Geneva, Switzerland – Despite major security constraints, the ICRC and the Mali Red Cross continue to help people affected by armed violence in northern Mali.

Jürg Eglin heads the ICRC’s regional delegation for Mali and Niger. “Access to health care, food and water is as difficult as ever in this region where food is short,” he explains. People are still having trouble getting hold of water in Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal.

“On 21 April, a Mali Red Cross convoy was able to deliver food and medicines to Timbuktu Hospital,” continued Mr Eglin. “We absolutely have to get access to the people affected by the violence, but we don’t yet have the security guarantees we need before launching a larger-scale humanitarian operation.”

The context is unstable and complex. The ICRC is currently ensuring that all parties understand and accept the neutral, independent, humanitarian work of the ICRC and the Mali Red Cross. It will only be possible to fully meet the huge needs in this region if the parties involved accept this role and give solid security guarantees.

Since 13 April, the ICRC has:

• sent a convoy from Niamey in Niger (on 17 April) that delivered medicines and medical supplies to Gao Hospital, enabling the
hospital to treat between 300 and 500 sick patients and around 100 casualties of the fighting;

• made an ICRC nurse and an ICRC midwife available to the medical team at Gao Hospital;

• delivered medicines to the main health centre in Ansongo, south of Gao, to help the centre resume its work;

• sent a surgeon and a doctor to the areas of Gao and Timbuktu, to treat people injured in the fighting;

• supplied some 5,000 litres of fuel per day to keep the water system in the town of Gao operating and prevent water shortages;

• sent a team to identify the most urgent needs in Kidal.

The ICRC is maintaining smaller teams than usual in Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu, so that it can continue operations in northern Mali. The organization has just opened an office in Mopti and is still operating in Bamako, the Malian capital. Finally, the ICRC is helping Malian refugees in Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger.

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The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a new arrangement for Niger under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) in an amount equivalent to SDR 78.96 million (about about US$120.97 million). The Board’s decision will enable an immediate disbursement equivalent to SDR 11.28 million (about US$17.28 million).

The authorities’ program is aimed at maintaining macroeconomic stability while increasing resilience to shocks; strengthening public finance and debt management; putting in place a transparent legal and supervisory framework for the mining and petroleum sectors; and supporting private and financial sector development.

“The 2012 budget is well aligned with the authorities’ growth and poverty reduction program. Medium-term fiscal policy is rightly geared towards creating the fiscal space for increased development spending, while maintaining debt sustainability.

“Rising receipts from oil production and strengthened domestic revenue should primarily finance the planned investment. It will also be important to step up efforts to seek grants and concessional financing for large infrastructure investment and other projects. Non-concessional loans should only be contracted for well-assessed, high-yield projects,” observes Naoyuki Shinohara, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair.

“A significant build-up of government reserves at the central bank will provide flexibility in budget execution and bolster Niger’s resilience to exogenous shocks.

“Important structural reforms are underway. Measures to strengthen budget execution, reduce the number of tax exemptions, and modernize tax and customs administration will help maintain fiscal stability. At the same time, steps to strengthen and develop the financial system and improve the business climate will promote private sector development and diversify the economy,” Shinohara added.

Niger is emerging from a prolonged period of social unrest and from military rule. A democratically-elected government came into power in April 2011. Building on the poverty reduction strategy, the government has adopted an ambitious development program.

Economic activity in recent years has been affected by large swings in agricultural production. Following a year of serious food shortages, economic growth recovered quickly in late 2010, driven by an excellent harvest and the expansion of services related to agriculture.

The authorities’ medium-term policy framework is based on a favorable growth outlook driven mainly by the oil and mining sectors. With the startup of a new petroleum project, GDP is projected to expand by13.4% in real terms in 2012. Investments in a large new uranium mine and the development of the petroleum sector should sustain economic activity in the years after 2012

Niger’s medium-term prospects are nevertheless subject to various risks. The country is vulnerable to exogenous shocks, including recurrent, weather-related food crises and fluctuations in commodity prices. The deteriorating security situation in the region is another factor adding to Niger’s vulnerabilities.

Medium-term fiscal policy will aim at maintaining debt sustainability while creating room for increased development spending. At the same time, the objective to strengthen government cash balances to increase the resilience of the budget to unexpected shocks. In light of these objectives and the current projections for external donor aid, the authorities intend to keep the basic fiscal deficit below 1.5 percent of GDP during the program period.

The government is committed to further strengthening public oversight of the natural resources sector in 2012 through the Inter-ministerial Committee for natural resources assessment, which will ensure appropriate information flows and coordination between government representatives in each natural resource company. In addition, the government intends to undertake a study on its overall strategy and policy in the petroleum and mining sector, including the policy to maximize the government’s petroleum resources and the structure of government oversight in that sector. This study is to be completed by end-December 2012.

A key objective for the medium term will be to bring the Investment Code into line with best practices. In collaboration with the World Bank, the authorities are planning to undertake a comprehensive review of the Code in 2012.

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A permanent, sustainable source of drinking water that is expected to serve as many as 25,000 people in Niger is being funded in part by aUS$40,000 donation from The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF). With the grant, TPRF is providing further aid to the nonprofit Amman Imman: Water Is Life for an effort already started with the financial assistance of the Vibrant Village Foundation.

“This project,” says TPRF President Linda Pascotto, “is particularly valuable because it will not only transform life for people living in this arid region, but will involve them in future management of the water source so that it will be self-sustaining.”

The grant will fund construction of a borehole in the village of Ebagueye in the Azawak region that will serve as a year-round source of clean water for people and livestock. Plans call for training local villagers to manage the borehole and engage in activities that will assure water and food security in the future.

Ariane Kirtley, founder and executive director of Amman Imman, says Amman Imman is the only organization that she knows of entirely dedicated to building sustainable and permanent sources of water in the Azawak, a dry plain about the size of Florida. Amman Imman is also one of the few organizations working in the Azawak region to address the food crisis and emergency humanitarian situation afflicting most countries of the Sahel.

The borehole-building team has been in Niger since mid-November. “We chose the site of Ebagueye and its surrounding communities at the beginning of December,” Kirtley says. “By the end of December, the Ebagueye borehole had been drilled. The infrastructure was finished at the beginning of February, and the community has begun drinking the potable water.”

Kirtley says it is part of her organization’s overall goal to eventually create an “Oases of Life” across the vast Azawak, starting with drilling permanent and sustainable water sources, not only for its 500,000 inhabitants, but also for the refugees that seek shelter on its vast plains, including those that fled Libyalast year, and those fleeing Mali today.

“We at Amman Imman are most grateful for the collaboration that has developed between our organization, TPRF and the Vibrant Village Foundation,” says Kirtley.

About The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF)
The Prem Rawat Foundation promotes Prem Rawat’s message of peace and his vision of addressing fundamental human needs so that people everywhere can live with dignity, peace and prosperity. For more information, visit: www.tprf.org.

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