Baltimore, April 17, 2012 — A serious food crisis is brewing in the Sahel region of West Africa, a region where more than 10 million people already face the threat of hunger every day. Recent failed rains, drought and rising food costs, among other factors, now threaten an additional 3.4 million people.

Thanks to a generous $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lutheran World Relief and partners are initiating Resilience Plus, a project in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger that will help vulnerable families earn immediate income while preserving their long-term agricultural livelihoods.

Cash-for-work activities will provide immediate access to income for 134,000 people and help families to weather the crisis. This community work will simultaneously conserve soil and improve irrigation systems that will help grow food in the future.

“Through this response, LWR is combining short-term emergency assistance with essential recovery and rehabilitation programs to increase community resiliency and reduce vulnerability to future crises,” says Evariste Karangwa, LWR’s regional program director for Africa.

LWR will also provide free seed distributions and connect farmers’ groups to financial institutions, where they can access credit to purchase agricultural supplies. When their crops fail, farmers in poor, developing communities are often unable to purchase seeds and supplies for the next season.

Because women farmers are especially vulnerable to crises and often have to sell assets for their families’ survival, LWR will work with 10,890 women to maximize their incomes through improved marketing skills and crop processing and storage techniques. Proper storage for surplus crops allows crops to be sold when demand is highest, instead of right after the harvest when markets are saturated. Livestock distributions and training in animal husbandry will also provide women with skills and resources to earn additional income.

“LWR is very grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for this grant to respond to the worsening food crisis in West Africa” says John Nunes, LWR’s president and CEO. “Many families, and especially women and young children, are vulnerable. Resilience Plus will help LWR work with communities to cope through this crisis and become more resilient in the long-term.”

To learn more about LWR’s response to this crisis, please visit lwr.org.

WHO IS LWR? Lutheran World Relief, an international nonprofit organization, works to end poverty and injustice by empowering some of the world's most impoverished communities to help themselves. With partners in 35 countries, LWR seeks to promote sustainable development with justice and dignity by helping communities bring about change for healthy, safe and secure lives; engage in Fair Trade; promote peace and reconciliation; and respond to emergencies. LWR is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and has worked in international development and relief since 1945. For more information, please visit lwr.org.

Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of U.S. Lutherans, serving communities living in poverty overseas.

Baltimore, May 30, 2012 — Planting season has begun in Niger, but without serious intervention, the country will remain in danger of not producing enough food to feed its people. That’s why Lutheran World Relief (LWR) is working with the United Nations Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO) to help farmers continue planting.

Harvest sizes in the land-locked country have decreased due to drought, leaving families extremely vulnerable to hunger.

“Families are in urgent need of help,” says Evariste Karangwa, LWR’s regional director for Africa programs. “During last year’s cropping season we heard reports that families were consuming immature grains because of food shortages.”

In addition, food scarcity often forces the poorest families to sell off agricultural assets, like seeds, and use the proceeds to survive the short term. To help farmers keep up their agricultural production and promote food security in the region, LWR will distribute 221 tons of seeds and fertilizer to farmers in the heavily affected Tahoua Region.

The distribution of these items is made possible by FAO, which is supplying the seeds and fertilizer and contributing toward the cost of distributing the goods. Farmers will immediately use these supplies to plant since the region began experiencing seasonal rains just a few weeks ago.

“LWR is thankful for this opportunity to reach out to farmers in Niger and lessen the impact of the current food crisis,” says LWR president and CEO, John Nunes. “Investing in farmers is a way of sustainably increasing food security in Niger, and across Africa, and this distribution will undoubtedly help families cope through very difficult conditions.”

FAO will supply 146 tons of millet seed, 49 tons of bean seed and 26 tons of fertilizer which will be distributed to 14,576 vulnerable households in the communities of Kalfou, Illéla, Badaguichiri, Baguaroua, Tajaé, Garhanga, Ibohamane, Keita and Tamaské, all areas heavily affected by food crisis.

This intervention is one part of LWR’s larger response to the food crisis in the Sahel, specifically in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The response includes providing cash-for-work opportunities for 134,000 people in the region to earn immediate income for soil conservation and irrigation work. LWR is also reaching out to women farmers, who are particularly vulnerable in times of crisis, to maximize their incomes through improved marketing skills, crop processing and storage techniques.

In addition, LWR is responding with Quilts and Kits that are currently being distributed in Mali and Burkina Faso to people affected by the ongoing food crisis. LWR has also committed Quilts, School Kits, Personal Care Kits, Baby Care Kits, Fabric Kits and Soap to our partner in Mauritania, the Lutheran World Federation. LWR and LWF estimate these items will reach 24,000 people in need.

WHO IS LWR? Lutheran World Relief, an international nonprofit organization, works to end poverty and injustice by empowering some of the world's most impoverished communities to help themselves. LWR seeks to promote sustainable development with justice and dignity by helping communities bring about change for healthy, safe and secure lives; engage in Fair Trade; promote peace and reconciliation; and respond to emergencies. LWR is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and has worked in international development and relief since 1945. For more information, please visit lwr.org.

Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of U.S. Lutherans, serving communities living in poverty overseas.

Baltimore, August 2, 2012 — Lutheran World Relief (LWR), through a generous $599,642 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) is expanding its response to the food crisis in Niger.

The country is no stranger to food shortages. Periods of drought, unstable rains, decreased agricultural production and rising food costs threatened families in 2005, 2008, 2010 and now in 2012 as large sections of the West African Sahel also struggle to cope with these and other factors. More than 13 million people in the Sahel are now at risk of hunger.

LWR’s Resilience Plus response in Niger is aimed at helping families weather Niger’s latest food emergency and lay the groundwork for greater food and nutrition security in the future.

“LWR is grateful for this award and excited to extend our successful work in Niger to tens of thousands of other people in need of help,” says LWR president and CEO, John Nunes.

LWR has responded to past crises in Niger through a cash-for-work approach that gives farmers the opportunity to earn income to feed their families now while making critical repairs and improvements to soil, irrigation systems and other structures that help them recover and improve their agricultural livelihoods in the future. LWR has seen great success with this approach in the past and through this grant will extend that work to 64,800 people living in previously underserved areas.

In addition to cash-for-work programs aimed at preserving soil and water systems, Resilience Plus will help families work toward recovery by providing seeds and other agricultural inputs needed to replant crops.

