Africa Press-Nigeria:
Surrounded by Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, the Lake Chad region has been a regional hub integrated across the national borders and shores of the lake for centuries. Economic activities and livelihoods were built around daily cross-border flows of people and goods. This intense activity around the lake is buoyed by shared cultural, linguistic, religious and family links. The lake itself is recognized well beyond the region’s borders as a long-shared resource known for having fed the population of the region.
Recent history has been tumultuous though. Indeed, the Lake Chad region has one of the highest global concentrations of extreme poverty and lags on almost every development indicator. Since 2009, the region has experienced sustained levels of high intensity conflicts which caused massive levels of forced displacement and severely impacted vulnerable groups — women and youth in particular. Recurring climate shocks, rapid demographic growth and weak governance further compound the region’s fragility. As a result, the Lake Chad region has been designated a priority area for World Bank Group support.
Recognizing that the challenges faced are often regional in nature, the governments of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria are committed to intensifying regional coordination to support early recovery and development. The World Bank is supporting these joint efforts through an integrated program of national and regional operations.
On May 26, 2020 the Bank approved two new projects that will contribute to the stabilization of the Lake Chad region and support the gradual shift to longer-term development approaches. The Lake Chad Region Recovery and Development Project (PROLAC, $170 million) is the first World Bank-funded regional project dedicated to help address challenges in the region. Together with an additional financing to the Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project for North Eastern Nigeria (MCRP AF, $176 million), they will lay the foundations for future regional and coordinated investments that will improve access to regional markets, promote value-chain development and revive cross-border and regional trade.
Four main areas are at the core of the World Bank Group’s regional program for the Lake Chad region, in line with the World Bank Group’s Strategy for Fragility, Conflict and Violence:
Consolidating the foundations for regional cooperation by supporting an enhanced regional dialogue involving local institutions (governors, communes, local universities and research centers), and filling the knowledge gap in and on the region, notably through the creation of a regional knowledge platform hosted by the Lake Chad Basin Commission.
Addressing the most pressing needs of the population and fostering the capacity of local communities and institutions to address them by restoring resilient livelihoods and regional value chains, rehabilitating small-scale agriculture infrastructure and productivity in the polder areas in Chad, the farming of oasis areas in Niger, and in the areas close to the shores of the Lake Chad in the Far North Cameroon and North-Eastern Nigeria.
Enhancing social cohesion and restoring trust through citizen engagement mechanisms and labor-intensive public works that will create temporary jobs benefiting excluded communities such as youth and women.
Better connecting this remote region, notably through enhanced energy and transportation infrastructure to support growth, trade and job creation.
