Programmes and appeal 2008-2009

West and Central Africa: Little progress in community preparation for worst global effects of climate change

The West and Central African zone is a diverse area comprising 24 countries with an estimated population of around 350 million people. Endemic poverty across the region compounds the heavy toll various diseases take on the population.

Average per capita gross national income is US$ 400 a year, while 55 per cent of the population lives on less than US$ 1 a day.

On a global scale, this zone includes seven of the ten countries with the highest under-five mortality rates in the world. Only 15 per cent of children under five sleep under a mosquito net, and only 2 per cent use an insecticide- treated net.

An estimated 8 million people are living with HIV and, to date, more than 4 million children have been orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS. The region hosts a total of 20 million orphans.

Coverage for DPT-3 vaccine is 52 per cent and for measles 55 per cent – the lowest for any region in the world. Only 58 per cent of people have access to decent drinking-water and just 35 per cent to latrines. Epidemics of emerging and re-emerging diseases like cholera, meningitis and ebola are frequent.

The good news is that there are around 1 million dedicated and motivated Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers in the region. Without their tireless efforts, the above figures would be worse still.

Much of the work of our volunteer force is geared towards health promotion, disease prevention and disaster risk reduction. Every US dollar used to increase knowledge, to prevent, prepare and mitigate in advance, is multiplied in savings when disease or natural disaster occurs. The limited financial resources of these poor countries have to be used wisely.

West and Central Africa includes seven unstable countries emerging from years of civil unrest. This causes population movement in the region. The internal movement of the population is accompanied by a phenomenon known as irregular migration – illegal, undocumented or unauthorized migration. An estimated 200,000 people have so far risked their lives trying to move from the poverty of sub-Saharan Africa to the ‘Eldorado’ of the wealthy West.

Recurring droughts, locust invasions, poor harvests and crop failure, and displacement due to conflict, have all contributed to food insecurity and malnutrition among the people in this part of the world. In 2005 and 2006, famine claimed an average of 4 million victims a year. This is double the average figure for 2000–2004.

The consequences of climate change are truly alarming, the people of West Africa are expected to suffer greatly as a result of its future effects.

1. All figures are in thousands of Swiss francs (CHF).

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Complete document: Programmes and appeal 2008-2009 (28.7 Mb, 88 pages)	Chapter 3: Snapshots of the Red Cross Red Crescent in action in 2007 (24.2 Mb, 40 pages)	West and Central Africa: Little progress in community preparation for worst global effects of climate change (473 kb, 2 pages)