Data Modelling: Malnutrition in Niger - Part 1 & 2 Report

This report, prepared by Peter, a trainee doctor associated with the UNVP, details the critical issue of malnutrition in Niger, a country facing severe food insecurity. The report, divided into two parts, outlines the challenges, including high population growth, climate-related crises, and economic constraints, which exacerbate the vulnerability of the population, particularly women and children. Peter's team identifies key constraints and proposes a comprehensive caretaking plan focusing on nutrition, school meals, emergency preparedness, and strategic partnerships. The plan aligns with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and involves collaborations with organizations like WFP to promote food security and build resilience. Part 2 details the project's financial plan, expenses, and investment strategies to support their mission, emphasizing the importance of volunteerism in addressing global hunger and poverty. The report serves as a call to action, aiming to raise awareness and gather resources to combat malnutrition and improve the lives of the people in Niger.

STUDENT
[COMPANY NAME] [Company address]
DATA MODELLING

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DATA MODELLING
MALNUTRITION IN NIGER
PART – 1
ABSTRACT
Peter has been associated with United Nations Volunteer Programme (UNVP) as
a Trainee Doctor, for more than two years. In a recent study he learnt about the
appalling conditions of hunger and malnutrition prevailing in Niger, a small country of
20 million people. He discussed the issue with his colleagues and soon they had 8
volunteer enrollments for their “Save Niger” programme. This report, in two parts, has
been prepared by Peter to highlight the plight of Niger’s children and women and is
intended to be circulated by the team for collecting donations. This report outlines their
efforts, mediums of fund collection and their physical contribution by being present
among the affected population of Tamou, a city close to capital city of Niamey in
southern Niger.
THE SITUATION
Niger is surrounded by Nigeria in the South, Chad in the East, Mali and Algeria
in the West and Libya in the North. Being land-locked in the Sahel region, this country
is facing acute food deficit, (Blaha, 2010). Hausa, the largest ethnic group in Niger, with
a population of 600,000, is the most affected society in the southern part of Niger.
Along with Hausa, Zarma Songhay, comprising of 370,000 people is the other ethnic
society, which inhabits the western parts of Niger bordering Mali. These two ethnic
groups comprise of sedentary farmers who have been inhabiting the arable tier of Niger
for centuries, (Blaha, 2010).
Niger’s 18 million population is growing at 4% every year and this is one of the
highest rate of growth in the world. In 2017, close to 1.5 million population of Niger
faced food insecurity, along with another 1.5 million who were facing chronical food
shortage and millions other were experiencing shortage during lean seasons. Inadequate

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agriculture produce and high demographic growth in Niger has been responsible for
depriving over 20% of the population in getting their food. In times of poor rainfall, the
figure rises to more than 30% (Hoberman, Burbank & Bradley, 2009).
Niger has a short rainy season and it is continually hit by an irregular rainfall,
the rising temperatures and increased desertification. Since 2000, Niger has had four
severe food and nutrition crises, caused by climate related changes and these have
exacerbated vulnerability to food insecurity in Niger, (Woerther et al., 2011). Combined
with the epidemics and rising conflicts in the neighbouring countries has also
aggravated the situation. Niger has been sheltering chronically malnourished people
from the conflict affected northern Nigeria in the Lake Chad Basin area, (Fabienne et
al., 2010). Niger’s economy is not in a position to support such large influx of refugees
as this affects the already inadequate social safety nets for the large vulnerable
population of Niger. Moreover, the Government has limited economic ability for
controlling hunger because of its restrained financial capacity and logistical constraints,
(Page et al., 2013).
In a country, which has an entrenched trait of gender inequality in its social
fibre, insecurity of food availability affects women to a large extent, especially in the
rural areas. 42% of Niger’s children, who are under 5 years of age, are suffering from
chronic malnutrition and more than 10% are acutely malnourished, (Simsion & Witt,
2004). Since lack of diet affects availability of essential vitamins and minerals, over
73% of these children under 5 and over 46% of women in the reproductive age, have
acute anaemic conditions.
THE CONSTRAINTS
In Niger, as per studies, there is urgent need for adopting measures which can fight
malnutrition among children and women. Peter’s team has identified four major factors
which would require their constant and consistent attention, (Silverston, 2011).
(A) Nutrition
Their long-term resilient plan for Niger’s nutrition eradication will involve a very
comprehensive, yet a community-based lifecycle approach. They intend not only to
focus on children below 2 years of age, but also adolescent girls and pregnant women.
Within this framework, their efforts will also include support treatment of moderate

