LAHIA Non-Emergency Food Assistance Program Quarterly Report- FY16 Q1 (October-December 2015)

The program aims to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition among poor rural households in Aguie and Guidan Roumdji districts of Maradi region, Niger. The program's strategic objectives include improving the nutritional status of children under five years of age and pregnant women, increasing access to food by vulnerable households, reducing vulnerability to food shocks, and improving the status of women in target households and communities. The LAHIA program is designed to reach 17,972 children (6-23 months old) and 20,076 pregnant and lactating mothers with a health, nutrition, hygiene, and sanitation package complemented by supplemental food rations and a protective household ration provided during the lean season. The WASH component of the program includes drilling 99 new water points, rehabilitating 40 existing water points, constructing 261 family ventilation improved pit (VIP) latrines, and 25 gender-segregated public latrines. The livelihoods portion of the project includes women's village savings and lending groups, post-harvest storage and value chain activities, and increasing dry season (vegetables) and rainy season (primarily millet and cowpeas) agriculture production for improved food security. During the first quarter of FY16, LAHIA collaborated with the USAID-funded Resilience and Economic Growth in the Sahel – Accelerated Growth (REGIS-AG) project, with plans to sign a Memorandum of Understanding in early Quarter Two. USAID held a USAID-RISE Tier 1 Partners Meeting in Niamey, Niger in November, where representatives from USAID/Washington, USAID/West Africa, USAID/Burkina Faso, USAID/Niger, and staff from the Development Food Assistance Programs (DFAPs) in Burkina Faso and Niger were present. The meeting included site visits to the LAHIA villages of Gangara and Magagi Arzitaoua, where participants were able to meet the communities and see the progress made by LAHIA. The nutritional status of children under five years of age and pregnant women is a key focus area for the LAHIA program. The program is implementing a community video approach to raise health and nutrition awareness through locally-produced videos that encourage viewers to adopt optimal maternal and child health and nutrition behaviors. Sixty projections of three separate films were organized in Aguié and Gangara Communes in the villages of Naki Karfi, Guidan Daweye, Malam Daweye, Nahantshi, and Jikata during the pilot phase. The films covered themes such as healthy nutrition for women of reproductive age, use of health services with a focus on antenatal care, iron folate supplementation in pregnancy, and the importance of women's participation in decisions about the sale and household consumption of harvested crops. LAHIA made 1,332 home visits during the reporting period to the community video target population, observing improvements in dietary diversity. The program also organized refresher training for members of the community-based network of communicators, focusing on maternal and child health and nutrition topics and gender integration. Additionally, LAHIA mobilized 120 new peer educators to respond to a need to improve household hygiene behaviors and to improve environmental hygiene in general. The WASH specialists will train these peer educators in healthy hygiene in January 2016.