Chad

Chad, a landlocked Central African country, suffers from economic structures which remain vulnerable, but does nevertheless have a number of assets. AFD takes action to promote and develop an economy that benefits all.

Context

Chad is a Sahelian country with the fifth largest economy in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). Landlocked and a long way from the coast, it covers 1.3 million square kilometers and has an estimated population of 15.3 million, most of whom are living in rural areas.

Its economy is not very diversified, depending largely on revenue from oil (74% of exports), which is therefore subject to considerable price variations. Its HDI ranking (187/189) demonstrates the extent of the country’s needs in almost all sectors. Chad is also plagued by political instability in the wider region and is experiencing a humanitarian crisis due to the many refugees and displaced persons. These problems are exacerbated by the impact of global warming, and particularly desertification, which is a major threat to Lake Chad.

Nonetheless, Chad has many assets that make it ripe for equitable economic development: significant groundwater resources, 94 million livestock and 39 million hectares of arable land.

AFD has been present in Chad for over 60 years, providing technical support to establish and implement public policy, and financing economic and social development projects led by a wide range of stakeholders: public actors, private companies, local authorities, associations and NGOs.

Since 2017, AFD has been fully committed to working in collaboration with other donors in the region as part of the Sahel Alliance, a partnership launched by France, Germany and the European Union. The aim is to encourage cooperation to launch a coherent strategy and grant effective aid that will benefit the people of Chad directly, with a view to furthering development, as well as improving internal security.

Over the last ten years, AFD has granted €493 million in financing to Chad.

AFD's Chad office is directly attached to the Greater Sahel regional office in Ouagadougou.

Our approach

"AFD and Chad: optimizing the country's resources and assets"

Underemployment is a critical issue for young people in Chad (under 25s), who make up 70% of a rapidly growing population, with a significant increase in the number of Chadians needing to be educated, trained and professionally integrated into the local economic landscape. The number of young people entering the job market has increased from 140,000 per year in 2012 to nearly 210,000 in 2020. However, vocational training is an underdeveloped sector in Chad, whose institutions are inadequate both in number and quality.
The main aim of AFD’s activity in Chad is to establish a better balance between education, training and employment:

Access to and quality of education: AFD is contributing to improving learning conditions, building the capacities of stakeholders in the education sector, and promoting innovative teaching approaches in order to enhance the capacities of non-formal basic training centers.
Entrepreneurship, professional integration and vocational training are being developed via the Maison de la Petite Entreprise, a unique mechanism to promote entrepreneurship in Chad, and the Fonds National d'Appui à la Formation Professionnelle (National Vocational Training Support Fund), as well as by supporting initiatives implemented by NGOs.

The rural sector in Chad is facing many issues. Factors such as extensive production systems, climate change, tensions between farmers and herders and unsustainable natural resource management are all putting pressure on an already fragile food system, the health and safety of communities and the country’s ecosystems. AFD is attempting to overcome these cross-cutting challenges by financing projects in complementary sectors:

Support for the development of a high-quality seed industry and planning initiatives for new agricultural land by establishing hydro-agricultural infrastructure to improve food security.
Development of solutions to modernize over-extensive systems through planning projects for ponds and pastoral wells, transhumance corridors, or education and health pilot projects in remote areas.
Support to increase socio-economic resilience by strengthening local governance and improving the livelihoods of vulnerable people through an integrated territorial approach.
Support for the conservation and protection of 276,000 hectares of diverse and fragile ecosystems by managing a network of protected areas, including a national park in Binder-Léré.

Improving people’s quality of life is a top priority for AFD Group in Chad. This means providing better access to basic services for the most vulnerable communities.

To facilitate access to water and sanitation, AFD is helping to improve the drinking water network in N'Djamena, to develop urban resilience to climate change by financing flood control and sustainable waste management infrastructure projects, and to build the capacities of local stakeholders responsible for urban services (N'Djamena and Moundou).

In terms of health, our strategy is to improve access to care, particularly in terms of maternal, child and reproductive health, thus playing a role in empowering women (through the training of health professionals, the equipping or renovation of health centers, access to family planning services and support for universal healthcare coverage).

To establish sustainable peace resulting in prosperity, capacity-building for stakeholders and institutions at both the central and local levels is required, as well as proactive action to mitigate the tensions and conflicts in evidence to varying degrees throughout Chad. To this end, as a mouthpiece for the Sahel Alliance, AFD is supporting the sustainable and balanced development of regions through the implementation of an Integrated Territorial Approach (ITA).

As a result, AFD is providing financing to:

Strengthen governance in all its diversity: from the transparency of public finances to the support of a radio station promoting peace in the Lake region;
Develop an extensive portfolio of multi-servicae projects focused on local governance and the resilience of vulnerable communities in crisis zones (the Lake province) and fragile areas (the Sahelian strip, the northern provinces and the eastern and southern border regions), by mobilizing the Minka Peace and Resilience Fund.

The goal is to foster, using financing and tools, an inclusive and participatory approach to the planning and management of investment and essential public services in order to rebuild the social contract, promote respect for human rights and the establishment of a modern government, in line with the vision for “The Chad We Want”.