“Farmers are in great need of help,” says Evariste Karangwa, LWR’s Regional Director for Africa programs. “During last year’s cropping season, households reported consuming immature millet grains to meet immediate food needs. In addition, food scarcity often forces the poorest families to sell their assets including seeds and use any proceeds as a temporary coping strategy.”

Lutheran World Relief is also carrying out its Resilience Plus response in Burkina Faso and Mali, where it is also implementing cash-for-work activities and also working with women farmers, especially vulnerable in times food crisis, to improve their agricultural livelihoods.

“Through a sustainable development approach, LWR is committed to working with rural communities in Niger to help them become stronger and better prepared to face the future,” says Nunes.

Since 1961, the United States Agency for International Development has been the principal U.S. agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms. The Agency carries out U.S. foreign policy by promoting broad-scale human progress at the same time it expands stable, free societies, creates markets and trade partners for the United States, and fosters good will abroad.

To learn more about LWR’s response to the food crisis in the Sahel, please visit www.lwr.org.

WHO IS LWR? Lutheran World Relief, an international nonprofit organization, works to end poverty and injustice by empowering some of the world's most impoverished communities to help themselves. With partners in 35 countries, LWR seeks to promote sustainable development with justice and dignity by helping communities bring about change for healthy, safe and secure lives; engage in Fair Trade; promote peace and reconciliation; and respond to emergencies. LWR is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and has worked in international development and relief since 1945. For more information, please visit lwr.org.

Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of U.S. Lutherans, serving communities living in poverty overseas.

Contact: Emily Sollie, 410-230-2802 (office); 443-220-3269 (cell); esollie@lwr.org

Grant from Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Builds on LWR's Successful Resilience Plus Model

Baltimore, January 28, 2014 - Lutheran World Relief (LWR) has received a $1.5 million grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation to scale up community-based resilience building work in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. The project, “Community Led Food Crisis Recovery in the Sahel,” will run through January 2016.

During the last four years, the Sahel region of West Africa has experienced three severe food crises due to poor rains, inflated food prices and limited pasture for animal grazing. These food crises force poor families to sell land, livestock or other assets, go into debt, and limit food consumption just to survive, creating a cycle of food insecurity.

LWR’s successful “Resilience Plus” program in West Africa takes a long-term view, prioritizing community recovery and resilience even during an immediate crisis response. By bridging the delivery of humanitarian assistance with sustainable development approaches, the program lays a foundation to break the recurring cycle of low agricultural productivity and low farm incomes and has already helped make more than 300,000 people less vulnerable to future food shortages.

The grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation builds on this success and enables LWR to reach more than 100,000 additional farmers in the Sahel region. The project, which runs through January 2016, addresses the underlying factors contributing to persistent poverty and food insecurity by providing livestock such as goats and sheep, and training farmers on their care; helping farmers access certified seeds for staple crops like millet, sorghum and cowpeas; training farmers on improved crop production techniques; providing short-term opportunities to earn income by contributing labor to soil and water conservation projects such as terraces, trenches and stone walls; building warehouses for crop storage; and training farmers on business and marketing skills and helping them access financial services.

“We know this approach works – we’ve seen it improve countless lives in West Africa,” said Jeff Whisenant, LWR’s interim president and CEO. “It’s possible to break the cycle of extreme poverty, and this grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation will help to do that by investing in making communities more resilient.”

WHO IS LWR? Lutheran World Relief, an international nonprofit organization, works to end poverty and injustice by empowering some of the world's most impoverished communities to help themselves. With partners in 35 countries, LWR seeks to promote sustainable development with justice and dignity by helping communities bring about change for healthy, safe and secure lives; engage in Fair Trade; promote peace and reconciliation; and respond to emergencies. LWR is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and has worked in international development and relief since 1945. For more information, please visit lwr.org.

Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of U.S. Lutherans, serving communities living in poverty overseas.

Contact: Emily Sollie, 410-230-2802 (office); 443-220-3269 (cell); esollie@lwr.org

BALTIMORE, Dec. 1, 2015—Lutheran World Relief, an international NGO working in 35 countries to develop sustainable solutions to poverty and food insecurity, marked #GivingTuesday by releasing its 2016 Early Warning Forecast of regions it is monitoring for potential humanitarian crises over the coming year.

The regions highlighted in the report are those that LWR is actively monitoring and, in many cases, is already in-country working to help mitigate the worst effects of a potential crisis, develop disaster response plans and strengthen community resilience, especially in the most vulnerable rural areas.

LWR President & CEO Daniel V. Speckhard noted that the interconnected nature of today’s globalized world means that humanitarian crises overseas will inevitably affect people in the U.S.

“Given these linkages and the rising vulnerability of global populations to both conflict and disaster, there is a vital need for an evolution in the way the international community thinks about humanitarian response that will have a lasting impact,” he said. “We need to move beyond short-term mobilization for the latest disaster or applying the Band-Aid approach to an emergency in an isolated ‘fragile’ state.”

“Instead, we need to approach recovery and resilience with a long-term time frame in mind, as well as a more holistic understanding of the importance of sustainable development. Breaking people out of the cycle of poverty will make them more resilient in the face of future disasters,” he said.

The countries and regions on the 2016 Watch List include:

• Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia
  
• Nepal
  
• Iraq
  
• Central America and the Caribbean
  
• Sahel Region of West Africa
  
• South Sudan

In addition, there are several countries and regions where LWR sees signs of hope:

• Colombia
  
• The Philippines
  
• Coffee and Cocoa production in Haiti, East Africa, Central America and Indonesia

Among the immediate challenges facing humanitarian community that are highlighted in the 2016 Early Warning Forecast:

The continuing refugee crisis, as the unprecedented migration we’re seeing shows no sign of abating. The Syrian civil war and terrorism wrought by ISIS is not only pushing out millions of refugees, but is destabilizing Northern Iraq. Refugee resettlement, complicated by security fears expressed by some communities and political figures, will be difficult.

What some are calling a “gorilla” El Niño is causing drought conditions in some places and will bring damaging rain and flooding in others. We must be prepared for disaster response. Food crises in Central America could spur migration.

The fuel blockade in Nepal has brought the post-earthquake rebuilding to a virtual halt. As winter approaches, isolated mountain communities will be cut off from supply deliveries, possibly auguring a second national crisis.

Drought and conflict have displaced more than 3.5 million people in the Sahel region of West Africa. Instability caused by the recent coup attempt in Burkina Faso, as well as terrorism-related incidents and threats in Mali and southeastern Niger will continue to be push factors for migration and make the lives of already impoverished people even more miserable.