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condition acute malnutrition, prevention of acute malnutrition and further integration of
micronutrients, especially in the diet of the affected children and women, (Ponniah,
2007). They shall also ensure that they are able to improve nutrition in the mainstream
diet of the citizens, particularly by supporting the local production and fortification of
all nutritious foods produced in Niger, (Woerther et al., 2011).
(B) School Meals
Their plan is to partner with Niger’s Ministry of Education, through UNVP, for
designing, implementing and building, on a national scale, Niger’s capacity of
delivering a Nutritional Meal Programme for schools. Moreover, they also aim to
enhance school enrolments and education empowerment for girls in Niger. This will be
done by encouraging the local communities to participate in and promote home-made
school meals, which will pay special attention in integrating the small householders and
farmers through purchase of local ingredients, (Simsion, 2007).
(C) Preparedness and Response for Emergencies
They not only intend to provide the citizens of Niger with life-saving food
assistance and nutrition but we also intend to support them in overcoming any crisis and
care for the shock affected people, particularly the internally displaced persons and the
host communities. They shall specially be concerned towards the Lake Chad Basin
crisis and extend full support to people of the region through their lean season situation.
In order to avoid a recurrence of such crises, the team will also invest in preparing the
Niger’s for an effective, efficient and rapid response under such emergencies, (Simsion,
2007).
(D) Strategic Partnerships for Capacity Development
Peter’s team will support the Niger’s in their capacity development so that they can
achieve the Zero Hunger Goal. This will include supporting the governance and
response capacities of the government. Aim of the team will be to offer the Niger’s a
national technical assistance and capacity building package, especially for the key areas
related to an early warning system and reduction of disaster risk. Included in this
framework would be capability to develop broad range of partnerships with the local
communities, in bringing knowledge and resources required for achieving the Zero
Hunger target, (Hoberman, Burbank & Bradley, 2009).
THE SOLUTION
Caretaking Plan for Niger

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The aim of this plan is to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in Niger, not only in
the present emergency situations, but also in the long term, by promoting resilience-
building activities. The team plans to align their plan with that of United Nations’ 2030
Agenda, particularly its Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17 whose target is to -
Quote, “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote
sustainable agriculture and ‘strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the
global partnership for sustainable development”. Unquote.
Collaborating with WFP
WFP has been helping the poorest in Niger since 1968 by building livelihoods
for them through community-based asset creation programmes. Peter and his team
wishes to collaborate with WFP in this context and thus would promote the “exchange
for food” programme, (Fabienne et al., 2010). In such an exchange programme, the
beneficiaries create assets by undertaking activities which help in regeneration of land
and rehabilitating of the ponds. Aim of the team will be to lay special emphasis on
allowing the women access to land and markets. Collaboration with WFP is necessary
to support climate risk management and the local communities’ preparedness for
shocks. The team will like to encourage the use of early warning systems, climate
insurances for crops and building of long-term resilience for agriculture produce(Page et
al., 2013).
Participating in United Nations Volunteer Programme
The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme not only promotes
volunteerism for supporting peace and development across the world, it also partners
with the local organizations of the affected nations beyond the UN Charter and the
World Food Programme. The team will spread this information about UNV’s different
modalities, their application procedures and other related aspects of UNV programme
among the local communities, especially the women, who can then take better care of
their children, (Woerther et al., 2011).
THE OUTCOME
The international community is committed towards ending hunger, achieving
food sufficiency and improve nutrition among the under-developed nations by 2030,
Organizations such as WFP and UNVP are leading this humanitarian gigantic task of
saving lives and changing lifestyles of the poor. They are pioneers in delivering food
assistance during emergencies and are working with communities for improving

