From emergency to development, ACTED side by side with refugees and the Chadian population

In 2010, ACTED carried forward an objective of support to transition from emergency to development. Though emergency aid goes on, as a response to the needs of populations affected by the nutritional crisis in the Sahel and of the Sudanese refugees, development programs have been expanding in our 4 areas of intervention in the East and the South of the country. Our teams’ support programs, consisting of food security, road rehabilitation, water sanitation, hygiene and the environment have benefitted to 75,000 Sudanese and Central African refugees, as well as Chadians.

Reinforcing the beneficiary empowerment process

Relative political stability in the Sahel region has been met with a decrease in refugee influx in Chad, though 10,000 Central African refugees have reached the camps in the South of the country. In this context, ACTED was able to continue working on increasing refugees’ and local populations’ empowerment. While ensuring food distribution and fighting child malnutrition in the Oure Cassoni camp, ACTED established income generating activities, farming, agriculture and livestock support projects for local populations in the Goré area and close to the Oure Cassoni camp as well as for Sudanese and Central African refugees. In Goz Beida, in the East of the country, a farming support and agricultural technique program is being implemented for displaced local populations.

Together, these activities are part of a sustainable food security reinforcement process, which is aimed at letting beneficiaries satisfy their families’ food needs, generate income and therefore diminish their dependence on humanitarian aid.

Supporting the return, integration and resettlement of displaced persons

Thanks to its intervention in Eastern Chad, ACTED supports displaced populations that have fled conflict and now choose to settle in their host area, in another village or back in their village of origin. In 2006, more than 180,000 people left their village to escape violence and insecurity generated by fighting in the Dar Sila and Ouaddai regions. As the situation in the area improves, returns or integration movements began as soon as 2008. In 2010, approximately 60,000 people went back to their village of origin or decided to settle in their host area.

In 2010, ACTED carried out programs designed to improve access to drinking water through well construction, displacement management through road rehabilitation, and to improve the nutritional situation with farming support programs and the sanitation conditions through infrastructure construction and awareness raising among the population. The objective is to provide the necessary conditions for sustainable resettlement and empowerment to people who choose to return home or find a place a village.

Combining emergency actions and development programs as a response to current issues in the country

Following evaluations we made throughout the year 2010, ACTED is developing two new interventions in 2011. The first is aimed at bringing a response to the nutritional crisis affecting the Sahel by initiating an economic and sanitary support to the Batha region population (Center-East of Chad) who were hit by the 2009 drought and the 2010 floods. The second’s objective is to continue transitional support towards development by implementing projects oriented at the Chadian population, together with the support of local development actors. It will also help set up a participative dynamic that should allow the project’s beneficiaries to carry actions through alone.

At the same time, ACTED continues its intervention with refugees and displaced persons, in a move guided by strategic orientations decided since ACTED’s arrival in the country: taking into account the most vulnerable populations’ needs, increasingly involving and empowering beneficiaries, and ensuring universal access to water while preserving the environment.