Can an integrated territorial approach help to reinforce resilience?

With the aim of reinforcing the resilience of individuals and territories in the Lake Chad Basin, the RESILAC project has developed an intervention strategy that combines both emergency assistance, and assistance in the medium/long term, thus consolidating the ‘triple nexus’ linking humanitarian assistance, development cooperation and peacebuilding.

One of the main components of this intervention strategy is the approach adopted to reinforce resilience among the population and within territories. Initially defined as a ‘territorial’ and ‘integrated’ approach (as opposed to a sector-based or thematic approach), the project aimed to focus on the specific characteristics of the areas that were selected via a participatory and inclusive process.

In order to ensure that the active local population had a central role, the project aimed to systematically carry out a community-based assessment (territorial assessment) for each of the selected territories and collectively identify sustainable solutions. Though territorial approaches are common in the development sector, they are rare in crisis contexts. It is therefore an innovative approach that RESILAC has adopted to reinforce resilience.

The overall objective of this study is, firstly, to define RESILAC’s territorial approach and how it is implemented, and, secondly, to assess its impact at different levels. More specifically, it will aim to:

1. describe the theoretical and conceptual framework of RESILAC’s integrated territorial approach;
2. analyse how the approach is implemented;
3. assess the impact of the integrated territorial approach and the inter-pillar strategy in terms of reinforcing resilience;
4. consolidate RESILAC’s intervention strategy and elaborate a conceptual framework, based on the integrated territorial approach, which can be transposed to other projects.

Several Groupe URD researchers will work with the RESILAC project teams and national consultants, and will conduct field visits in Cameroon, Niger and Chad in autumn 2021.

Photo : Herman Madtoingue