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"Haussa country" extends over 83 000 km2 and includes more than 50 million inhabitants, astride Nigeria and Niger. The towns of Maradi (Niger) Katsina-Kano (Nigeria) constitute one of the oldest development corridors, for centuries open to the Gulf of Guinea, North Africa and the Middle East. With a dense urban network organised around the built-up area of Kano, it illustrates the Niger economy’s polarisation by Nigeria all along the 1500 km border. Favorable to industrialization, its development relies on the cultural homogeneity of the haussa people. Commerical trade is robust: cattle from Niger, cereal and manufactured products from Nigeria or even products re-exported towards Nigeria through Cotonou, and the border hub of Malanville-Gaya. The integrative issue of the CIP here is articulated around the link between markets, providing local or border markets with cereals and food security. The SWAC, CILSS, Fews-net, WFP, Unicef, OCHA, Wamis net are involved. Read the Follow-up note. Contact :
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Calender 2008 : The Katsina Workshop held in September 2007 validated the setting-up of three information platforms on cross-border activities: (i) Information on food crop markets, (ii) Information on cross-border movement of cereals and livestock, and (iii) Information on capital transfer between the two countries. Two feasibility studies will be launched in January/February 2008 with a view towards implementing this initiative. The first feasibility study proposes a two-year project focusing on operationalising the dialogue platforms, in consultation with involved actors in the K2M area as well as local and national authorities, and identifying concrete activities to be launched within the framework of this initiative. The second study defines the modalities for setting-up a cross-border radio station network aiming to facilitate local dissemination of information on cross-border trade of cereals and livestock, exchange rates, food security issues, citizen rights and responsibilities with a view to the free movement of people, goods and capital and other relevant information. The outcomes of these studies will be published mid 2008 (financed by the Delegation of the European Commission in Niger).
2007... September: The launching workshop of a cross-border initiative in the Kano-Katsina-Maradi (K2M) zone was jointly opened by H.E. Godwin O. Abbe, Nigerian Minister of the Interior and the Governor of Katsina State, H.E. Barr. Ibrahim Shema, represented by the Deputy Governor of Katsina State, H.E. Sirajo Umar Damari. The Nigerian Minister of the Interior reiterated Nigeria’s support for all ECOWAS initiatives and programmes and more generally African integration. The workshop brought together some 60 participants coming mainly from the Niger-Nigeria border region. Within the framework of three working groups, participants discussed operational proposals that involve local cross-border actors (public and private), the governments, ECOWAS and development partners. Drawing on outcomes of discussions, the participants decided to establish, under the auspices of the Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission for Co-operation, three information platforms on cross-border activities, aiming to: (i) Improve market information systems; (ii) Enhance cross-border movement of cereals and livestock, and (iii) Improve ways and means of transferring capital between the two countries. Read the Agenda and the Communiqué. June: Within the framework of the initiative on “Cross-Border Co-operation & Food Security in the Kano-Katsina-Maridi (K²M) Corridor”, representatives of the SWAC’s partner organisations (FEWS NET, Cellule de Crises Alimentaires du Niger, Niger-Nigeria Joint Commission for Co-operation and the Nigerian National Boundary Commission and SWAC), carried out a joint field mission. The mission’s aim was to meet with local actors and decision-makers to discuss their contribution to a local food crisis prevention and management approach. This cross-border pilot operation will be launched in September 2007 in Katsina (Nigeria). February-March: Policy awareness mission in Niger and Nigeria. The Abuja and Niamey UNDP offices affirmed their participation in the process. Authorities confirmed that the Niger-Nigeria Joint Commission provide the leadership for the preparations of a cross-border cooperation workshop in Katsina (Nigeria). The objective is to launch a cooperation process related to food security between local actors on both sides of the border. This initiative is under the auspices of the ECOWAS CIP. The CILSS, FEWS NET and the WFP are also working on a mechanism to monitor cross-border trade flows in the zone. 2006... May: Mission co-organised after a consultation on food security following the recent crisis in Niger. Involvement of the Niger-Nigeria Joint Commission. The mission report enables: - to better define cross-border livestock and cereal trade and its impact on food security; - to prepare a cross-border Niger-Nigerian cooperation process of these two industries (and food security). December: At the Food Crisis Prevention Network meeting in Rome, the SWAC, the CILSS, FEWS NET and the WFP presented the conclusions of the joint mission. The aim was to seek other partners likely to join this combined border cooperation – food security initiative. |
On the ground 