Shoring Up Stability

Executive Summary

Lake Chad is caught in a conflict trap. It is experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian emergencies with an estimated 10.7 million people in need of assistance. A G7 mandated report from adelphi demonstrates, for the first time, how climate change is interacting with the conflict and compounds the crisis and sets out how these challenges might be overcome.

The report “Shoring Up Stability” shows that climate change and conflict dynamics create a feedback loop where climate change impacts seed additional pressures while conflict undermines communities’ abilities to cope. It concludes that the impacts of climate change have to be tackled as part of peacebuilding efforts as well as humanitarian aid and development cooperation if the region is to break free of the conflict trap. In doing so the Lake Chad basin can once again become an engine for sustainable livelihoods and stability in the region.

This independent report is the first of its kind on the Lake Chad region and a pioneer of climate-fragility risk assessments globally. Supported by the German and Dutch governments, it is the product of an intensive two-year period of interdisciplinary research across Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. It combines long-term hydrological data from the Lake Chad basin as well as brand new analysis of 20 years of satellite observations. It also builds on over 200 interviews with community members, including past and present members of armed groups, as well as experts and officials.

The report as well as infographics, a comic and video material are available for download now in English and in French at www.shoring-up-stability.org.

Shoring Up Stability was supported by the Foreign Ministries of the Netherlands and Germany.