The 2016 Early Warning Forecast can be downloaded at programs.lwr.org/2016-Early-Warning-Forecast.

Contact:

John Rivera
Media Relations Manager
jrivera@lwr.org
410-230-2751

About Lutheran World Relief

Lutheran World Relief works to improve the lives of smallholder farmers and people experiencing poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America, both in times of emergencies and for the long term. With the financial support of US Lutherans and other donors, LWR strengthens communities through programs in agriculture, climate, and emergency support. LWR works with partners, supporters and technical assistance providers to achieve lasting results. For more information, visit programs.lwr.org.

Introduction

If we have learned anything from living in our increasingly globalized world, it is that no community or no nation stands in isolation. For better or worse, we are all connected. This makes our existence on this planet simultaneously more creative, more dynamic, more complex and more dangerous. Inevitably, what goes on “over there” will somehow affect us “here.”

Anyone working in the humanitarian sphere has experienced this complexity first hand. It’s becoming ever more evident that linkages among global poverty, climate change, conflict and migration undermine political and economic security and trigger humanitarian emergencies that are more frequent and of a greater magnitude, and which are outstripping the ability of local and international aid agencies to respond.

Given these linkages and the rising vulnerability of global populations to both conflict and disaster, there is a vital need for an evolution in the way the international community thinks about humanitarian response and sustainable development.

We need to move beyond short-term mobilization for the latest disaster or applying the Band-Aid approach to an emergency in a seemingly isolated “fragile” state. In order to better foster global security and avoid the disaster in the first place, we need to approach recovery and resilience with a long-term time frame in mind as well as a more holistic understanding of the importance of sustainable development. Breaking people out of the cycle of poverty will make them more resilient in the face of the future disaster. It will make them less likely to flee their homelands for an uncertain future abroad. And it will strengthen their communities, ensuring they are not the next fertile ground for a terrorist movement to breed.

For the past 70 years, Lutheran World Relief has worked in some of the world’s poorest locales helping communities through some of the most complex emergencies, and our experience on the ground has given us a better idea of the complex relationships among poverty, human dignity and security. To that end, the global staff of LWR has compiled this 2016 Early Warning Forecast that includes the regions we are monitoring, the work we are doing in these areas and the steps we’d like to see the international community take to address some of these challenges.

Above all, we are calling on the international community to redouble its effort at both humanitarian response and building the resilient and inclusive development called for in the Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted in September 2015 by the United Nations. This effort should be aimed at empowering local civil society and communities in need to help them become more resilient to the new crises they will inevitably face, and to reaffirm the longterm commitment to sustainable development made by governments, businesses, as well as the faith-based and charitable community.

Ambassador Daniel Speckhard (rt.)
President and CEO

Undertaking represents a comprehensive investment in fighting poverty in one of the world’s poorest regions by building agricultural productivity & resilience to climate-related disasters.

BALTIMORE—Lutheran World Relief, in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, is launching a $13 million initiative in southern Niger to reduce poverty by increasing farmer incomes. The initiative aims to benefit more than 100,000 people, at least half of them women and girls.

This innovative project, known as the 12/12 Alliance for its goal of providing year-round food security, is one of several LWR initiatives in the Sahel region of West Africa with a total program value of $41 million over the next five years that will help move poor rural farm families from relief to resilience. In addition to USAID and its foundation partner, LWR is also working with private sector entities in the 12/12 Alliance, and in the wider Sahel region with donors that include the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the European Union.

“We’re looking to make a significant impact in breaking the cycle of poverty for tens of thousands of poor farming families in the Sahel,” said Ambassador Daniel Speckhard (rt.), LWR’s president & CEO. “Through these projects, we are working with farmers and cooperatives to create sustainable solutions that will enable the farmers to provide year-round support to their families.”

The 12/12 Alliance seeks to build 12-month food security in an underserved region of Niger. It will leverage private sector investments to apply complementary solutions to increase farmer incomes through improved agricultural production and marketing, with a focus on onions, small animals, cowpeas and wheat. The project will train trusted farmers in the Tahoua and Maradi regions to be local, village-based extension agents. Using innovative mobile technology to access critical market information and early warning of impending crises, and with support from farmer cooperatives, these agents will help their neighboring farmers to increase the quality and yield of their crops, improve their resilience to recurring drought, access sources of credit and sell their produce in bigger and more profitable markets. The project will also support and strengthen local farmer cooperatives so they will be able to offer better services to their members.

The 12/12 Alliance is supported by a diverse group of public and private-sector partners, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, which administers the U.S. foreign assistance program providing economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 80 countries worldwide; the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies; mobile telecommunications provider Bharti Airtel Limited; African financial services provider Ecobank; SH Biaugeaud, a fruit and vegetable processing firm; and four local farming cooperatives.

LWR’s wider Sahel programming efforts include a $24 million project to market sesame in Burkina Faso; a $2 million program to support long-term recovery and resilience for drought-affected farming families in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso through improved land management and crop and animal production; and a $1.8 million initiative to help farmers in Niger cope with climate change.

The countries of the Sahel, which struggle with recurrent food and nutrition crises, are among the poorest and least developed in the world. LWR’s projects are located in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which are among the bottom 10 nations in the U.N. Human Development Index.

LWR has been working in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso since the 1970’s, supporting local farmers and farmers’ cooperatives in building more resilient agriculture production systems that can help them adapt to the challenges that threaten their livelihoods and well-being, and transition from survival to stability.

About Lutheran World Relief

With nearly 75 years of demonstrated expertise helping to transform some of the hardest-to-reach places in the developing world, Lutheran World Relief is an innovative, trusted international humanitarian organization committed to those otherwise cut off from basic human services and opportunities. LWR works in partnership with local communities to build their capabilities and collaborate on long-term solutions to reduce extreme poverty. In times of emergency, LWR is also a trusted partner to distribute aid and ensure people are prepared to withstand the next unexpected challenge. Powered by the compassion of U.S. Lutheran individuals and congregations, LWR reached more than 3.4 million people in 32 countries in fiscal year 2016. For more information, visit lwr.org.

Baltimore, April 17, 2012 — A serious food crisis is brewing in the Sahel region of West Africa, a region where more than 10 million people already face the threat of hunger every day. Recent failed rains, drought and rising food costs, among other factors, now threaten an additional 3.4 million people.

