Compounding Shocks and Resilient Food Security in Nigeria and Niger

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Mercy Corps recently completed a resilience-focused assessment of the compounding impacts of multiple shocks on food security in Northwest Nigeria and southern Niger. Focused on the Kano-Katsina-Maradi corridor, the assessment highlights the complex and critical linkages between food systems in this dense pocket of Nigeria and Niger, which has witnessed a rapid deterioration in security and massive displacement. The ongoing Ukraine conflict is having severe ripple effects for agricultural-dependent households and local businesses. Dramatic price increases are heightening food insecurity in the immediate term and threatening longer term disruptions in local production systems, which are already exceedingly fragile from the economic shock of COVID-19 and longstanding development challenges. These dynamics compound and exacerbate conflict, together contributing to a surge in humanitarian need. Findings point to the importance of holistic assistance through humanitarian, development and peacebuilding mechanisms, unbounded by administrative borders, that is tailored to this unique and critical geography in the Sahel.