Niger Programme Plan2016

NIGER PROGRAMME PLAN2016

1. Introduction

While the political stability remains fragile, Niger’s economy has been performing well, and is expected to reach 6.5% in 2016 – up by .5% from 2015. The governnment’sthree year growth and development strategy (Programme de DéveloppementÉconomique et Social) aimed at maintaining macroeconomic stability while improving the country's public financial management systems has guided Niger's economic policy since 2012, leading to this growth. The implementation of the President’s 3N initative(Nigeriens Nourish Nigeriens) continues to strengthen agricultural output and places resilience to climate change at the center of the government’s priorities. Despite the heightened social and political tensions, it is expected that the ruling coalition, led by President Mahamadou Issoufou, will remain in power until the February 2016 national elections.

Although relatively stable throughout 2015, the lead up to the February 2016 Presidential elections is likely to have an adverse effect on the economy (i.e. slow down policymaking and implementation, as well as proper budget allocations), on society and could also impact negatively on Concern programming. The major threat to the political stability is more on the regional front with the on-going instability in Mali, Nigeria and Libya, and is likely to continue affecting the humanitarian situation in Niger substantially, with the displacement of refugees, IDPs and returnees (displaced from Nigeria: 105,583; displaced from Mali: 50,983).

Even though Niger’s social indicators have improved significantly over the past decades, Niger remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with a poverty rate at 46%, a population growth rate of 3.9% - one of the fastest population growth rates in the world, and a per capita income of $302.35 (2014). Whileprogress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is a main priority of the government, most of them still remain out of reach.

In 2016, Concern in Niger will continue to focus its work on enabling extremely poor households in becoming more resilent to the changing environment, in claiming their rights and building their futures in addressing hunger, and access to primary education, maternal and child health services. This will be achieved through the on going implementation of the strategic plan. As the Integrated Resilience Programme will be coming to an end in 2016, preparations will be initiated from March onwards in designing a continuation of this multi-annual programme. The new phase will be designed based on recommendations from the 2015 internal evaluation, and review in 2016 of the contextual analysis. Concern will continue to provide support during the June – Septembet hunger gap season, while seeking innovative solutions to increase the impact and effectiveness of its programmes, and on improving programme quality by measuring results. In addition, we will be further strengthening our collaboration with local and international civil society, government as well as the donors for mobilising support to people in extreme poverty. Management syestems and processes will be further strengthened to effectively deliver the strategic plan and programmatic priorites.

1. Programmes

Emergency/Mitigation

Beneficiaries:

Emergency:estimated 4,000 households (cash); 1,500 cases of SAM with medical complications, 7,000 cases of SAM without medical complications and 20,000 cases of MAM in pregnant and lactating women and children under five years of age. Mitigation: 3,500 households

In 2016 Concern will continue to support the Ministry of Health to prevent and respond to malnutrition amongst children and pregnant and lactating women through CMAM activities, particularly during periods of peak admissions. Concern works with the government to ensure the integration of these services within the health system and to strengthen their capacity. This support consists largely of ensuring that health services have sufficient medicines, trained personnel, therapeutic foods and equipment to treat malnutrition, while supporting community level volunteers to ensure that malnourished children and pregnant/lactating women are screened and referred to treatment programmes, defaulters and absents are followed-up and important health and nutrition education is provided. Through the Surge Capacity model, Concern will continue to work with health centres to ensure timely responses to increases in caseloads through their on-going support and monitoring. Concern will continue to be an active and influential member of the Nutrition Alliance of ECHO partners put in place in 2014 to improve the efficiency and efficacy of NGO support to the integration of quality treatment of acute malnutrition into health services in Niger through the sharing of lessons learned, harmonized and standardized approachs, and increased advocacy.

Concern’s emergency programme will also provide assistance to the most vulnerable households in four communes in Tahoua to improve food security and reduce malnutrition. The timing of the assistance will depend on the results of the research which is currently underway with the University College London (UCL). The research is focused on the relative impact of shorter and longer-term cash transfers on malnutrition. Concern will continue to play an active role in the Food Security ECHO Alliance and its advocacy sub-group to align approaches and move towards linking non-governmental emergency assistance with the government’s longer-term social protection programme.

At the same time, Concern’s livelihoods mitigation programme will build on the progress made during 2015 in rebuilding household assets, continuing support to households and community groups to diversify their livelihoods, adopt climate-smart agriculture techniques, sustain natural resources and improve their overall food security. Concern is looking at introducing some innovative approaches like introducing seed vouchers and fairs instead of carrying out regular distributions which is also more empowering for farmers.

Integrated Resilience Programme

Beneficiaries:

Integrated/Multisectoral: 3,000 households;

Education:11,674 children (6,743 boys and 4,931 girls);

Health/Nutrition/WASH: 112 villages (approx. 24,000 households) 10 health centers, and 24 health posts)

In 2016 Concern will concentrate its efforts on strengthening the activiites carried out between 2012 and 2015 in our targeted 112 villages and their associated health structures in Bambeye and Tebaram.

Education

Concern’s education programme will continue to work with the Ministry of Education, schools, parents and community members to improve the quality of education and literacy standards in targeted schools through curriculum and resource development and teacher training.An appropriate learning environment and improved child protection will continue to be promoted through the elaboration of a code of conduct in the schools and sensitization at community level. In late 2015 Concern introduced the use of video technology as an innovative way to improve and monitor teaching practices in the classroom and share lessons learnt between schools. Teachers are filmed during lessons and then the material is used during teacher training to illustrate positive and negative teaching practices and classroom behaviour as well as to demonstrate child-centred activities and child appropriate feedback and evaluation mechanisms. Working with the Ministry for Primary Education in Niger and educational trainers, Concern will continue to support this initative and promote its use more widely.

Food Security and Livelihoods

During this last phase of IRP, Concern will continue to provide a range of interventions across the agriculture, livestock and livelihoods sectors, to support women and vulnerable households to diversify their livelihoods and increase their income through a mixture of agriculture and livestock interventions (climate-smart agriculture training, seed and livestock distribution, training of livestock assistants) as well as providing training and asset transfers to support income generation activities. In addition, natural resource management training and agroforestry activities will be enhanced to help communities to regenerate natural lands and protect soils. DRR activities, such as the setting up and continued support to early warning systems, will also aim to contribute to household and community resilience in the face of a changing environment.

Health/Nutrition/WASH

Concern will provide support, in the form of training, equipment, medicine and personnel, to the government health system at district, community level so as to reduce mortality, morbidity,and malnutrition rates and improve the quality of services. Concern will continue the behavior change communicationactivities of community volunteers, while increasing the number of community health volunteers able to treat basic childhood illnesses at community level and further expanding the volunteer’s network to cover additional communities, as it maintains an important (missing) link between communities, health structures and districts. Concern will continue its focus on gender, with continuing support of its Ecoles de Maris (husband schools) activities which aim to increase men’s understanding of and contribution to the health and nutritional status of their families, and other reproductive health activities.

WASH activities will retain a community focus – in addition to the rehabilitation of wells, Concern will train and support hygiene committees in targeted villages and will expand its Community Led Total Sanitation activities to encourage communities to improve sanitation through the construction and use of family latrines.

1. Monitoring and Evaluation

NIG