Closing of the RESILAC project

The Lake Chad Inclusive Economic and Social Recovery (RESILAC) project is a regional project aimed at contributing to the economic recovery and strengthening of the resilience and social cohesion of the populations of the Lake Chad Basin in Cameroon (Far North region), Niger (Diffa region), Nigeria (Borno State) and Chad (Lake Province). Co-funded by the European Union and the French Development Agency to the tune of €36.1 million, the project has been implemented by a consortium of NGOs Action Against Hunger (lead partner), CARE International and Groupe URD in partnership with national and local organisations. The project run for 5 years (2018-2022) and covered 13 territories and 254 villages, reaching nearly 158 000 beneficiaries.

Through four pillars of intervention: strengthening human capital and social cohesion, economic recovery and youth reintegration, institutional strengthening and advocacy, and learning and knowledge management, RESILAC has been designed as an agile solution that fits into the humanitarian-development nexus and adapts to the needs of populations and territories while taking into account security and climate challenges.

Its action, based on a territorial approach, involves working in collaboration with community leaders and traditional chieftainships, civil society organisations and grassroots community organisations, local authorities and deconcentrated technical services, public and semi-public institutions in each country of intervention. By ensuring that the “do no harm” principle is respected, the project adapts to the security, societal and traditional context of the communities for greater localisation and better ownership of the action by the beneficiaries and the actors of the territory.

Pillar 1 – Strengthening human capital and social cohesion

Through the strengthening of social cohesion, mental health care and psychosocial support for populations affected by armed groups and the concerted management of natural resources, Pillar 1 aims to recreate social connection between and within the communities most affected by the crisis and to improve the well-being of the population; recreating social bond and helping victims of violence to overcome their trauma and regain confidence in order to peacefully manage conflicts related to access to and use of natural resources.

• More than 9,900 people received psychosocial support. 100% of the people supported have improved their subjective state of well-being.
• 394 grassroots community organisations strengthened in terms of skills and materials
• 558 activities of living together (85 training, 300 citizens debate, 173 sociocultural activities) organised for the benefit of 59,308 people to rebuild social links and improve mutual aid within and between communities.
• 35 natural resource management agreements signed to reduce conflicts over natural resources
• 92 strengthened conflict resolution bodies aimed at restoring dialogue between people of different religious faiths, re-establishing exchanges between communities and land management bodies, and raising awareness of gender-based violence.

Pillar 2 – Economic Recovery

By supporting the small economy in a sustainable way, Pillar 2 of the project aims to provide the skills and tools necessary for households to achieve food self-sufficiency and economic autonomy through professional integration and support to agro-sylvo-pastoral agricultural production systems

More than 3,400 youth participated in the rehabilitation of community assets and more than 11,800 young people have benefited from training in their chosen profession

Supporting savings and access to loan has resulted in the development of income-generating activities, which has allowed people to increase their income and thus reduce their debt. The 339 village Saving Loan Associations (VSLA) strengthen also improved relations between men and women, and between people of different faiths and communities.

Through support to production systems, more than 12,000 producers and herders now have access to restored land and rehabilitated pastoral areas; crops can now be stored in 13 community banks. Finally, 1760 hectares of irrigated areas through modern irrigation processes have contributed to a 133% increase in the income of market gardening beneficiaries.

Pillar 3 – Support to local and institutional capacities

The RESILAC project has also strengthened 11 civil society organizations and territorial management entities in their local development mission. Thus, 24 communes/cantons/LGA and 14 local development plans have been supported, allowing territories to develop a shared vision of the development of their locality, taking into account the needs of all and serving as a tool to support local initiatives within these areas.

Advocacy forums for the integration of mental health care into primary health care were organized in the countries of intervention, as well as 5 fairs to bring together producers and breeders in order to establish organized economic partnerships. this support contributed to a 30% increase in women’s participation in decision-making bodies at the end of the project.

Pillar 4: producing knowledge

Finally, in the framework of knowledge management and production, 6 regional research studies and 4 capitalization reports aiming to better understand the environment in which the project has developed in order to better adapt its action were carried out, 3 of which were presented at conferences. Through the “learning” component, two independent monitoring and evaluation systems were applied in order to analyze and adapt the project’s strategies according to the beneficiaries’ feedback (Feedback days) and the results of iterative evaluations with mini-seminars.

Articles, reports, workshops, videos, quarterly newsletters, regional conferences, testimonies, etc. the RESILAC project is a large number of meetings, exchanges, and activities restituted and disseminated through different channels, which will be kept in memory on the RESILAC website.