Thanks to a generous $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lutheran World Relief and partners are initiating Resilience Plus, a project in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger that will help vulnerable families earn immediate income while preserving their long-term agricultural livelihoods.

Cash-for-work activities will provide immediate access to income for 134,000 people and help families to weather the crisis. This community work will simultaneously conserve soil and improve irrigation systems that will help grow food in the future.

“Through this response, LWR is combining short-term emergency assistance with essential recovery and rehabilitation programs to increase community resiliency and reduce vulnerability to future crises,” says Evariste Karangwa, LWR’s regional program director for Africa.

LWR will also provide free seed distributions and connect farmers’ groups to financial institutions, where they can access credit to purchase agricultural supplies. When their crops fail, farmers in poor, developing communities are often unable to purchase seeds and supplies for the next season.

Because women farmers are especially vulnerable to crises and often have to sell assets for their families’ survival, LWR will work with 10,890 women to maximize their incomes through improved marketing skills and crop processing and storage techniques. Proper storage for surplus crops allows crops to be sold when demand is highest, instead of right after the harvest when markets are saturated. Livestock distributions and training in animal husbandry will also provide women with skills and resources to earn additional income.

“LWR is very grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for this grant to respond to the worsening food crisis in West Africa” says John Nunes, LWR’s president and CEO. “Many families, and especially women and young children, are vulnerable. Resilience Plus will help LWR work with communities to cope through this crisis and become more resilient in the long-term.”

To learn more about LWR’s response to this crisis, please visit lwr.org.

WHO IS LWR? Lutheran World Relief, an international nonprofit organization, works to end poverty and injustice by empowering some of the world's most impoverished communities to help themselves. With partners in 35 countries, LWR seeks to promote sustainable development with justice and dignity by helping communities bring about change for healthy, safe and secure lives; engage in Fair Trade; promote peace and reconciliation; and respond to emergencies. LWR is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and has worked in international development and relief since 1945. For more information, please visit lwr.org.

Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of U.S. Lutherans, serving communities living in poverty overseas.

Baltimore, May 30, 2012 — Planting season has begun in Niger, but without serious intervention, the country will remain in danger of not producing enough food to feed its people. That’s why Lutheran World Relief (LWR) is working with the United Nations Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO) to help farmers continue planting.

Harvest sizes in the land-locked country have decreased due to drought, leaving families extremely vulnerable to hunger.

“Families are in urgent need of help,” says Evariste Karangwa, LWR’s regional director for Africa programs. “During last year’s cropping season we heard reports that families were consuming immature grains because of food shortages.”

In addition, food scarcity often forces the poorest families to sell off agricultural assets, like seeds, and use the proceeds to survive the short term. To help farmers keep up their agricultural production and promote food security in the region, LWR will distribute 221 tons of seeds and fertilizer to farmers in the heavily affected Tahoua Region.

The distribution of these items is made possible by FAO, which is supplying the seeds and fertilizer and contributing toward the cost of distributing the goods. Farmers will immediately use these supplies to plant since the region began experiencing seasonal rains just a few weeks ago.

“LWR is thankful for this opportunity to reach out to farmers in Niger and lessen the impact of the current food crisis,” says LWR president and CEO, John Nunes. “Investing in farmers is a way of sustainably increasing food security in Niger, and across Africa, and this distribution will undoubtedly help families cope through very difficult conditions.”

FAO will supply 146 tons of millet seed, 49 tons of bean seed and 26 tons of fertilizer which will be distributed to 14,576 vulnerable households in the communities of Kalfou, Illéla, Badaguichiri, Baguaroua, Tajaé, Garhanga, Ibohamane, Keita and Tamaské, all areas heavily affected by food crisis.

This intervention is one part of LWR’s larger response to the food crisis in the Sahel, specifically in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The response includes providing cash-for-work opportunities for 134,000 people in the region to earn immediate income for soil conservation and irrigation work. LWR is also reaching out to women farmers, who are particularly vulnerable in times of crisis, to maximize their incomes through improved marketing skills, crop processing and storage techniques.

In addition, LWR is responding with Quilts and Kits that are currently being distributed in Mali and Burkina Faso to people affected by the ongoing food crisis. LWR has also committed Quilts, School Kits, Personal Care Kits, Baby Care Kits, Fabric Kits and Soap to our partner in Mauritania, the Lutheran World Federation. LWR and LWF estimate these items will reach 24,000 people in need.

WHO IS LWR? Lutheran World Relief, an international nonprofit organization, works to end poverty and injustice by empowering some of the world's most impoverished communities to help themselves. LWR seeks to promote sustainable development with justice and dignity by helping communities bring about change for healthy, safe and secure lives; engage in Fair Trade; promote peace and reconciliation; and respond to emergencies. LWR is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and has worked in international development and relief since 1945. For more information, please visit lwr.org.

Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of U.S. Lutherans, serving communities living in poverty overseas.

Baltimore, August 2, 2012 — Lutheran World Relief (LWR), through a generous $599,642 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) is expanding its response to the food crisis in Niger.

The country is no stranger to food shortages. Periods of drought, unstable rains, decreased agricultural production and rising food costs threatened families in 2005, 2008, 2010 and now in 2012 as large sections of the West African Sahel also struggle to cope with these and other factors. More than 13 million people in the Sahel are now at risk of hunger.

LWR’s Resilience Plus response in Niger is aimed at helping families weather Niger’s latest food emergency and lay the groundwork for greater food and nutrition security in the future.

“LWR is grateful for this award and excited to extend our successful work in Niger to tens of thousands of other people in need of help,” says LWR president and CEO, John Nunes.

LWR has responded to past crises in Niger through a cash-for-work approach that gives farmers the opportunity to earn income to feed their families now while making critical repairs and improvements to soil, irrigation systems and other structures that help them recover and improve their agricultural livelihoods in the future. LWR has seen great success with this approach in the past and through this grant will extend that work to 64,800 people living in previously underserved areas.

In addition to cash-for-work programs aimed at preserving soil and water systems, Resilience Plus will help families work toward recovery by providing seeds and other agricultural inputs needed to replant crops.

“Farmers are in great need of help,” says Evariste Karangwa, LWR’s Regional Director for Africa programs. “During last year’s cropping season, households reported consuming immature millet grains to meet immediate food needs. In addition, food scarcity often forces the poorest families to sell their assets including seeds and use any proceeds as a temporary coping strategy.”

