Chad country study: humanitarian financing task team output IV

Chad ranks among the lowest countries of the world on a range of human development indicators. Food insecurity and high levels of malnutrition are chronic, with annual levels exacerbated by recurrent droughts. The country suffers from regional insecurity, and hosts refugees from three separate conflicts – long established refugees from Sudan in the East, people displaced from the Central African Republic in the South, and the people displaced by the Boko Haram conflict around Lake Chad. Further insurgencies are based along the northern border with Libya, where no international agencies are currently working.

The government budget, which is highly dependent on oil revenues, has been in crisis since the fall in oil prices in 2014. Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Chad almost doubled in response to the fiscal crisis, and has remained at comparable levels since. This is largely the result of increased funding by the World Bank (WB), the African Development Bank (ADB), and other multilaterals. While some of this funding has gone to direct government budget support to navigate the current fiscal crisis, increased funds have also been going into development projects. Humanitarian funding in Chad remained relatively stable over the past few years, although at under half of the amount requested in recent humanitarian appeals. This has led many humanitarian actors to perceive there to be diminished resources to meet ongoing needs, without looking at overall financial flows.

International humanitarian and development agencies in Chad have worked hard at ensuring integrated planning tools and structures. This includes collective outcomes established through the New Way of Working (NWOW). Donors have developed some innovated and linked-up financing channels linking together humanitarian and development actions, although these are largely based on global trends and there are no funding instruments directly linked to the COs.

Multi-year, flexible financing instruments still represent a minority of assistance flows that are available to actors working on Nexus approaches, and are a long way from addressing the shortfalls highlighted by both humanitarian and development actors. Humanitarian and development donors also frequently have different visions on how to best to find solutions to Chad’s vast challenges when working with a government that lacks basic presence in many parts of the country, is primarily focused on security concerns, and suffers from pervasive corruption. These differing visions lead to different views of prioritisation of needs-based service delivery vs. prioritisation of government stabilisation.