its humanitarian funding to the Sahel by €40 million, bringing its response to the food crisis to €337 million. This extra funding comes just weeks before the food crisis is set to peak across the region where 18 million people are in danger from hunger.
The funding increase comes just as the European Commission is hosting a high level gathering on the Sahel hunger crisis. Commissioners Piebalgs and Georgieva, International donors, representatives from the Sahel countries and international and local organisations are attending. Among the delegates are Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, and Nancy Lindborg, the Assistant Administrator for Democracy at USAID.
The meeting has launched a new partnership on strengthening the resilience of the Sahel to future crises. The initiative, called AGIR Sahel (Alliance Globale pour l'Initiative Resilience), has one core aim: to make sure that the people in the Sahel can better cope with future droughts.
The €40 million of funding proposed today would go towards blanket feeding programmes for children and distribution of food to the poorest households. Part of this funding will also help provide food, water, health care and shelter for the estimated 400,000 Malians displaced by conflict.
The European Commission is the leading humanitarian donor in this year's Sahel food crisis. It has reached nearly 7 million people with its funding. The Commission provided support as soon as the warning signs for hunger began to flash in 2011, and has remained at the forefront of international efforts to reduce emergency needs leading up to the peak of the crisis in the coming weeks.
For more information
IP/12/613 - Sahel food crisis– Commission scales up assistance and launches a Partnership for Resilience in Sahel
