The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq has announced that focal areas aimed at supporting the Project Lake Chad, PROLAC, have been mapped out.
She made this known at a virtual Ministerial World Bank Group RoundTable on the Lake Chad Region.
The Minister said the focal area was Restoring Rural Mobility and Connectivity which aimed at improving access of communities to markets and to providing beneficiaries with an opportunity for short-term employment.
Umar Farouq said that the Ministry will also support the World Bank through the provision of a coordination structure for the targeted management of vulnerabilities through the agencies and programmes under its supervision.
“The Lake Chad Region faces a combination of multidimensional risk factors which deepen vulnerabilities. From 2014, Boko Haram’s violent activities took on a transnational approach, spreading its terrorist attacks from Nigeria to Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. This has created a humanitarian crisis, increasing the number of internally displaced persons and refugees within the Lake Chad Region.
“While the drivers of fragility and obstacles to growth existed before the insurgency, the ongoing conflict has compounded the region’s difficulties. The Boko Haram regional conflict has triggered an acute humanitarian situation with devastating social and economic impact on the population.
“Direct efforts of the Ministry through the National Humanitarian Coordination Committee (amongst other structures and critical interventions) is the provision of an enabling environment to support peace enforcement, peace keeping and peace building across the Nation, especially within the Lake Chad Region through PROLAC,” Farouq explained
As part of the PROLAC project, a high-level dialogue is to be coordinated through the Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum on issues of common interest including Commerce, Agriculture, Environment, Security, Education and Health.
The virtual meeting is a follow-up on the 2020 event.
Focal Areas
Focal Areas include Regional and National Coordination Platform and local Capacity Building aimed at reinforcing regional dialogue and data collection and dissemination
Institutional capacity building and knowledge sharing as well as Agriculture Investments and
Value-Chain Development aimed at promoting public productive investments, value-chain development, citizen engagement and community participation activities in project areas.
Participants at the webinar include: Alamine Ousmane Mey, Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development Cameroon Issa Doubragne, Minister of Economy, Development Planification and International Cooperation Chad Mr. Abdou Rabiou, Minister of Planning Niger, Ms. Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Nigeria, Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Vice President, Western/Central Africa World Bank Ousmane Diagana
Representative of the Chairman of the North East Governors Forum Prof Babagana Umara Zulum Mamman Nuhu, Executive Secretary of Lake Chad Basin Commission Ms. Milicent Mutuli, Regional director for Western and Central Africa, UNHCR.
PIAK
