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Recovering and restoring hope for communities in Northeast Nigeria

Por UNDP NIGERIA

10 de June de 2022

NIGERIA

According to UN OCHA the humanitarian emergency around Lake Chad is one of the four worst humanitarian crises globally, with 2.4 million people displaced, 5 million food insecure people at crisis and emergency levels, and millions of civilians subjected to extreme hardship. In the four Lake Chad countries, 17.4 million people live in areas affected by the crisis and 10.7 million are in need. approximately 2.5 million displaced, and more than 10 million people in the region3 affected and in need.

In 2016 the Nigerian Government launched the Buhari Plan as a means to provide a framework for engagement in the Northeast of the country, followed by the establishment of Operation Safe Corridor to provide rehabilitation and reintegration support to low-risk Boko Haram- associated persons. In May 2019 North-East Development Commission (NEDC) was established to tackle the root causes of the crisis.

While robust national and multi-national military operations have re-taken territory previously controlled by Boko Haram, in Nigeria and the other three countries affected by the crisis, there is need for a faster and more agile response from Government and the international community to consolidate gains made and establish the conditions necessary to transition from military to civilian responsibility for security, and from the provision of humanitarian assistance to the resumption of stalled development processes.

Recovering and restoring hope for communities in Northeast Nigeria

The Regional Stabilisation Facility for Lake Chad Nigeria window is a rapid response, towards the immediate stabilisation of the region. In Nigeria, intervention target areas are in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States cleared of Boko Haram and other armed group control, where communities remain vulnerable to impact of climate change and, continued infiltration and insecurity.

For stabilisation of the affected areas to be effective, the project is time bound, localized and integrates civilian programme of activities with the primary purpose of establishing minimum security conditions, essential services and livelihood opportunities necessary to sustain the peace and allow longer-term social cohesion and development processes to achieve momentum and impact. The Regional Stabilization Facility provides a new developmental approach, that will scale-up interventions, through strategic accelerated response and implementation; and, territorial coverage including improving regional cooperation.

The Facility is implemented according to a strategy that recognises the need to “win the peace”, promoting Government efforts to renew the social contract, engaging communities in the design and implementation of the intervention, and strengthening capacities and accountability for human rights compliance. The first phase seeks to model a stabilisation methodology and focuses on delivery of three main outputs: Community Safety and Security Improved; Essential infrastructure and basic services functioning; and, Livelihood opportunities available for all households.

Community engagement is a priority of the Regional Stabilisation Facility. In each target area, communities will be involved, in an inclusive and participatory basis, to represent the community voices in the discussions and decision-making including the design of the interventions and to guide its implementation on the ground, in order to ensure that community needs specifically of women and girls, as well as other vulnerable groups are met.

Over the years, Lake Chad has experienced seasonal and inter-annual variability in response to higher variability of the climate affecting the lives and the resilience of those dependent on the lake. However, the pressure on natural resources is not just limited to the lake but also land for farming, resulting from widespread deforestation driven by firewood consumption for cooking. While communities are well aware of the potential impact of deforestation on soil fertility and increased wind speeds few alternatives with which to cook food and the need for people to go further from populated areas to collect firewood puts them at risk of attack, abduction, rape and killing by insurgents, or of being suspected by the security administrators of passing information to armed opposition groups or being otherwise associated with them.

If stabilisation interventions are to be successful, significant attention needs to be paid to the interaction and impact of conflict-related environmental degradation and climate change.