In May 2007, a WorldFish team traveled to the Lake Télé-Lake Ntomba Landscape in the Democratic Republic of Congo to conduct a preliminary assessment of the Lake Ntomba fishery. Primary data were collected through rapid rural assessment techniques in seven villages. Three questionnaires were delivered simultaneously in each village, focusing on (a) the fishing activities and fish resources, (b) the farming and other non-farming activities, and (c) the overall socio-economic and institutional context of the villages. In addition, five markets were visited, four in Mbandaka and one in Kinshasa.
Background Reports
Briefings
Preliminary Assessment of Lake Ntomba Fisheries

UNICEF/UN026544/Parry
Zakari Soumana, a vaccinator at the Centre for Integrated Health Programs (CIHP) in Ouna, Dosso District, travels aboard a motorboat with a batch of polio vaccines on the Niger river to the village of Bongnani, Niger, Tuesday, 12 April, 2016. Soumana is to administer polio vaccines to the children in Bongnani, part of an effort to vaccinate all children against the virus.
Niger is no longer poliovirus-infected, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, but remains at high risk of outbreaks. Detection of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in 2016 in north-eastern Nigeria means the entire region is currently at risk. Niger, along with other countries of the Lake Chad sub-region, declared the outbreak to be a regional public health emergency and is implementing a regional outbreak response, coordinated with neighbouring countries.
Polio is spread through person-to-person contact. When a child is infected with wild poliovirus, the virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. It is then shed into the environment through the faeces where it can spread rapidly through a community, especially in situations of poor hygiene and sanitation. If a sufficient number of children are fully immunized against polio, the virus is unable to find susceptible children to infect, and dies out.
In Niger, the majority of the population lives far from health facilities. In order to provide health services to people living in the most remote areas, health outreach programs are organized. Health workers travel to designated villages to perform vaccinations and prenatal checkups. Villages situated within a 17-kilometre radius are informed of these events in order for mothers and children to travel to the site on the scheduled day. This strategy has increased the vaccination coverage in many areas.
Related content
Briefings
Key Considerations: Socio-Behavioural Insight For Community-Centred Cholera Preparedness And Response In Mozambique, 2023
This brief explores socio-behavioural determinants including local knowledge, perceptions, practices, and structural factors influencing cholera transmission dynamics. The brief has been developed to support response actors develop prevention and control strategies to rapidly contain the outbreak and prepare for a…
Central and East Africa Hub
SSHAP
2023
Briefing
Social, Behavioural and Community Dynamics Related to the Cholera Outbreak in Malawi
This brief is a rapid synthesis of socio-behavioural evidence relating to the 2022 cholera outbreak in Malawi intended for national and international response partners.
2020
Journal Article
War and peace: What’s the difference?
This article analyses the political and contextual differences between war and peace.
Central and East Africa Hub
2000
Journal Article
‘Who Can Sing the Song of MSF?’ The Politics of ‘Proximity’ and Performing Humanitarianism in Eastern DRC
This article explores the complexities of the brokerage work conducted by Congolese MSF staff working in a ‘field’ that is not a distant, liminal space, but their country (and region) of origin. They have complicated and heterogeneous political and social…
Central and East Africa Hub
2020