World Bank approves $346 Million for Nigeria, others on Lake Chad
Nduka Chiejina
The World Bank has approved $346 million in International Development Association (IDA) financing to help strengthen resilience and livelihoods in the Lake Chad region.
The money will be shared among Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.
In the Lake Chad there are significant gaps in infrastructure, access to basic services is poor, and natural resources and livelihoods are severely impacted by climate change.
According to a statement from the World Bank, “the situation is exacerbated by insecurity prevailing since 2009 due to insurgent activities that prevents more than 49 million people from attaining their livelihoods in fishing, livestock farming and agriculture.”
The two newly approved facilities “focus on enhancing regional collaboration among the four countries to support communities close to the shore of Lake Chad areas and to improve the living conditions of the population, including vulnerable women and youth who face the negative impacts of climate change and suffer from insecurity.”
The first project to be funded valued at $170 million is the Lake Chad Region Recovery and Development Project (PROLAC, $170 million). “It will support national and regional coordination platforms and local capacity building, contribute to restore sustainable rural mobility and connectivity and strengthen the recovery of agricultural livelihoods in selected provinces of Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.”
The facility will also promote knowledge sharing and regional dialogue with a data platform hosted at the Lake Chad Basin Commission.
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PROLAC will contribute to the rehabilitation of rural roads and small transport infrastructure, and will promote productive investments by helping agricultural producers to increase productivity in the polder areas in Chad, the farming of oasis areas in Niger, and in the areas close to the shore of the Lake Chad in the Far North of Cameroon.
The second project, the Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project for North Eastern Nigeria, Additional Financing (MCRP AF,), is valued at $176 million.
It will help the Government of Nigeria to improve access to basic services and livelihood opportunities for crisis-affected communities in the North Eastern States of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, while enhancing coordination among these States and other Lake Chad countries.
The facility “expands the ongoing $200 million MCRP project and puts an increased emphasis on support for agricultural livelihoods and investments.”
In addition, the MCRP AF will include “support for labor-intensive approaches and works programmes, promote rural and regional connectivity, rehabilitate market infrastructure and prioritize climate change adaptation and mitigation.”
The project will also expand its education and health activities to include a focus on service delivery by providing grants to school committees and incentives to returning teachers, and by promoting quality of primary health care services in targeted public health centers and district hospitals.
Both PROLAC and the MCRP are well aligned with existing regional and national strategies, including: the World Bank’s Regional Integration and Cooperation Assistance Strategy which promotes collective actions to address the risks of regional economic contagion, fragility, epidemic and climate hot spots; (ii) the World Bank’s Strategy for Fragility, Conflict and Violence; and with (iii) the Country Partnership Frameworks for Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and the Country Partnership Strategy for Nigeria.