Nigeria: Dikwa Rapid Food Security Assessment - Round 2, February 2017

Key messages for decision makers

• As a result of two rounds of food assistance to households in Dikwa, the proportion of households with poor and borderline food consumption has decreased from 89 percent in January to 63 percent in February.

• The mean reduced coping strategy index (rCSI) remains high at 21 for households with poor consumption, but has decreased from 24 in January to 17 in February for households with borderline food consumption. For households with acceptable food consumption, the rCSI has increased from 17 in January to 21 in February.

• In view of the level of vulnerability and high proportion of households with borderline food consumption, food assistance and livelihood programs need to continue to target this population to engage in food production and maintain access to food.

Introduction

A second round of rapid food security assessment was conducted in Dikwa during the week of 7th to 14th February 2017 as part of the rapid response mechanism jointly implemented by WFP and UNICEF. Despite the ongoing delivery of food assistance to households fleeing conflict-affected areas, food secu-rity conditions remain challenging due to large-scale displacements and the overwhelming loss of liveli-hoods by a substantial portion of the population.

These conditions are further exacerbated by the per-sistent insecurity which affects both local markets functioning and the ability of households to engage in livelihood and income generating activities.

The second round of RRM was intended to sustain access to food for IDPs returning to their places of origin as well as new IDPs and host community households. It also sought to provide nutrition sup-port to prevent malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months, through provision of blanket supplemen-tary feeding.

So far, the food assistance provided to people living into these hard to reach areas has been crucial for the survival of many families as it has become the main sources of sustenance.

Conclusion

The delivery of food assistance to conflict-affected households in Dikwa over the past 2 months has had the effect of improving access to food and reducing the proportion of food households with poor food consumption from 89 percent in January to 63 percent in February. Despite this progress, the proportion of food insecure households remain substantially high and future food assistance will be necessary especially as the lean season approaches and further decrease in food access is expected due to rising prices and season decline in food availability.

As a considerable proportion of households are vulnerable, these households need to be specifi-cally target with appropriate programs to enable them to cope with limited access to food. The high proportion of vulnerable households along with those having borderline food insecurity would likely remain food insecure during the lean season. Sustained food assistance to those households will also be necessary until food access is improved after a new harvest.