Lutheran World Relief is also carrying out its Resilience Plus response in Burkina Faso and Mali, where it is also implementing cash-for-work activities and also working with women farmers, especially vulnerable in times food crisis, to improve their agricultural livelihoods.

“Through a sustainable development approach, LWR is committed to working with rural communities in Niger to help them become stronger and better prepared to face the future,” says Nunes.

Since 1961, the United States Agency for International Development has been the principal U.S. agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms. The Agency carries out U.S. foreign policy by promoting broad-scale human progress at the same time it expands stable, free societies, creates markets and trade partners for the United States, and fosters good will abroad.

To learn more about LWR’s response to the food crisis in the Sahel, please visit www.lwr.org.

WHO IS LWR? Lutheran World Relief, an international nonprofit organization, works to end poverty and injustice by empowering some of the world's most impoverished communities to help themselves. With partners in 35 countries, LWR seeks to promote sustainable development with justice and dignity by helping communities bring about change for healthy, safe and secure lives; engage in Fair Trade; promote peace and reconciliation; and respond to emergencies. LWR is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and has worked in international development and relief since 1945. For more information, please visit lwr.org.

Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of U.S. Lutherans, serving communities living in poverty overseas.

Contact: Emily Sollie, 410-230-2802 (office); 443-220-3269 (cell); esollie@lwr.org

Grant from Margaret A. Cargill Foundation Builds on LWR's Successful Resilience Plus Model

Baltimore, January 28, 2014 - Lutheran World Relief (LWR) has received a $1.5 million grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation to scale up community-based resilience building work in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. The project, “Community Led Food Crisis Recovery in the Sahel,” will run through January 2016.

During the last four years, the Sahel region of West Africa has experienced three severe food crises due to poor rains, inflated food prices and limited pasture for animal grazing. These food crises force poor families to sell land, livestock or other assets, go into debt, and limit food consumption just to survive, creating a cycle of food insecurity.

LWR’s successful “Resilience Plus” program in West Africa takes a long-term view, prioritizing community recovery and resilience even during an immediate crisis response. By bridging the delivery of humanitarian assistance with sustainable development approaches, the program lays a foundation to break the recurring cycle of low agricultural productivity and low farm incomes and has already helped make more than 300,000 people less vulnerable to future food shortages.

The grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation builds on this success and enables LWR to reach more than 100,000 additional farmers in the Sahel region. The project, which runs through January 2016, addresses the underlying factors contributing to persistent poverty and food insecurity by providing livestock such as goats and sheep, and training farmers on their care; helping farmers access certified seeds for staple crops like millet, sorghum and cowpeas; training farmers on improved crop production techniques; providing short-term opportunities to earn income by contributing labor to soil and water conservation projects such as terraces, trenches and stone walls; building warehouses for crop storage; and training farmers on business and marketing skills and helping them access financial services.

“We know this approach works – we’ve seen it improve countless lives in West Africa,” said Jeff Whisenant, LWR’s interim president and CEO. “It’s possible to break the cycle of extreme poverty, and this grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation will help to do that by investing in making communities more resilient.”

WHO IS LWR? Lutheran World Relief, an international nonprofit organization, works to end poverty and injustice by empowering some of the world's most impoverished communities to help themselves. With partners in 35 countries, LWR seeks to promote sustainable development with justice and dignity by helping communities bring about change for healthy, safe and secure lives; engage in Fair Trade; promote peace and reconciliation; and respond to emergencies. LWR is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and has worked in international development and relief since 1945. For more information, please visit lwr.org.

Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of U.S. Lutherans, serving communities living in poverty overseas.

Contact: Emily Sollie, 410-230-2802 (office); 443-220-3269 (cell); esollie@lwr.org

BALTIMORE, Dec. 1, 2015—Lutheran World Relief, an international NGO working in 35 countries to develop sustainable solutions to poverty and food insecurity, marked #GivingTuesday by releasing its 2016 Early Warning Forecast of regions it is monitoring for potential humanitarian crises over the coming year.

The regions highlighted in the report are those that LWR is actively monitoring and, in many cases, is already in-country working to help mitigate the worst effects of a potential crisis, develop disaster response plans and strengthen community resilience, especially in the most vulnerable rural areas.

LWR President & CEO Daniel V. Speckhard noted that the interconnected nature of today’s globalized world means that humanitarian crises overseas will inevitably affect people in the U.S.

“Given these linkages and the rising vulnerability of global populations to both conflict and disaster, there is a vital need for an evolution in the way the international community thinks about humanitarian response that will have a lasting impact,” he said. “We need to move beyond short-term mobilization for the latest disaster or applying the Band-Aid approach to an emergency in an isolated ‘fragile’ state.”

“Instead, we need to approach recovery and resilience with a long-term time frame in mind, as well as a more holistic understanding of the importance of sustainable development. Breaking people out of the cycle of poverty will make them more resilient in the face of future disasters,” he said.

The countries and regions on the 2016 Watch List include:

• Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia
  
• Nepal
  
• Iraq
  
• Central America and the Caribbean
  
• Sahel Region of West Africa
  
• South Sudan

In addition, there are several countries and regions where LWR sees signs of hope:

• Colombia
  
• The Philippines
  
• Coffee and Cocoa production in Haiti, East Africa, Central America and Indonesia

Among the immediate challenges facing humanitarian community that are highlighted in the 2016 Early Warning Forecast:

The continuing refugee crisis, as the unprecedented migration we’re seeing shows no sign of abating. The Syrian civil war and terrorism wrought by ISIS is not only pushing out millions of refugees, but is destabilizing Northern Iraq. Refugee resettlement, complicated by security fears expressed by some communities and political figures, will be difficult.

What some are calling a “gorilla” El Niño is causing drought conditions in some places and will bring damaging rain and flooding in others. We must be prepared for disaster response. Food crises in Central America could spur migration.

The fuel blockade in Nepal has brought the post-earthquake rebuilding to a virtual halt. As winter approaches, isolated mountain communities will be cut off from supply deliveries, possibly auguring a second national crisis.

Drought and conflict have displaced more than 3.5 million people in the Sahel region of West Africa. Instability caused by the recent coup attempt in Burkina Faso, as well as terrorism-related incidents and threats in Mali and southeastern Niger will continue to be push factors for migration and make the lives of already impoverished people even more miserable.

The 2016 Early Warning Forecast can be downloaded at programs.lwr.org/2016-Early-Warning-Forecast.

