Accédez à la page de syndication de nos liens RSS

Presentation-Debate: "Niger’s 2005 Food Crisis"

 

Agence française de développement is pleased to invite you to attend a presentation-debate to mark the publication of the 225th issue of the Afrique contemporaine review devoted to “Niger’s food crisis” and written by researchers from the LASDEL laboratory in Niamey:

 Tuesday 23 September 2008, 4.30 p.m. at AFD headquarters, Jacques Alliot conference room
(5 rue Roland Barthes 75012 Paris M° Gare de Lyon).

  

 

Buy the Book

 

The session will be chaired by Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, Research Director at EHESS (School of advanced studies in social science) and coordinator of the thematic paper, and Jean-Bernard Veron, editor-in-chief of the Afrique contemporaine review.

 

Agenda: introduction to the topic, presentation of the review and debate between developers, relief workers, non-governmental organizations, researchers and journalists.
 
Registration required by 20 September


In spring 2005 the Western media reported that three million Nigeriens were threatened with famine and broadcast scenes showing fleshless children. At the same time humanitarian NGOs criticized the shortcomings of the Nigerien government, international agencies and Niger’s partners, which were accused of underestimating the scale of the problem and of being slow to react.

Three years after the events a consensus has now been reached: the term “famine” has been replaced by “food crisis” and tempers have calmed down. However, mutual criticisms between “developers” and “humanitarians” may have been less subject to debate but they do subsist with each side defending the legitimacy of its actions and methods.
This issue of Afrique contemporaine is entirely devoted to “Niger’s food crisis” and provides a retrospective “grassroots” analysis with an inside look at the systems implemented by actors in the crisis. The authors do not get into the rhetoric of denunciation, they take another look at the “crisis”, provide a key insight into understanding it and thus provide a basis for an informed debate on humanitarian and development strategies.