This operational research project is part of, ‘Learning and Innovating to Improve Crisis Response – phase 3’ (2022 – 2025). This project, which aims to help structure the NGO sector, is funded by the French Development Agency, Fondation de France, the Principality of Monaco and the Auvergne Rhône Alpes Region.
Based on a series of case studies, this operational research project aims to improve understanding of the mutual aid that takes place spontaneously in crisis situations and the relations between mutual aid networks and professional aid organisations. The aim will be to make operational recommendations both for individuals and organisations for before, during and after a crisis.
Following the floods in N’Djamena in 2022, a case study was launched and fieldwork carried out in April 202.
The questions asked for this study are:
– What are the perceptions and representations of the flood crisis by those who experienced it directly or indirectly?
– What different forms of commitment to solidarity have been expressed in the face of this crisis?
– What social, political and economic factors were involved in helping those affected?
– How are the actions (or inactions) of the state perceived? Of aid providers?
– What is the relationship between civil society solidarity actors and conventional aid institutions?
The mission in April 2024 led to around fifty interviews and the organisation of a workshop with disaster victims, formal and informal aid providers and other people who could shed light on the situation.
The purpose of the workshop was to
– Present the initial results of the data collection and initial analyses;
– Discuss the results and compare points of view;
– Co-construct operational recommendations.