Contact:

John Rivera
Media Relations Manager
jrivera@lwr.org
410-230-2751

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About Lutheran World Relief

Lutheran World Relief works to improve the lives of smallholder farmers and people experiencing poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America, both in times of emergencies and for the long term. With the financial support of US Lutherans and other donors, LWR strengthens communities through programs in agriculture, climate, and emergency support. LWR works with partners, supporters and technical assistance providers to achieve lasting results. For more information, visit programs.lwr.org.

Introduction

If we have learned anything from living in our increasingly globalized world, it is that no community or no nation stands in isolation. For better or worse, we are all connected. This makes our existence on this planet simultaneously more creative, more dynamic, more complex and more dangerous. Inevitably, what goes on “over there” will somehow affect us “here.”

Anyone working in the humanitarian sphere has experienced this complexity first hand. It’s becoming ever more evident that linkages among global poverty, climate change, conflict and migration undermine political and economic security and trigger humanitarian emergencies that are more frequent and of a greater magnitude, and which are outstripping the ability of local and international aid agencies to respond.

Given these linkages and the rising vulnerability of global populations to both conflict and disaster, there is a vital need for an evolution in the way the international community thinks about humanitarian response and sustainable development.

We need to move beyond short-term mobilization for the latest disaster or applying the Band-Aid approach to an emergency in a seemingly isolated “fragile” state. In order to better foster global security and avoid the disaster in the first place, we need to approach recovery and resilience with a long-term time frame in mind as well as a more holistic understanding of the importance of sustainable development. Breaking people out of the cycle of poverty will make them more resilient in the face of the future disaster. It will make them less likely to flee their homelands for an uncertain future abroad. And it will strengthen their communities, ensuring they are not the next fertile ground for a terrorist movement to breed.

For the past 70 years, Lutheran World Relief has worked in some of the world’s poorest locales helping communities through some of the most complex emergencies, and our experience on the ground has given us a better idea of the complex relationships among poverty, human dignity and security. To that end, the global staff of LWR has compiled this 2016 Early Warning Forecast that includes the regions we are monitoring, the work we are doing in these areas and the steps we’d like to see the international community take to address some of these challenges.

Above all, we are calling on the international community to redouble its effort at both humanitarian response and building the resilient and inclusive development called for in the Sustainable Development Goals that were adopted in September 2015 by the United Nations. This effort should be aimed at empowering local civil society and communities in need to help them become more resilient to the new crises they will inevitably face, and to reaffirm the longterm commitment to sustainable development made by governments, businesses, as well as the faith-based and charitable community.

Ambassador Daniel Speckhard (rt.)
President and CEO

Undertaking represents a comprehensive investment in fighting poverty in one of the world’s poorest regions by building agricultural productivity & resilience to climate-related disasters.

BALTIMORE—Lutheran World Relief, in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, is launching a $13 million initiative in southern Niger to reduce poverty by increasing farmer incomes. The initiative aims to benefit more than 100,000 people, at least half of them women and girls.

This innovative project, known as the 12/12 Alliance for its goal of providing year-round food security, is one of several LWR initiatives in the Sahel region of West Africa with a total program value of $41 million over the next five years that will help move poor rural farm families from relief to resilience. In addition to USAID and its foundation partner, LWR is also working with private sector entities in the 12/12 Alliance, and in the wider Sahel region with donors that include the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the European Union.

“We’re looking to make a significant impact in breaking the cycle of poverty for tens of thousands of poor farming families in the Sahel,” said Ambassador Daniel Speckhard (rt.), LWR’s president & CEO. “Through these projects, we are working with farmers and cooperatives to create sustainable solutions that will enable the farmers to provide year-round support to their families.”

The 12/12 Alliance seeks to build 12-month food security in an underserved region of Niger. It will leverage private sector investments to apply complementary solutions to increase farmer incomes through improved agricultural production and marketing, with a focus on onions, small animals, cowpeas and wheat. The project will train trusted farmers in the Tahoua and Maradi regions to be local, village-based extension agents. Using innovative mobile technology to access critical market information and early warning of impending crises, and with support from farmer cooperatives, these agents will help their neighboring farmers to increase the quality and yield of their crops, improve their resilience to recurring drought, access sources of credit and sell their produce in bigger and more profitable markets. The project will also support and strengthen local farmer cooperatives so they will be able to offer better services to their members.

The 12/12 Alliance is supported by a diverse group of public and private-sector partners, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, which administers the U.S. foreign assistance program providing economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 80 countries worldwide; the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies; mobile telecommunications provider Bharti Airtel Limited; African financial services provider Ecobank; SH Biaugeaud, a fruit and vegetable processing firm; and four local farming cooperatives.

LWR’s wider Sahel programming efforts include a $24 million project to market sesame in Burkina Faso; a $2 million program to support long-term recovery and resilience for drought-affected farming families in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso through improved land management and crop and animal production; and a $1.8 million initiative to help farmers in Niger cope with climate change.

The countries of the Sahel, which struggle with recurrent food and nutrition crises, are among the poorest and least developed in the world. LWR’s projects are located in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which are among the bottom 10 nations in the U.N. Human Development Index.

LWR has been working in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso since the 1970’s, supporting local farmers and farmers’ cooperatives in building more resilient agriculture production systems that can help them adapt to the challenges that threaten their livelihoods and well-being, and transition from survival to stability.

About Lutheran World Relief

With nearly 75 years of demonstrated expertise helping to transform some of the hardest-to-reach places in the developing world, Lutheran World Relief is an innovative, trusted international humanitarian organization committed to those otherwise cut off from basic human services and opportunities. LWR works in partnership with local communities to build their capabilities and collaborate on long-term solutions to reduce extreme poverty. In times of emergency, LWR is also a trusted partner to distribute aid and ensure people are prepared to withstand the next unexpected challenge. Powered by the compassion of U.S. Lutheran individuals and congregations, LWR reached more than 3.4 million people in 32 countries in fiscal year 2016. For more information, visit lwr.org.

BALTIMORE, Jan. 17, 2019—Insufficient rainfall that led to failed harvests in 2017 and 2018, along with ongoing pockets of conflict and insecurity in West Africa, has caused spikes in the prices of staple cereals and left up to 2.5 million across the region without enough food to meet their daily needs.

Lutheran World Relief, with a $1.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is responding to this crisis with a two-year initiative that will provide immediate food assistance to the most vulnerable families while helping rural farmers to recover from losses to crops and herds and support their capacity to withstand future crises.

