Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis, Senegal, 2015

Matam is one of the poorest regions of Senegal. Located in the northeast of the country, more than 45 percent of the population of Matam is under the poverty line (ANSD/SRSD, 2015). In this region, agriculture and pastoralism are the largest economic sectors, thus recent climatic changes strongly influence the number of malnourished people. Notwithstanding the numerous advances made in recent decades by the Government of Senegal in terms of increasing education rates and reinforcing numerous forms of infrastructure, such as roads, hospitals and schools, Matam still experiences infrastructure weakness and poor access to numerous basic services. Furthermore, Matam falls behind in a range of human development indicators in comparison to other Senegalese regions. Nevertheless, a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) resilience analysis based on the Enquête de Suivi de la Pauvreté au Sénégal I (ESPS I) found Matam to be one of the most resilient regions within Senegal. While this result may be in line with the typically high levels of adaptive, transformative and coping capacities of the poorest regions around the world, this result still warranted further investigation. Therefore, an ad hoc survey was carried out by FAO Resilience Analysis and Policies (RAP) team in Matam between December 2015 and January 2016, with the support of the Agence National de Statistique et de la Démographie (ANSD). The resilience survey was conducted within 410 households within the districts of Ranérou, Matam and Kanel in Matam Region.