Oxfam's work in Chad in depth

Hampered by regional instability and internal conflicts, Chad remains one of the world’s least developed countries with 80 per cent of its ten million inhabitants living below the poverty line.

Remote, arid and isolated, Chad has faced massive arrivals of people fleeing violence in Darfur since 2004. There has also been internal displacement due to fights between opponent political armed groups and ethnic clashes. Today, about half a million people in eastern Chad are entirely depending on humanitarian assistance. This situation has put immense pressure on already scarce natural resources. Hardest hit have been supplies of water in a country where even the local population cannot be assured of the minimum global standard of 15 litres per person per day.

Increased insecurity due to banditry and clashes between insurgents and the country army has only compounded the problems faced by refugees, displaced populations and host communities. Due to the volatile nature of the security context in eastern Chad, there always exists the possibility of national or international staff being harmed by armed people.

Chad is enjoying an oil boom. The country became an oil-producing nation in 2003 with the completion of a $4 billion pipeline and is estimated to have reserves of up to one billion barrels. Changes to rules governing how revenues can be spent have been controversial, as the agreement to allocate a higher proportion of the revenues on anti-poverty projects is still not met.

The conflict

The outbreak of violent conflict in Darfur in 2003/04 has forced over 250,000 Sudanese to flee to Chad. The majority of these refugees live in 12 camps located in eastern Chad.

In 2006, fighting continued to affect large areas of Darfur despite the African Union peacekeeping mission. This violence has now spread to eastern Chad and deadly internal conflicts have led to mass displacement with people moving into new camps. 180,000 Chadian are displaced all over eastern Chad. As with the refugees, the IDPs are in need of external assistance to provide for their basic human and protection needs.

The refugees and displaced populations have very limited access to water, sanitation, health and food. Host communities’ resources are rapidly depleted, as eastern Chad is a marginalised region in a country with very limited resources. As the Chadian government was not able to respond to the needs of the population, humanitarian organisations were called upon to meet their needs.

Continued insecurity has made it hard for refugees and IDPs to return to their homes. They continue to live in camps and sites where they are very heavily dependent on humanitarian assistance and struggle to support themselves.

Oxfam in Chad

Oxfam has been working in Chad for many years. In 2004 we set up emergency programmes to respond to the needs of the refugees, host communities and IDPs in eastern Chad.

Oxfam provide clean water and sanitation to 100,000 people. As well as digging wells and building latrines, we distribute essential items such as soap, jerry cans, and provide health education to prevent the spread of disease. We provide livelihood opportunities and skills training to reduce dependency on aid; we are working to promote better management of natural resources such as water; and we are advocating at local and global levels for a sustainable political solution to end the suffering.

There are also very important food security and protection components in our programme. Beyond direct implementation, our work in Chad includes providing technical assistance and training to local partners and other NGOs so that projects can become increasingly self-sufficient and self-sustaining.

There are currently 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad, of which Oxfam is active in two. Our overall programme focuses on the camps in Kounoungou, Mile and in IDP sites such as Koloma, Gouroukoun, Koubigou, Gassire and Kerfi. A lot of work has been, and still is, conducted in the different sites to ensure that the refugees, displaced populations and host communities have access to the basic needs. Access to safe water remains one of the biggest challenges: Oxfam and other NGOs are working hard to ensure sustainable water sources.

Oxfam’s main office is in Abeche, the largest town in eastern Chad. The camps of Kounougou and Mile, in the northern axis, are managed from Guereda and have been set up to respond to the urgent need of new influxes of Sudanese refugees in February 2008. The IDP sites of Gassire, Koloma, Gouroukoun, Koubigou and Kerfi are in the southern axis and are managed from the Oxfam’s office in Goz Beida.

We work closely in the field with our sister Spanish organisation, Intermon Oxfam.

What we do

Water and sanitation

Water distribution points and sanitation facilities are set-up and are well managed in four refugee camps and four IDP sites and are used by 100, 000 people. We aim for these refugees and IDPs to have:

• safe access to, and storage for, sufficient quality and quantities of water for drinking, cooking and personal and domestic hygiene
• safe and hygiene access to latrines and means of disposing domestic waster are improved
• access to information and materials to reduce the risks linked with poor hygiene practices and with vector borne diseases
• 25,000 host communities have access to improved water supply and sanitation systems in 35 villages located around refugee camps in north and south part of eastern Chad

Public health promotion

Clean water and public health promotion are essential to prevent deadly diseases. Oxfam is providing training and distributing soap and jerrycans to help families keep clean water. Our latrine programme is being carried out in close collaboration between our public health promoters and the local population.

Oxfam is responsible for the water system in refugee camps and IDP sites. We are building wells and drilling new boreholes to respond to the urgent need of water and securing water supplies, especially in the dry season. Water points are designed to avoid clashes between women when collecting water. There are about 18 litres per person, per day, available in the camps and sites.

Advocacy

Oxfam is advocating for a better protection of civilians in Darfur and Chad. We aim to influence key actors at the local level while also calling for the deployment of an international presence on the ground in Chad. This work is articulated with the Right in Crisis campaign and more particularly the work around the responsibility to protect.

At the same time, we call for an increased quantity and quality of aid. There are real concerns that the level of aid is becoming more and more insufficient in eastern Chad, while needs are rapidly growing. Key humanitarian donors should increase their funding. UN agencies should also take a stronger lead, in line with the cluster approach. In Chad we have a protection advisor and advocacy co-ordinator leading our work on this.

Protection

The humanitarian crisis in eastern Chad is a crisis of insecurity and lack of civilian protection. Therefore it is essential that we engage to change the currently inadequate protection focus of the international community.

We aim to raise awareness and push national and international organisations to be more accountable with respect to their mandates to increasingly vulnerable populations. Oxfam includes a protection dimension in its programming by ensuring that protection issues are considered in the design of its humanitarian response.

Gender inequities are strong and deep-rooted amongst the Darfur refugees as well as amongst host-communities in eastern Chad. The programme tries to achieve more equity in terms of gender relations by involving women in each step of the programme (from the assessment, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation).

Women are facing specific protection concerns in Chad and Oxfam tries to address these concerns through mainstreaming protection in its work and influencing other actors who have the power to protect such as Chadian authorities, UNHCR, and leaders in the refugee camps.

 

Last updated: August 2008