Safety Nets Project Impact Evaluation 2012: Baseline Survey (Niger)

Abstract

Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world and faces severe challenges in early childhood nutrition and development. More than 50 percent of Niger's population is food insecure, with 22 percent of the population suffering from chronic food insecurity (per capita consumption of less than 1,800 kcal/person/day) in any given year. Human development indicators are particularly alarming for children. The prevalence of chronic malnutrition as measured by stunting (low height-for-age) is estimated at 50 percent, which makes Niger the second worst affected country in Sub-Saharan Africa.

While Niger has had institutions and programs aimed at reducing food insecurity, most programs have provided only ad hoc emergency assistance. The effect of these programs in reducing chronic food insecurity has been limited, particularly since they have been channeled towards short term emergency assistance following acute crises. To provide more sustainable approach to addressing chronic malnutrition, the World Bank Niger Safety Nets project aims to establish and support an effective safety net system in order to increase access of poor and food insecure people to cash transfer and cash for work programs. The project contributes to building a comprehensive, permanent, and efficient safety net system that can address chronic food insecurity in Niger. In addition to system-building activities, the safety nets project includes a cash transfer for food security component, as well as a cash-for-work component. The cash transfer component is the core building block of the Niger social protection system. It combines a cash transfer program, as well as a parenting training intervention that serves as an accompanying measure to the cash transfer.

Geographical targeting is used to select the poorest regions and communes to participate in the cash transfer program. The cash transfer program will be implemented in several phases in 5 regions (Dosso, Maradi, Tahoua, Tillabery, and Zinder) that present the highest concentration of poverty in Niger and where 95 percent of the country's poor population lives. The first phase of the project targets the regions of Dosso and Maradi, including 40% of the country's poor population. Within these regions, departments and communes eligible to the cash transfer program are selected through local stakeholder meetings with commune chiefs and regional leaders, who select communes to target based on available information from poverty maps and the levels of chronic vulnerability through a participatory process. As such, the eligible communes are chosen by local stakeholders as being the most disadvantaged areas.

As part of the impact evaluation of the Niger Safety Nets Project, the Government of Niger contracted the National Statistical Agency to conduct a baseline survey in 6 communes participating in the first phase of the cash transfer program. The communes covered by the baseline survey include Tibiri and Guecheme in the region of Dosso, as well as Sae Saboua, Guidan Sori, Gangara and Tchadoua in the region of Maradi. The survey was implemented in 2012 with technical support from the World Bank.