Baseline Nigeria – NG 06 – Zamfara – September 2014

The HEA training exercise started with a Training of Trainers from 11-12 February 2014 involving four practitioners with previous Household Economy Analysis (HEA) baseline experience. The purpose was to increase the capacity of the Nigerian team to replicate the training on a large scale. Five-day classroom training was then conducted from 13-17 February 2014 and followed by intensive field level data collection until the 7th March 2014. For three weeks, SCI staff and their partners from Abuja, Zamfara and Jigawa States took part in an intensive HEA training and village baseline fieldwork and analysis.

HEA rural studies usually represent livelihood zones that have previously been defined. Livelihood zones are geographical areas in which households essentially share the same production and income options, as well as similar market access. A FEWS NET exercise in 2007 identified 44 livelihood zones across the 15 states of northern Nigeria. This study focuses on a single livelihood zone, the Sorghum, Cowpea and Groundnut Livelihood Zone (SGC – no. 6 on the left map below) which covers part of Kebbi , Zamfara, and Sokoto states and most of Kano state (see right map below).

The SCG zone is located in five Local Government Authorities (LGAs) namely: Anka, Bukkuyum and Gummi in Zamfara as well two LGAs in Jigawa: Guri and Gagarawa. The present study was located in the Zamfara part of the zone, represented by 8 villages, four in Bukkuyum and two each in Anka and Gummi.