81260951 — Implementation of Output 2 — Improving the Income Perspectives of Youth in Chad

The Republic of Chad currently faces multiple problems: it fights against foreign and domestic terrorism, hosts over 600 000 refugees, is affected by crises in neighbouring countries and is burdened by debts. The provinces of Kanem, Bahr El Gazel and Hadier Lamis (collectively designated as ‘region of western Chad’) are among the country's poorest regions. The region suffers gravely from climate change, population growth, water scarcity, soil erosion, and desertification, which have together caused alarming food insecurity and acute malnutrition in the whole Sahel region. Due to a lack of resources, communities in those three provinces cannot adequately address poverty, even though their populations urgently need access to basic services. Most of the local population — especially women — is engaged in (subsistence) agriculture in wadis, with livelihoods suffering from low productivity, complex land rights, and a lack of adaptation to climate change. More generally, the economy of western Chad is very poorly developed and ill-connected to other regions. The quality of vocational training is low and opportunities for wage employment are rare, resulting in 70 % of 15-35 years-olds being unemployed. Strong gender inequality is perpetuated through early marriages, young Motherhoods, and low female literacy. Regionally, the pressure on natural resources is growing, leading to a rise in conflicts between various local stakeholders. Without future perspectives, many unemployed youths develop negative adaptation mechanisms, are prone to Islamist radicalization, turn to crime or engage in drug abuse. Nonetheless, Chad enjoys substantial potential in agriculture, forestry and pastoral production and industry, and service sector development. These potentials are targeted by the National Development Plan 2017-2023 through its objectives of good governance, employment, production, rural development, and decent work, and its focus on security and social cohesion, the strengthening of the governance systems of democratic institutions, economic diversification, protection of the environment and natural resources, and human capital development and the strengthening of social protection systems. In sum, the lack of participatory development planning, job scarcity, insufficient sources of income, especially for young men and women, as well as weak social cohesion as conditions that impede peaceful coexistence constitute the central problem. Addressing these conditions can contribute to sustainably prevent instability, conflicts, and uncontrolled migration at home and abroad. The objective of the development project ‘Improvement of livelihoods in western Chad’ (PAMELOT) is therefore to improve the conditions for a peaceful coexistence in selected communities of the provinces of Hadier-Lamis, Bahr-El-Gazel and Kanem. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the International Development Cooperation of Germany ‘GIZ’. The project's political partner is the Chadian Ministry for the economy and development planning, but it also cooperates with local government structures, customary local authorities, and non-governmental institutions. The activities target 11 communities in western Chad that were selected based on their vulnerability, agricultural potential, engagement in civil society, lack of other development actors and population density. Within those communities the primary target group are unemployed youth. Organization-wise, the project is structured through the following four outputs: 1) participatory development planning is strengthened in the supported communes; 2) the income perspectives of youths are improved; 3) the conditions for an improvement of the economic situation of women are gathered; 4) the conditions for a peaceful management of conflicts are improved.