Dr Uche Okpara, Director of the Prosperity and Peace Pathways Project, participated in a recently concluded High-Level Conference on the Lake Chad Region held in Niamey, Niger Republic, from 23-24 January 2023. The Conference was hosted by the Governments of Niger, Germany and Norway, as well as the United Nations represented by the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in partnership with the Lake Chad Basin Commission. The two-day Conference brought together over 60 high-profile individuals, over 35 countries and international organisations, and more than 100 civil society organisations to Niamey.
The Conference, organised for the first time in Africa, focused on climate, security and development issues in the Lake Chad region, including humanitarian, food security and stabilisation concerns. Participants discussed ways to advance civilian protection, strengthen local resilience, address climate security and foster stronger linkages across humanitarian-stabilisation-development activities. Donors during the Conference pledged over US$500 million to support a coordinated regional response to the multifaceted crises threatening the region.
During the Conference, Dr Uche Okpara participated in the session on “Climate change and insecurity – the consequences on food security” which is an area of research he has worked on extensively over the past 10 years. He also met and interacted with many key stakeholders working on peace and sustainable development initiatives, including the Governor of Diffa. Diffa is one of the Prosperity and Peace Pathways project fieldwork site and Dr Uche is looking forward to working with the Governor to deliver an international workshop on “Delivering Meaningful Prosperity and Peace Pathways for the Lake Chad Region” during the summer of 2023.
High-Level Conferences on the Lake Chad Region offer useful entry points to discuss and deal with the development and security challenges across the Lake Chad region. Dr Uche Okpara believes situating future conferences in specific territories in the Lake Chad region, such as in Diffa, Marou, Maiduguri or Bol where stakeholders could better see and experience the human sufferings in the region, would help create a sense of urgency and amplify humanitarian, security and development interventions across the region.
