Niger is a landlocked country in the Sahel region faced with a food-deficit and low-income levels. Growing at 4 percent per year, Niger has one of the highest population growth rates per year in the world and is home to over 18 million people. Life expectancy at birth is 58 years, but one in ten children do not reach five years of age. Of the children under five, over 40 percent are chronically malnourished and about 15 percent acutely malnourished, with malnutrition linked to a third of childhood deaths. WFP provides cash and food assistance as well as nutrition supplements to poor households in order to prevent acute malnutrition and mortality rates.

World Food Programme (WFP) uses cash transfers to empower people with choice to address their essential needs in local markets. Cash transfers include assistance distributed as physical bank notes, e-money, mobile money, through debit cards or value vouchers which are redeemable at locally-contracted shops or designated distribution points. Findings show that the element of choice is critical: vulnerable households which are empowered to decide about their lives make choices that improve their food security and wellbeing.

In the Photo: A beneficiary shows off the humanitarian assistance card she used to receive money at a WFP cash transfer point in Dagouji, Zinder, Niger.