1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

At a regional level, humanitarian partners have for 2008 agreed to focus on five priority areas for humanitarian interventions in West Africa:

- Food Security and Nutrition;

- Rapid Response to Health Emergencies;

- Protection and Population Movements;

- Natural Disaster Preparedness;

- Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.

Afin de diminuer l'impact des précipitations anormalement importantes qui sont annoncées pour la région par les organismes de prédiction météorologique qui travaillent en partenariat avec la Fédération internationale, des mesures immédiates ont été décidées afin d'éviter l'étendue des dégâts et la misère qui ont frappé la région l'année dernière.

The food crisis for West Africans could deepen in the coming months as reserve food stocks run out and prices climb, say experts from Catholic Relief Services.

"In the next three to four months, if measures aren't effective to take care of the price rise, people aren't going to take it anymore," says Joseph Sedgo, CRS' regional technical advisor for agriculture. "This is a time bomb waiting to explode."

In Burkina Faso, for example, where earlier this month workers marched through the streets protesting the high cost

But when a little rain, which is often initially welcomed, comes day after day and week after week - the water does become a problem. It drowns and rots the crops, kills livestock, causes rivers to overflow, causes landslides (that then destroy homes and communities), and increases the risk of diseases like malaria, dysentery and dengue fever.

In the last year, tens of millions of children and families have been directly affected by flooding - hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes. Since July alone, massive flooding

- Lowering or cutting taxes on food product tariffs

- Burkina Faso : The centre of the country faces food insecurity

- Mauritania: A serious food crisis predicted

- Guinea Bissau: Cereal stocks are dwindling

- Togo: Food security of flood affected households threatened

- Niger: Food insecurity on the rise

- Senegal: The government grants US$24 million to rural populations

- Ghana: 15 Liberians refugees repatriated

- Security situation worsens in northern Mali

- CERF allocates over US$2 million to Niger and Burkina Faso

- La situation alimentaire se caractérise par une disponibilité moyenne des céréales aussi bien sur les marchés que dans la plupart des ménages agricoles non– affectées par les chocs. Cette situation est due au faite que les productions de la présente campagne ont été similaires à celles records de l’année passée et sont meilleures par rapport à la moyenne quinquennale, malgré les chocs localisés (inondations et arrêt précoce des pluies).

Thanks to the generous support of Christian Aid's supporters we raised £153,000/€210,000. This, in addition to our general emergency funds, enabled us to provide immediate assistance to those most in need in the countries worst affected by the floods.

Whilst the rains have ceased and the waters have now subsided many people are still in need of assistance because

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The West Africa region continues to experience the devastating consequences of two decades of complex emergencies and recurrent natural disasters. One of the poorest regions of the world, its problems are compounded by geographical and logistical challenges, such as large expanses of landlocked areas and extremely poor transportation networks. Poverty, the lack of basic social services, and weak governance have all resulted in extreme vulnerability to recurrent disasters, epidemics, violence, insecurity and population displacements.