Ending the everyday emergency: Resilience and children in the Sahel

More than 1 million children face severe and life-threatening malnutrition in the Sahel region of West Africa in 2012. “Ending the Everyday Emergency” demonstrates that shortage of food deficit is only part of the crisis. Even more important is a ‘resilience deficit’ among vulnerable families. The main ‘pathways’ for strengthening poor families’ resilience in the Sahel include: – harnessing small-scale agriculture to improve children’s nutrition; – investing in social protection; – making reduction of child malnutrition central to resilience; – preventing the devastating impact of rising food prices; – increasing support for disaster risk reduction in the Sahel. This report sets out the positive changes and strategic opportunities for each pathway. The final section of the report offers recommendations for the way forward.