The Relief to Resilience in the Sahel (R2R) project will directly work with 8,230 smallholder farmers in agropastoral communities of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, impacting the well-being of more 57,000 community members.

Lutheran World Relief will support the distribution of food rations and will facilitate the purchase of cereals and animal fodder at subsidized prices for families who have sold most of their household assets to avoid severe hunger. To foster longer-term recovery, the R2R project will focus on increasing agricultural and animal production, income generation and savings promotion. Lutheran World Relief will also work to strengthen early warning systems that will help communities to access climate data and predict future droughts, helping them to better prepare for planting seasons.

The project will build on Lutheran World Relief’s current resilience-focused programming in the Sahel region, capitalizing on strengthened capacities of smallholder farmer organizations and unions that serve their members with access to new climate-smart technologies, financial services and collective marketing. It will also leverage Lutheran World Relief’s collaboration with the NASA Harvest initiative, coordinated by University of Maryland, to support the Government of Mali’s access to real time Earth Observation (EO) data to inform and improve crop monitoring and early warning systems management.

ARMED CONFLICT WILL FUEL HUMANITARIAN CRISES IN 2020

*BY AMBASSADOR DANIEL V. SPECKHARD, PRESIDENT & CEO, LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF AND *IMA WORLD HEALTH

The humanitarian outlook for 2020 and beyond forecasts a situation that is both complex and insecure, even as global development gains bring millions out of extreme poverty.

The causes and conditions of extreme poverty are rarely limited to a single factor. Rather, the world’s most vulnerable people live in a complex context, often in fragile or failing states, where political and social systems that might offer protection have broken down.

And increasingly, the common underlying denominator is violent conflict. The nature of modern conflict is also becoming more complex. There are fewer formal wars between states, but an increasing number of longer-lasting internal conflicts within countries that impact entire regions. Combatants are increasingly non-state actors, including local militias, guerrilla movements or terrorist organizations. Violence is at times fueled by outside powers in proxy wars. Fighting is being sustained by war economies, that include trafficking in minerals, people and/or illicit goods, as well as by diaspora contributions. Increasingly, the traditional international rules of war and humanitarian protection are being flouted.

A recent United Nations report underscores these multiple drivers of humanitarian crisis. Among its findings:

• Armed conflict has driven a record 71 million people from their homes. More than half of the 50 countries with the most new displacements were affected by both conflict and natural disaster.
• Eight of the worst food crises in the world are linked to both conflict and climate shocks.
• Hunger is rising, and it too is driven largely by conflict. Two-thirds of the 74 million people suffering from acute hunger in the world live in 21 countries and territories affected by conflict and insecurity.

This presents a host of challenges for nongovernmental organizations working to eliminate poverty and ease human suffering. We will need to employ new, imaginative and innovative approaches if we hope to make an impact. We are going to have to build ou**r c**apacity to work in conflict-ridden, hostile environments, because that’s where the extremely poor who most need assistance are going to be. With record numbers of refugees and the internally displaced fleeing from conflicts that are lasting longer, we will have to employ development approaches and longer-lasting solutions that include new partners, including the private sector. And it will be vital to recognize the primacy of local partners who best know the social and political context of their communities.

This Early Warning Forecast for 2020 highlights seven continuing or worsening complex humanitarian emergencies that we believe will require urgent attention in the next year. This list is not comprehensive, but singles out those specific crises or issues that will have ripple effects well into the coming years.

1. YEMEN

Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries, is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis widely considered to be the world’s worst.

The driving factor is a civil conflict that started in 2015 between the government and Houthi rebels, but which is widely regarded as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran and others. An aerial bombing campaign led by the Saudis has caused widespread destruction and civilian casualties.

Even before Yemen’s civil war started in 2015, half of its people lived below the poverty line. The U.S. reports that 24 million people, 80 percent of the country’s population, stand in need of humanitarian assistance. The war has killed over 100,000 people according to one estimate, destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure, and displaced over 4 million. Despite an agreement for a cease-fire around the critical port of Hodeida, little progress has been made to increase access to humanitarian assistance.

The conflict is taking a terrible toll on civilians, who are living in communities without basic services, access to health care, scarce food sources and poor sanitation, in addition to the continual threat of violence. It has become a blatant example of the violation of international humanitarian principles, with many instances where civilian populations and infrastructure, such as hospitals, have been targeted for aerial bombing. Humanitarian response has been impeded, and according to some, access to food has been used as a weapon of war.

Response: Lutheran World Relief and IMA World Health are working in the port city of Aden and a district to the north of Aden to improve the health of war-affected communities through projects focusing on waste management and rainwater collection to provide a clean and safe source of water.

2. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

After battling the world’s second largest Ebola epidemic on record for more than a year, health officials were hoping that the end was in sight.

The number of new cases had been steadily declining this fall. The progress in slowing the epidemic was due in part to contact tracing, a painstaking process in which health workers find every person an Ebola patient had contact with, vaccinate them with the newly approved Ebola vaccine, and visit them daily for 28 days to monitor their health and look for signs of infection.

In November, local militias stepped up attacks on civilians, and violent protests broke out against the UN presence, targeting both the UN peacekeeping operation and the international Ebola response. Protestors targeted health workers and attacked clinics that are responding to the Ebola crisis. In the midst of the renewed violence, two IMA World Health-supported clinics were attacked, and their Ebola isolation units burned to the ground. The unrest forced the UN and international NGOs to evacuate their staff, and the Ebola response was briefly interrupted. As a result, the number of new cases began rising again.

Clinics are operating and contact tracing continues. With continued determination and persistence by dedicated health care workers and the international community, this Ebola epidemic will hopefully be history in 2020. But the threat of violence could imperil this successful result.

Response: IMA World Health is working in the epicenter of the Ebola zone, coordinating with local government, organizations, and communities to stop the spread of the virus in 10 of the most-affected health zones in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces, where nearly 1.2 million people live. IMA World Health was well-positioned to respond to the epidemic, given its 20 year history building the capacity and resilience of the health care system in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

3. CENTRAL AMERICA

Central American countries have faced long stretches of drought over the last three years. In 2018, a delayed start to the rainy season ruined harvests for up to ** 70 percent of small-scale farmers in the Dry Corridor** that runs through Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

Irregular rainfall is already estimated to have affected between 10 percent to 20 percent of coffee production. The most recent drought (July to August 2019) took place during the maturation of coffee cherries, resulting in smaller bean sizes and more susceptibility to disease.

