Chad

Operational context

The economic crises that had crippled Chad’s economy since 2015 continued however, despite economic challenges, the Government remained committed to improving the protection environment and to including refugees in local, national and regional development plans.
 
The Government of Chad continued to lead a multi-year, multi-partner strategy to mobilize a broad range of stakeholders to meet refugee and host community needs, alongside application of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework and the Global Compact for Refugees. At the Global Refugee Forum in December 2019, Chad announced eight pledges to strengthen the protection environment for refugees including through a “villagization” strategy which aimed to integrate refugee camps into villages. Refugees in Chad were also included in projects to strengthen peaceful coexistence, including PARCA (Projet d’appui aux refugies et communautes d’accueil) and DIZA (Programme de developpement integre des zones d’accueil).  
 
Despite these advances, limited community resilience and levels of self-reliance in refugee hosting communities continued to exacerbate the vulnerabilities of refugees, especially increasing the risk of sexual and gender-based violence.
 
While refugees, returnees and IDPs were included in national and regional development plans, challenges included limited access to land in some areas linked to poor technical assessments, climate change, weak water management and pest-borne diseases which negatively affected crops and livestock in refugee-hosting communities in southern and eastern Chad.

Population trends

As of 31 December 2019, Chad was host to nearly 739,400 people of concern, including some 442,700 refugees (75% from Sudan, 21% from the Central African Republic, and 3% from Nigeria). UNHCR and its partners facilitated the voluntary repatriation of close to 2,100 Sudanese refugees to their home country, while some 300 Chadians returned from Sudan. Almost 2,100 refugees departed through resettlement in 2019. Some 93% of refugees in Chad lived in camps, 6% in host villages and sites, while the remaining 1% were urban refugees, living in N’Djamena. There were an estimated 170,300 IDPs in Chad by December 2019, with some 1,300 newly displaced people in the province of Ouaddaï.

Achievements

• UNHCR continued to provide services to meet the basic needs of Nigerian refugees registered in the Lake Chad region.
• UNHCR provided office supplies and registry kits for registration centres, in addition to training key stakeholders on civil status and civil documentation.
• Primary, secondary and tertiary health care was made available to all refugees, with comprehensive health and nutrition interventions carried out in the south of Chad.

Unmet needs

• The 2019 humanitarian response plan for Chad was funded at a mere 27%, and protection at just 3%. This severely impacted the safety and security of, and access to life-saving assistance for, refugees, IDPs and other people of concern.
• Many cases of sexual and gender-based violence remained unreported. In response, standard operating procedures were adopted in 2019 to guide humanitarian actors in their interventions, a SGBV incident reporting and collection system was implemented and survivors continued to receive psychological, legal and social assistance.
• Legal protection was made even more challenging due to the absence of a national legal framework, with the draft asylum law yet to be adopted by parliament.
• Women remained less represented and less active in various community management structures due to societal norms (representation was approximately 30%, and 15% in the south of Chad). Health infrastructures in refugee hosting areas remained weak and a general strike of State medical personnel in 2019 deepened existing gaps. In coordination with the Ministry of Health, UNHCR transferred all camp-based medical centres to State ownership and administration. However, robust State engagement to reinforce medical facilities and services was needed.

 

Working environment

 Chad has been going through an economic crisis since 2015 with devastating effects on the economy. Continued unrest in neighbouring countries, particularly in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Nigeria, will impact the security and humanitarian environment of Chad through refugee and asylum-seeker flows. The border with CAR is likely to remain closed. In the Lake region, Boko Haram, although weakened, still has a residual nuisance force that can cause violence and instability. As a result, prospects for the return of IDPs and refugees will be limited.
 
The lack of funding and investment in primary social sectors has led to failure in the provision of essential services, resulting in heightened chronic and structural vulnerabilities. However, the government remains committed to improving the protection environment and to integrating refugees into local, national and regional development plans. Chad has adhered to the multi-year, multi-partner strategy and there is a conducive environment to its enlistment in the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) and adoption of the asylum law, which has already made significant progress. The draft law, to be presented to the Council of Ministers, would result in the right to work, freedom of movement with formal recognized documentation and access to services. The cohabitation between refugees and host communities remains peaceful.
 
UNHCR will continue to play an instrumental role in supporting Chad and will reinforce its joint programming in 2019 with UN sister agencies, development actors, private sectors, financial institutions and local communities.
 

Key priorities

Working closely with the Government and development partners, particularly the World Bank, UNHCR will continue pursuing durable solutions for refugees in 2019. These opportunities will include voluntary repatriation, for which a tripartite agreement has been signed with Sudan, an out-of-camp community development approach towards socioeconomic integration for those staying in Chad, as well as resettlement and other legal pathways.
 
In 2019, UNHCR will focus on:
 

• Continuous advocacy and support for the adoption of the national refugee law;
• Implementation of activities aiming at empowering refugees and other people of concern while searching durable solutions for them through the whole-of-society approach and inclusion in the local, national and regional plans;
• Maintaining emphasis on education, sexual and gender-based violence, child protection and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse as protection priorities in 2019.