Catholic Relief Services works in close partnership with Caritas Niger, known locally as CADEV. CRS and CADEV collaborate regularly for emergency response initiatives, including the food crisis and the current response to the Malian refugees, and also work together for education, justice and peace, and HIV and AIDS programming throughout the country.

Caritas Australia has generously funded Catholic Relief Services Niger emergency responses to the food crisis as well as the influx of refugees from Mali. Caritas now supports CRS Niger's newest resilience program, "Bonbatu," which aims to protect vulnerable households in Tillabéri and Ouallam, two districts where CRS has provided emergency food assistance for years, by building resilience and strengthening communities so that they are able to adapt to and recover from shocks and stresses and move forward with enhanced livelihoods. This important initiative will bridge the gap between emergency response efforts and sustainable development programming in a critical region of the Sahel.

AGRA, an African-based organization chaired by former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, aims to significantly and sustainably improve the productivity and incomes of resource poor farmers. AGRA has granted Catholic Relief Services $864,000 for the Strengthening Millet, Sorghum and Cowpea Value Chains project, which will improve food security and increase the household earnings of 15,000 farmers in 150 villages in targeted regions in Niger over a three year period.

Catholic Relief Services Niger implements several agriculture projects, including the large Program In Support of Food Security and Household Nutrition to increase immediate food access and strengthen long-term community resilience in large regions that suffer from chronic malnutrition. The program serves more than 86,700 households in hard to reach villages in Niger through a variety of integrated interventions, including agriculture, nutrition, maternal and child health, water and sanitation, microfinance, and literacy. CRS Niger also implements the Strengthening Millet, Sorghum, and Cowpea Value Chains Project which aims to improve people's capacities to produce, store, market and sell their crops.

Within Program In Support of Food Security and Household Nutrition, Catholic Relief Services works with ministries at the national level while also aiming to increase the ownership of individual communities. CRS works with the government of Niger as a key implementing partner to build capacity and ensure greater sustainability, engaging with and training government extension officers and staff. In many projects, CRS Niger helps establish community-based early warning systems and responses to emergencies, which are responsible for engaging communities in developing comprehensive food security plans, recognizing vulnerability indicators and mitigating risks. These strengthen the national Early Warning System by ensuring reporting of critical community level data to district and national levels.

Less than 70 percent of Nigeriens are literate. Primary school enrollment is drastically low. Catholic Relief Services implements a number of education initiatives in Niger, including working with nomadic communities to increase access to educational opportunities for children, especially girls. CRS provides comprehensive support to nomadic children so that they can remain in school while their families move around in pursuit of traditional livelihoods. CRS also plans to promote education in emergency settings by supporting students in refugee sites near the Mali border.

Niger has been struck by a devastating combination of crises. Since the earliest days of the conflict in Mali, Catholic Relief Services Niger has provided food, shelter, potable water and health services to more than 2,113 refugee households living at temporary sites near the Mali border. During the recent food crisis, CRS coordinated large scale emergency projects that helped put food on the table in more than 10,500 food insecure households. Through Bonbatu, a new resiliency project, CRS is building the capacity of these same vulnerable households to cope with the lingering effects of previous bad harvests and fortify themselves against future shocks and crises.

Catholic Relief Services Niger is the lead organization for the Global Fund's seventh round of funding for Malaria in Niger. The five-year, $40 million Project Sangué aims to contribute to the reduction of morbidity and mortality due to malaria in Niger. Project Sangué has distributed more than three million long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets and has trained community agents, and conducted home visits and sensitization sessions to increase people's knowledge about malaria. As a result, 61.7 percent of Nigerien children under the age of five and 71.3 percent of pregnant women now regularly sleep under a net. CRS Niger has also been selected to lead the upcoming Global Fund Tuberculosis project in Niger.

Catholic Relief Services Niger works to serve the physical, social and spiritual needs of people with HIV and AIDS in the Dosso region of Niger by providing medicine, supplementary food and housing repair materials. CRS also distributes school materials to orphans and vulnerable children, enabling them to stay in school. CRS and partners further work to put an end to HIV stigmatization in the region by training peer educators from local high schools and hosting discussions about HIV and AIDS for local religious and traditional leaders.

Catholic Relief Services Niger supports the establishment of Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) throughout its programming. SILC is a savings group model based on personal savings. A SILC group is typically comprised of 15-30 self-selecting members and offers a frequent, convenient and safe opportunity to save. It helps members build useful lump sums that become available at a pre-determined time and gives them access to small loans or emergency grants. SILC groups build upon and reinforce social bonds among community members, especially women, providing a strong entry point for promoting women's access and control over financial resources.

Relations between Muslims and Christians in Niger are generally good, but sometimes tensions do arise in certain areas of the country, exacerbated by the recent growth of extreme Islamist movements in Nigeria and Mali. Catholic Relief Services is working with local partners to organize and facilitate trainings on reconciliation, and conflict prevention and management. These trainings will help encourage interfaith dialogue and give community members the tools they need to withstand negative influences that exist due to tensions and instability in Niger and surrounding countries.

Throughout each of its programs in Niger, Catholic Relief Services takes into consideration the most vulnerable members of a community. CRS Niger adapts each of its programs to address the needs of those who are otherwise unable to secure the means for survival, supporting those who are disadvantaged due to an external shock, such as natural disaster or war, or due to socioeconomic circumstances such as age, gender, illness, disability or discrimination. CRS Niger strives to help people meet basic food, shelter, water and health care needs, while simultaneously working to create a foundation for longer term security, protection and community inclusion.

Catholic Relief Services Niger works to improve and promote water, sanitation and hygiene practices as a core theme in both its development and disaster programs. Program In Support of Food Security and Household Nutrition promotes four key hygiene practices (hand washing with soap, safe excreta disposal, improved drinking water quality from source to point and safe food management including storage and preparation) in 86,700 target households. Meanwhile, CRS has established hygiene committees, distributed hygiene kits, delivered potable water and installed water storage tanks, dug boreholes, rehabilitated wells, and installed latrines, temporary showers, and hand washing stations for the benefit of more than 2,113 households at temporary refugee sites near the Mali border.