Observatory of aid practices in Chad (2009-April 2012)

A learning mechanism covering a broad range of topics

The work carried out in connection with the Chad Observatory covered a variety of fields (water and sanitation, the environment, resilience, food security, etc.) as well as numerous issues related to the political transition at the time, such as the shrinking of humanitarian space, population displacement, and the return of displaced people to Eastern Chad.

The activities of the Observatory were principally focused on:

• The production of knowledge via operational research and evaluations.
• Sharing lessons and disseminating results: via events and mini-seminars to present interim results in Chad, France and Brussels, and the development of different dissemination materials.
• Capacity-building, via the training of local professionals.

To run the Observatory, Groupe URD established an office and a team in N’Djamena complemented by specialists who carried out short missions.

The main areas of activity of the Observatory, in keeping with Groupe URD’s field of expertise, were based on three main pillars:

• Aid architecture and humanitarian space – to analyse questions of access to the population and issues related to the structure of the international aid system from legal, institutional, operational and political angles.
• Crises and vulnerabilities – to improve understanding of operational contexts, different types of crisis and specific vulnerabilities (fragile situations, socio-natural and technological risks, etc.) depending on the population group.
• Aid quality – to question humanitarian practices and work on tools and methods to improve their quality.

The European Commission was the Observatory’s main financial partner as of the beginning of 2009, with administrative support from the NGO, Solidarités International. The French state also supported the project in 2010. Specific activities also took place during 2010 thanks to the financial and material participation of UNICEF, N’Djamena municipal authority and UNDP.

Evaluations were carried out at the request of certain stakeholders:

• Evaluation of SDC local partners in Chad, from June 2011 to March 2013
• Post Distribution Monitoring for WFP in Chad, October – December 2011
• Evaluation of a programme by the Association pour le Développement Rural du Batha in Chad, June 2011
• Evaluation of the ACTED programme to improve living conditions and build the capacity of Sudanese refugees and host communities, May 2011
• Evaluation of the Project to support the stabilisation of Eastern Chad (PAS), for AFD, February 2011 – December 2012;
• Evaluation of LRRD programme, southern Chad, commissioned by the European Commission, January 2010;
• Evaluation of the “Livelihoods and environmental protection” programme of Concern Worldwide NGO, Goz Beida, 2009;
• Cluster Evaluation, Chad case study, for IASC/OCHA, 2009.

In collaboration with PhD students from the University of Lille, Graduate School of Legal Sciences, Policy and Management (l’Ecole Doctorale en Science Juridiques, Politiques et de Gestion de Lille), research work on the following subjects has been underway:

• Emergency aid evaluation practices from the point of view of humanitarian actors in Chad, March 2011
• Humanitarian space: field analysis of the ‘security pillar’ in eastern Chad, March 2011

Workshops and Training Sessions were held during this period, including:

• Experience exchange workshop on “Constraints and opportunities for ecosanitation in Chad”, 6th March 2012 in Goz Beida and 8th March 2012 in Ndjamena;
• Experience sharing workshop on monitoring and evaluation, 13th December 2011, Ndjamena;
• Experience sharing workshop on sustainable management of water points, 12th May 2011, Ndjamena;
• Presentation of the preliminary results of the study, “Management of Natural Resources in Eastern Chad”, 23th February 2011, Ndjamena ;
• Workshop, sharing experience and practice on ecological sanitation, 14th – 16th September 2010, Ndjamena;
• Introduction to the Quality COMPAS, 14th September 2010;
• Training Course ‘Mainstreaming the environment in humanitarian programmes’, 12th-14th April, 2010, Ndjamena;
• Workshops on Humanitarian space, Goz Beida, Abéché, Ndjamena, October 2009.