Food Insecurity: CH Reports Reveals 31.5m Nigerians at Risk

The March 2024 round of the Cadre Harmonise, CH, report has revealed that 31. 5 million Nigerians in 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, including 83, 847 Internally Displaced Persons, IDP’s, are expected to be in food and nutrition crisis between June and August of 2024.

The March report shows an increase from the October/November report, which projected 26. 5 million.

The key drivers contained in the report are the Naira devaluation/currency crisis, removal of fuel scarcity, and rise in inflation.

The Cadre Harmonise, CH, analysis is conducted in 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to ascertain the food security situation and make projections for the future for informed decision making.

The CH report projections serve as a guide for policy makers in focusing on areas that are in dare need of interventions.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security who was represented by the Director Special Duties Modupe Adedayo said the result came at a time Nigeria is leaving no stone unturned in reviving the nation’s economy.

She said the government is putting measures in place to address the challenges to ensure food security.

“The government has put machinery in place to address the challenges of food and nutrition insecurity. Notable among some of all these challenges are the lingering negative impact of Covid-19 on the global economy, and the Russia-Ukraine war which is currently disrupting the food systems and spiking up input prices such as (fertilizers and agrochemicals) and also the food prices as well”

She said, “The removal of petroleum subsidy has further heightened this pressure, resulting in food inflation and increase in consumer price index. Environmental and human factors such as climate change, displacements due to insecurity, and seasonal flooding have all remained recurrent. While these challenges are surmountable, the disruptions obviously have implications on the food consumption patterns and reauires high use of irreversible coping strategies among Nigeria”

While appreciating appreciating the efforts of stakeholders in the analysis, Adedayo said the Ministry is committed to upholding and utilizing the outcome and recommendations proffered for the implementation of food and nutrition security interventions.

She added that It was also important that these results be adopted for planning and implementation of the federal MDAs, 26 CH States, the humanitarian community, and partners operating in Nigeria.

FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations FAO representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS Mr. Kouacou Koffy, in his message, said the main goal of the CH report is to help identify the most vulnerable areas at risk of food and nutrition insecurity in the country.

“As you all know, the main goal of the CH workshops is to analyse available food security data and contributing façtors for the purpose of identifying populations
and areas at risk of food and nutritlon insecurity in Nigeria, and to propose
appropriate measures to prevent emergency of, or escalation of the situation”

According to Koffy, FAO will continue to support and fund the CH processes while calling for accurate data availability to help make analysis seamless. He said the FAO spent $95,000 on this circle alone.

“We acknowledge and appreciate the government’s effort in empowering communities and strengthening their resilience so that they can be self-reliant. And we pledge our continued support to the government of Nigeria to sustain these programmes. However, credible, up to date data and reliable information such as the CH results are needed to support our planning and decision-making
processes”

FAO will continue to support the CH process, both in terms of funding as well as technical support and capacity building across the country, as and when
resources allow.

Mr. Koffy added that 10 states in the country were still not part of the analyzed states; and there could be populations in those states that also need attention and support.

He added that stakeholders needed to synergies to complete the CH expansion to these states so that all populations and areas at risk of food insecurity in Nigeria are accounted for.

WFP
The Deputy Country Director of the World Food Programme WFP, Mr. Guy Adoua, in his goodwill message, said the CH analysis plays a vital role in how the WFP responds to the crises in the northeast of the country.

He said, “We are pleased to see the continued importance of this assessment for the CH process. We are particularly happy to have seen immense interest and participation from the government and partners during the interactive validation workshop held at the NBS office. This underpins the value of the credibility and rigour of the ENA and CH analysis for these states.”

Mr. Adoua reaffirmed WFP’ s ccommitment to providing the necessary technical support to the federal government and all key stakeholders involved in the Cadre Harmonise analysis process.

“We reiterate our commitment to work with the Federal Government of Nigeria, UN agencies, and other humanitarian and development partners towards ensuring zero hunger in Nigeria as captured in the SDG 2 and we cannot stress enough that credible data based on consensual processes like the Cadre Harmonisé analysis are central to this long-term goal.” He added

Shakirat Sadiq