The United Nations Development Programme, UNDP and its partners have approved the extension of the Regional Stabilization facility in support of the in support of implementing the Regional Strategy for the Stabilization, Recovery and Resilience (RSS) of the Boko Haram affected areas of the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) Region – Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.
The extension was validated at the end of a three-day multiparty consultation which rounded off in Yaounde on Friday, August 20.
The consultation brought together Senior Level Representatives from donor partners, the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), the African Union Commission (AUC), UNDP Resident Representatives, and stabilization teams working in the region.
“I wish to seize this opportunity for us to reflect on the implementation on the RSF proof of concept, define lessons learnt from the four countries, and determine a collective way forward to support the Lake Chad Basin in its fight against violent extremism,” said Jean-Luc Stalon, Resident Representative, UNDP Cameroon.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of the Lake Chad Bassin Commission and the Head of Mission of the Multinational Joint Task, Ambassador Mamman Nuhu expressed satisfaction with the results so far and called for the need to consolidate the gains.
“Results from the RSF have been impressive. This points to the importance of scale and the need for the gains of RSF to be consolidated and sustained by governments and other HDP actors in the field. Therefore, there is a need for RSF to reach out to other partners at the local level, and both UN and UN-entities, ” Ambassador Mamman Nuhu said.
Launched in 2019, the facility has provided a proof-of-concept model that supported the implementation of the Regional Strategy for the Stabilization, Recovery and Resilience (RSS) of the Boko Haram affected areas of the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) Region which shaped stabilization activities in the region for the past two years.
Despite deteriorating security situations and the COVID-19 pandemic, progress has been made across the four-country windows as well as capacity support to the LCBC. Overall, 15 Joint Action Plans (JAPs) have been implemented, leading to the strengthening of security architectures, the rehabilitation of essential infrastructure and basic services, and the provision of livelihood opportunities critical to achieving stability in target communities. Additionally, 13 Community Stabilization Committees were created to address community security challenges, including structural agreements and actions to strengthen civil-military coordination, all necessary to rebuild the social contract.
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“It Is Important To Support The IDPs,”- Diana Louise Ofwona, Resident Representative, UNDP, Niger
“This initiative as you know is an initiative of the Lake Chad Bassin Commission, the African Union and the governments of these four countries (Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Niger) with the support of our partners.
Over the past three days, we have been taking a deep look into the achievements so far of the interventions of the four countries of the Lake Chad Bassin in combating violent extremism. Violent extremism is combated militarily but as well it is very important to look at the other aspects like supporting the IDPs, those returning to their homes and ensuring that the basic conditions for their exists for them to be able to live a decent life. This is done in three areas; strengthen the security sector…the second is in the area of infrastructure and the third is in the area of revitalizing the economy.
“The Results Have Been Very Encouraging”-Jean Luc Stalon, Resident Representative, UNDP Cameroon
“This meeting had as main objective to evaluate the work we have been doing for the past two years in the region, in the four countries concerned (Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger) in terms of stabilization. The stabilization facility has as main objective to support the populations affected by violent extremism…The results are very encouraging and we have proven that stabilization is a major solution to support the populations, renew the social contract of populations affected by violent extremism. I am happy to announce that not only do we have encouraging results but we have the support of our partners to continue and scale up to cover more the necessary needs and improve on operations.
“It is important to involve communities”-Emma Sandahl, Counsellor, Embassy of Sweden, Addis Ababa
We all agree from the donor perspective that the regional cooperation is important and will be very important in the second phase…when you have regional challenges, you have to work together, you cannot just work at the local level or at the national level and in that work, we think it is important to involve the civil society organisations because they have their feet on the ground and can see things. It is important to involve the communities, it is also important to speak with women and men to get different points of views and concerns
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