The BBC has a few stories about Niger, including one that suggests the NGOs overplayed the crisis, that it was more of a series of localized problems and not a full-scale emergency.

Drought Diary VI - Signs of hope

British aid worker Mark Snelling's file dispatch from Niger.

Can aid do more harm than good?

An excerpt:

"I think NGOs and rich country media do have an incentive to paint too simplistic and bleak a picture, as was the case in Niger's food crisis," Professor William Easterly of New York University told the BBC News website.

My concern about this is you either have an aid bonanza or you have nothing Tony Vaux

There were localised food shortages this year - but they were not particularly acute, and are now easing.

What Niger is experiencing is not a sudden catastrophe, but chronic malnutrition that makes people vulnerable to rises in food prices.

Glib talk of famine backed by pictures of starving children may help NGOs raise funds, but it does nothing to address these basic problems, says Mr Easterly.

Boom and bust

Tony Vaux, a former official with Oxfam, agrees.

Once an emergency is identified, he says, the NGOs' public relations machine takes over and "there is a terrible temptation to look around for the very worst stories".

President Tandja caused an outcry when he criticised NGOs

"My concern about this is you either have an aid bonanza or you have nothing. There does not seem to be a middle ground," says Mr Vaux, author of the book The Selfish Altruist.