Retrospective determination of whether famine existed in Niger, 2005: two stage cluster survey.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To apply the famine scale by Howe and Devereux to the situation in Niger, west Africa, in 2005 to retrospectively determine whether famine existed. DESIGN: Two stage cluster survey. SETTING: Survey of households in each of Niger's eight regions. PARTICIPANTS: 4003 households. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Crude mortality, mortality in children under 5, and the proportion of caregivers both nationally and regionally adopting coping strategies to deal with insufficient food needs. RESULTS: The estimated national crude mortality rate was 0.4 (0.4 to 0.5) deaths per 10,000 per day and under 5 mortality rate was 1.7 (1.4 to 1.9) deaths per 10,000 per day. Nationally, 22.3% (95% confidence interval 19.9% to 24.8%) of caregivers of under 5s did not resort to any coping strategies to deal with insufficient food needs. Reversible coping strategies were, however, used by 5.8% (4.7% to 7.0%) of caregivers, whereas 49.4% (46.9% to 51.8%) relied on irreversible coping strategies and 22.6% (20.0% to 25.4%) on survival strategies. CONCLUSION: On the basis of the famine scale proposed by Howe and Devereux, most regions in Niger experienced food crisis conditions and some areas approached famine proportions.