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nutrition and building crop resilience. Although such initiatives are being pursued
relentlessly across the globe, still one in nine people, across the underdeveloped world
do not find enough food to eat. Peter and his team’s effort is aimed at providing food
and food-related assistance to break the unending cycle of hunger and poverty in these
underdeveloped areas, (Simsion & Witt, 2004).
Peter believes that volunteering with organizations such as WFP and UNVP
means helping those millions around the world who cannot have even one meal every
day. These volunteers can make a difference every day by contributing their expertise
and experience and add value to these organizations in their functional areas. Peter is
offering this opportunity to his volunteer colleagues by letting them work with
organizations which are aiming at achieving the goal of Zero Hunger, (Blaha, 2010).
DATA MODELLING
MALNUTRITION IN NIGER
PART – 2
THE PROJECT
This project, which Peter has undertaken along with eight more volunteers, has
been formulated for drafting a plan for helping the undernourished children and women
of Niger. They have decided to start their plan now and implement it five years from
now, by collecting, through their sponsors, public donations and institutional loans, a
substantial amount of money, which they can use when they personally visit Niger after
the end of their five year period of collecting funds.
THE EXPENSES
Since the team of nine volunteers will be visiting Niger in 2023, the plan they
are making of investing all their collections into reliable investment mediums which
will not only keep their money secure but also give them good returns on their
investments. The team is searching for a sponsor who will contribute 30% of their
expenses now, so that they can invest that amount also and increase it in the five year

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period. They will also approach two different financial institutions for a loan, which
they would like to avail five years from now. Peter and his team are also making a
detailed list of the minimum expenses which they will be incurring during their tour of
Niger and their stay in the country. They plan to stay with the locals for a fortnight in
the city of Tamou, which is about 52m from Niamey, the capital city of Niger. Their
intention is to save on their expenses and contribute an equivalent amount for the
betterment of the local communities.
LIST OF REFERENCES
Blaha, M. (2010) Patterns of Data Modeling. New York: CRC Press.
Nackers, F., Broillet, F., Oumarou, D., Djibo, A., Gaboulaud, V., Guerin, P.J., Rusch,
B., Grais, R.F. and Captier, V. (2010) Effectiveness of ready-to-use therapeutic food
compared to a corn/soy-blend-based pre-mix for the treatment of childhood moderate
acute malnutrition in Niger”. Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, Volume 56, Issue 6, 1
December 2010, Pages 407–413. Retrieved on 18 Jun 2018 from
https://academic.oup.com/tropej/article/56/6/407/1665429
Hoberman, S., Burbank, D. and Bradley, C. (2009) Data Modeling for the Business: A
Handbook for Aligning the Business with IT using High-Level Data Models. New
Jersey: Technics Publications.
Page, A-L., de Rekeneire, N., Sayadi, S., Aberrane, S., Janssens, A-C., Rieux, C., Djibo,
A., Manuguerra, J-C., Ducou-le-Pointe, H., Grais, R.F., Schaefer, M., Guerin, P.J.
and Baron, E. (2013) “Infections in Children Admitted with Complicated Severe
Acute Malnutrition in Niger”. PLoS ONE 8(7): e68699.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068699. Retrieved on 18 Jun 2018 from
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0068699

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Ponniah, P. (2007) Data Modeling Fundamentals: A Practical Guide for IT
Professionals. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Silverston, L. (2011) The Data Model Resource Book. Ontario: John Wiley & Sons.
Simsion, G and Witt, G. (2004) Data Modeling Essentials. New York: Elsevier.
Simsion, G. (2007) Data Modeling Theory and Practice. New Jersey: Technics
Publications.
Woerther, P-L., Angebault, C., Jacquier, H., Hugede, H-C., Janssens, A-C., Sayadi, S.,
El Mniai, A., Armand-Lefèvre, L., Ruppé, E., Barbier, F., Raskine, L., Page, A-L., de
Rekeneire, N. and Andremont, A. (2011) “Massive Increase, Spread, and Exchange
of Extended Spectrum β-Lactamase–Encoding Genes Among Intestinal
Enterobacteriaceae in Hospitalized Children With Severe Acute Malnutrition in
Niger”. Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 53, Issue 7, 1 October 2011, Pages
677–685. Retrieved on 18 Jun 2018 from
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/53/7/677/422433