Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene September 2018 Vol.13 No.4 | Page 22

Water Supply
Second Lake Chad Conference aims to maintain
momentum and expand international support
This need to link humanitarian
work with development goals
is becoming more widely
recognized as critical to the future
of regions like the Lake Chad
Basin. In fact, it was the impetus
behind a joint OCHA-UNDP
mission to Somalia in January,
and UNDP Administrator Achim
Steiner and OCHA head and
Emergency Relief Coordinator
Mark Lowcock have underlined
the need to address the root
causes of crisis.
M
illions of people in Africa’s Lake Chad region
(north-east Nigeria and parts of Niger, Chad and
Cameroon) are facing a profound and protracted crisis
driven by extreme poverty, climate change and violent
conflict.
The crisis has led to the internal displacement of 2.4
million people, the destruction of livelihoods, human rights
abuses, and the disruption of health, education and other
basic services. More than 10 million vulnerable people need
life-saving assistance and protection today. Women and
children are particularly hard hit.
This is a massive humanitarian crisis. But it is also a
daunting development crisis. It is not only critical that the
world address the urgent needs of millions right away, we
must act urgently to strengthen resilience in the region, and
help people and communities recover to prevent a further
deterioration of the crisis.
This is because, while acute emergency needs continue to
be dire, delivering only humanitarian assistance year after
year will not be enough to bring communities back to a
path of sustainable development.
Development programmes need to be scaled up right now,
even as humanitarian response continues. This means
enhancing local governance, providing basic services,
improving economic opportunity and strengthening social
cohesion, while also restoring people’s and institutions’
sense of agency and dignity, as well as their ability to adapt
to changing circumstances — all with a focus on women
and young people.
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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • September 2018
In February 2017, a conference on the Lake Chad region
co-hosted by Germany, Nigeria, Norway, and the United
Nations took place in Oslo. Donors pledged US$672 million
to emergency assistance and support in 2017 and beyond.
The humanitarian response was scaled up significantly:
more than six million people were reached with assistance
in 2017, and a famine was averted in north-east Nigeria.
The humanitarian requirements for the region in 2018
total US$1.56 billion, and efficient development assistance
focusing on building resilience is also needed now.
The co-hosts from Oslo, including the United Nations
Development Programme, are now convening a second
conference to maintain momentum and increase and expand
international support, this time in Berlin on September
3 and 4. This Conference will aim to raise financial and
other support not only for the humanitarian response, but
also to promote crisis prevention and stabilization, as well
resilience for sustainable development.
Stabilization seeks to enable first steps towards
reconciliation and identify approaches to de-radicalization
and the prevention of violent extremism. Resilience for
sustainable development seeks to reduce risk, needs and
vulnerability and reduce the dependency on humanitarian
support.
There is a heightened awareness that a more joined-up
approach to humanitarian and development programing
is needed: “moving from delivering aid, to ending need.”
This will require a boost in development action focused on
restoring and enhancing resilience for the most vulnerable
and addressing the structural deficits and root causes of