A generally wet 2024 rainy season is expected over the Sahelian strip, with late to average onset dates in the Central Sahel and early to average in the Western and Eastern Sahel, late to average cessationdates, short dry spells at the beginning of the season in the Western Sahel and average to long dry spells in the Eastern Sahel and overall long towards the end of the season across the entire strip Sahelian region, and overall above-average flows in the main river basins of the Sahel.

The stakeholders involved in the project to Improve Food and Nutrition Governance and Sustainable Agriculture in the Sahel and West Africa (PAGR-SANAD), notably ECOWAS, UEMOA, CILSS and CEI/PREGEC region through ROPPA, have been heavily involved in improving the food and nutrition situation for many years. On an institutional level, nutrition has been considered, following the accession of all the countries in the Sahel and West Africa region to the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement. Almost all the countries have revised their nutrition policies and strategies in line with the multi-sectoral approach. However, the issues of nutrition-sensitive sustainable food security remain a major challenge.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the Cadre Harmonisé (CH) provide decision-makers with a rigorous, evidence- and consensus-based analysis of food insecurity and acute malnutrition situations. The IPC/CH classification system enables relevant actors and stakeholders to determine and classify the severity and magnitude of acute and chronic food insecurity and acute malnutrition situations in a country, according to internationally recognised scientific standards. The IPC/CH estimates of the number of food insecure and malnourished people indicate where and how many people fall in different phases of food insecurity or malnutrition by geographical areas. Several recommendations have made in recent years for the IPC/CH to provide a more nuanced narrative on who is food insecure and / or malnourished, why, where, and for how long. The IPC Global Strategic Programme (2023-2026) emphasised the need for providing “disaggregated analysis by gender and other inter-sectional determinants of vulnerability” in IPC analysis (GSP 2022, page 30); more recently the TAG meeting in Rome (16-17 February 2023) confirmed the need for conducting disaggregated IPC analysis; and similar requests were made by the CH countries in April 2018, when disaggregated gender analysis was requested. Despite these recommendations, IPC users’ views diverge on whether IPC should engage in disaggregated analysis and on the type of disaggregated analysis that would add value in different contexts. As noted by the Final Evaluation of the IPC Global Strategic Programme (2019-2022), “While some users and GSC members highlight a need for more disaggregated and gender-sensitive analysis, a significant number of respondents including GSC members also questioned the role of the IPC and the added value of more disaggregated analysis.”2 Proponents of disaggregated analysis often emphasise the humanitarian sector’s needs for disaggregated analysis, while critics question the role and added value of the IPC in providing more disaggregated population estimates, arguing that disaggregated analysis is “not the IPC’s role”, rather a process that should be carried out during the design phase of programmes. This study was conducted by the IPC in collaboration with CH. The purpose of the study is to investigate in detail whether there is a need for disaggregated analysis among different levels of decision makers and to explore the modalities of implementation that would inform decision making processes most effectively.