Overview
Chad is one of the world’s least developed countries. Persisting humanitarian crises are due to structural and conjectural causes such as lack of infrastructure and poor access to basic services, climate change effects, insecurity in neighboring countries and a persistent economic crisis. In 2018, a total of 4.4 million people need humanitarian assistance, including 1. million people who are food insecure. Food insecurity and malnutrition have reached critical levels.
Chad is also significantly affected by the Lake Chad Basin crisis. Persisting insecurity and military operations have led to the displacement of over 137,000 people in the Lac region of Chad, including 102,000 internally displaced persons. Chad hosts more than 400,000 refugees from neighboring countries (Nigeria, the Central African Republic and Sudan).
The protracted nature of the humanitarian crisis in the country requires a different and more effective way to tackle and address the long-standing and multi-dimensional needs of the most affected.
Collective outcomes
Food Insecurity:
- Reduce the number of people in severe food insecurity from 27 per cent (from 1 million to 770,000 people) by 2019.
- Reduce the number of people in food insecurity by 32 per cent (from 2.8 million to 1.9 million people) by 2019.
Nutrition:
- Reduce the rate of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) among children 5 years and under from 2.6 per cent to 1.8 per cent by 2019.
- Reduce the rate of Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) among children 5 years and under from 11.9 per cent to 10 per cent by 2019.
Health:
- Reduce the obstetric case fatality rate from 5 per cent to less than 1 per cent by 2019.
Basic Social Services:
- 90 per cent of people in need have access to functioning basic social services including water, sanitation and education by 2019.
Where do we stand?
In 2017, Government, humanitarian and development actors as well as donors defined six collective outcomes to be achieved by 2019, captured in a three-year strategic framework and plan (2017-2019). The collective outcomes link the HRP with the UNDAF, the World Bank Country Partnership Framework, the National Development Plan and the Vision 2030 of the government as a first concrete step in operationalizing the New Way of Working in Chad.
Some of the broad steps taken:
- Joint analysis of vulnerabilities and structural causes serves as a basis for coherent humanitarian-development multi-year planning and programming.
- Strategic alignment of National Development Plan 2017-2021, UNDAF 2017-2021 and the HRP.
- Agreement on six collective outcomes to be achieved by 2019 across the humanitarian-development communities alongside the government contributing to reaching the SDGs (engaging also donors).
- Organization of high-level humanitarian-development fora, chaired by the Government and the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC)”, held at least twice a year since 2017.
- Production of three notes on regional operational priorities promoting local based development in areas affected by humanitarian crises in the Lake Chad, Eastern and Southern regions.
Making it work on the ground
Challenges and Opportunities:
In 2018, 4.4 million people need humanitarian assistance, including 1. 4 million people who are food insecure. 220,000 children are affected by severe acute malnutrition. Funding is a significant operational constraint for the humanitarian response plan (HRP).
In 2017, the humanitarian community targeted 2.6 million people in need of assistance and requested $589 million. However, only 42% ($245.7 million) of funding requirement were received for the HRP. The 2017 HRP for Chad was one of the least funded humanitarian plans globally. To date, only 4 % of the 2018 HRP is funded.
While the country has tremendously advanced in bringing together all key humanitarian and development partners in the spirit of the New Way of Working, progress remains mostly at the strategic/policy level and is not yet benefiting the affected people. The humanitarian response remains underfunded while there is little development assistance coming in the country. This has hampered the operationalization of the collective outcomes.
(Source: OCHA, 2 March 2018)