In addition, the global coffee sector is experiencing the lowest prices it has seen in more than a dozen years. This low market price for coffee is hitting particularly hard in Central America, where coffee production plays a critical role in the livelihoods of 1.3 million people in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, the poorest countries in Central America.

Lutheran World Relief field staff is receiving reports about how rural families are accumulating debt and cutting expenses by withdrawing their children from school, eating less and postponing doctor visits, leaving them without any resources to invest in their farms. For some, their only option is giving up farming. For them, it’s common to join the dangerous migratory route north through Mexico to the U.S. to seek employment.

Response: Lutheran World Relief is working in coffee-growing communities in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua to mitigate the effects of climate change and drought by providing sources of clean water, distributing drought-resistant seed and food packages where necessary, and providing technical support to create backyard gardens so families can grow food to sustain them through the thin months between harvests.

4. THE SAHEL (BURKINA FASO, MALI, NIGER)

**A spike in deadly attacks by extremist militias has created a situation of insecurity across the Sahelian countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to a point where the head of the U.N.’s World Food Program declared that the region is embroiled in a "three-country crisis" that is causing widespread displacement and hunger.**

The conflict has its roots in the 2012 takeover of northern Mali by Islamic militants who had joined common cause with northern separatist forces. The former have been driven out of most cities by French and UN troops and a tenuous peace made with the latter. However, the insecurity has spread and saw a spike in 2019 with a three-fold increase in violent attacks — no longer by Islamic extremists, but principally sectarian and inter-ethnic conflicts — in Burkina Faso and Niger as well as Mali. Militant groups have learned to play on ethnic tensions, unemployment and heavy-handed or corrupt local security forces.

In Burkina Faso alone, violence has forced nearly half a million people to flee their homes, and nearly a third of the country is effectively a conflict zone. Among the most serious incidents, gunmen stormed a church in early December and opened fire, killing 14 worshipers.

**Response: ** Lutheran World Relief is working in all three countries to build the resilience of farming communities so they can endure both the difficulties of climate shocks, such as prolonged drought, as well as the hardships caused by the effects of violence in and near their communities. As an example of the new normal, Lutheran World Relief has its largest agricultural projects in this region embroiled in conflict, working to help farmers and cooperatives capture significantly more income from local and international value chains. These efforts include a sesame marketing initiative in Burkina Faso and a large resilience project in Niger that leverages public and private sector investments to increase farmer incomes through improved agricultural production and marketing, with a focus on onions, small animals, cowpeas and wheat. Partners NASA Harvest and Lutheran World Relief are using satellite data to help small-scale farmers in West Africa to view and monitor crop conditions, providing information that can help them prepare for and react to weather disasters like droughts and floods.

5. IRAQ

Northern Iraq continues its process of recovery following the Islamic State’s three-year occupation of Mosul and the devastation resulting from the liberation of the city in 2017.

Aerial bombing heavily damaged many neighborhoods, especially in West Mosul, and remnants of the Islamic State continue to operate in the region. Tremendous needs remain both for the people who stayed in Mosul during the occupation and military offensive, as well as for families returning after having fled. Security remains a challenge with both Shiite militias and remnants of ISIS creating serious risks for local populations and discouraging more returns.

In addition, an ongoing series of protests in central and southern Iraq, including the recent attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, have resulted in hundreds of deaths and casualties. The demonstrations, which started in October, center on opposition to the central government’s corruption, unemployment and inefficient public services, as well as Iranian influence in the country.

Response: Lutheran World Relief works in the northern Iraq province of Ninawa, as well as the city of Erbil in Kurdistan, responding to the needs of communities recovering from the conflict associated with the occupation and liberation of the city. Projects focus on assisting returning internally displaced people, particularly women, to increase food security and family income by offering vocational training leading to securing employment or starting a business.

6. SOUTH SUDAN

Following five years of civil war and near-constant conflict after achieving its independence in 2011, hope is on the horizon for South Sudan. The 2018 peace agreement has ushered in a period of relative stability, although pockets of conflict remain.

The country must now grapple with the cumulative effects of conflict, including mass displacement and a government that struggles to provide the most basic services to its citizens. More than 2 million South Sudanese are refugees, and nearly 1.5 million remain internally displaced. The U.N. estimates that more than 7 million people, two-thirds of the country’s population, are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

South Sudan has also been a dangerous place for aid workers. The country has seen the greatest number of attacks on aid workers for the past four years. Since 2013, 115 aid workers have been killed, most of them South Sudanese, in both crossfire and direct attacks. In October, three aid workers from the International Organization for Migration were killed in a battle between government forces and a militia.

**Response: **IMA World began working in South Sudan in 2008, three years before independence, and has focused its health and nutrition programs in Jonglei and Upper Nile, two of the most conflict-affected states.With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, IMA provides vital primary health care and emergency health services through 10 mobile clinics and nutrition services through 26 sites operated by three local partners working in the former Upper Nile and Jonglei states. Working with the U.N.’s family planning agency, IMA World Health is also supporting mobile clinics and building community capacity to provide reproductive health services, with a particular focus on addressing sexual and gender-based violence.

7. VENEZUELA

The political and economic crisis continues to debilitate Venezuela, a once-wealthy country that is flirting with the possibility of becoming a failed state. Most families have suffered from a steep decline in income and grapple with daily food, medicine and fuel shortages. There is a nearly complete breakdown in water, power and health services.

The crisis is prompting millions of Venezuelans to flee the country, seeking refuge in nearby countries, mostly in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru. By mid-2019, the number of Venezuelan refugees reached the 4 million mark, about 13 percent of its population. The host countries have for the most part shown tremendous solidarity and hospitality to the new arrivals, providing them with protection and assistance. However, the willingness to welcome Venezuelans is on the wane in some areas, and they are increasingly being denied official permission to legally stay that would guarantee them basic rights and the ability to find employment.

Response:Lutheran World Relief is supporting reception centers at Peru’s northern border and in Lima, where Venezuelans can find temporary housing, meals and legal counseling about residence, work permits and other regulations. As part of the outreach effort, Lutheran World Relief created Ven Informado, a digital platform accessible through Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp offering practical information and real-time advice for Venezuelan refugees on subjects like immigration, laws and customs, and life in Peru. Lutheran World Relief is also advocating for the rights of the migrants and supporting services for displaced women and children as they integrate within host communities in Peru.