The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Bureau in Dakar, Senegal is envisaging to pilot SNA (Social Network Analysis) in one of the four Lake Chad Basin countries with the main objectives to test SNA as a tool for food security and market analysis. It will allow to map, model and understand social structure and social ties to better inform trade and gender dimensions of identified markets of the LCB (Lake Chad Basin).

The main objective of the network survey will be to verify whether differences in food security between households can be explained by their social capital, i.e. whether well connected households do better than poorly connected households because they receive information in a timely way, have access to alternative sources of funding or food, or can more easily borrow money and other resources from their network.