Reuters AlertNet

Reuters AlertNet has published a series of photographs by Susana Vera, depicting life in and around an Action Against Hunger food distribution center in crisis-stricken Mauritania. A full third of the country's population, amounting to around a million people, are at risk of severe malnutrition if rain doesn't fall by July, according to Action Against Hunger estimates. 

View some of Susana Vera's photographs here:

"Aid to tackle undernutrition is just a tiny fraction of the billions needed each year, with global efforts to improve child nutrition slow and inconsistent, says a new report from Action Against Hunger.

"Children in western Chad have started dying from malnutrition as a major hunger crisis threatening West Africa begins to take hold, an international charity has warned. Child malnutrition rates have soared in the region of Kanem, which is now in the grip of a full blown emergency, Action Contre La Faim (ACF) said...More than 2,000 children in Kanem were admitted to nutrition treatment centres in February alone, triple the number treated in December, according to ACF.

"More than 2,000 malnourished children were admitted to Action Against Hunger | ACF International’s nutritional centres in Kanem in February alone, which is more than three times the number treated in the same month last year.

"Here in Marseille, aid groups like Action Contre La Faim (Action Against Hunger - ACF) are patting themselves on the back for pushing the issue of water-related humanitarian emergencies higher up the political agenda, saying they've made it to the heart of World Water Forum discussions for the first time...ACF President Benoît Miribel agreed that 'disasters are happening where there is already a disaster', whether it's a scarcity of water or bad sanitation, leaving some countr

Many aid groups responding to a looming hunger crisis in West Africa have made cash-for-work schemes a key part of their effort to help people threatened by severe food shortages.

These initiatives involve paying people for community tasks with money or vouchers that can be exchanged for food in local stores.

More than 11 million people face a food crisis in the Sahel region south of the Sahara as a result of bad harvests from drought and erratic rainfall as well as high prices for staples, the United Nations says.

One complaint often aired by NGOs is that they do not have direct access to money from the U.N.'s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which only cascades down to them though U.N. agencies. Changing that could speed up their access to money and enable them to respond faster, they argue.

Jean-Michel Grand, executive director of the British arm of Action Against Hunger (ACF) said U.N. agencies "can prove to be a very expensive middle man in terms of programme funding".

Better coordination between donors, governments and communities will help reduce poverty and disease, a joint report conducted by six major aid agencies said.

"Launched ahead of World Humanitarian Day on Aug. 19, "Psychological First Aid: Guide for Fieldworkers" is aimed at enabling humanitarian and emergency workers all over the world to provide basic but vital psychosocial support to people in acute distress, including helping relief workers themselves.

"Remittances, which half of the households in Chad's western and southwestern regions of Kanem and Bahr el Ghazal used to receive, are down by 57 percent, according to a survey by NGOs Oxfam and Action Against Hunger (ACF). Households on average were sent US$220 per month."