ABOUT THE PROJECT

This project, commissioned by the G7, is the first ever climate and fragility assessment of a specific region. It is the product of an intensive two-year period of research across Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. The assessment draws on long-term hydrological data from the Lake Chad basin and brand new analysis of 20 years of satellite observations. It also builds on more than 200 interviews with community members, including past and present members of armed groups, experts and officials. The study provides entry points and guiding principles to address climate-fragility risks in the Lake Chad region and beyond, it also underscores the universal need for risk-informed responses to complex crises if current development goals are ever to be met.

This assessment was led by adelphi in cooperation with the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)/Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE), France, and local conflict analysts from the Lake Chad region.

THE TEAM

Janani Vivekananda

Janani is a Senior Advisor at adelphi and project lead of this risk assessment. Working on climate change and peacebuilding for over 14 years, she has designed and led field research projects on community-level resilience, climate change and conflict, linking these to policy processes.

Martin Wall

Martin is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie CAROLINE Fellow based in University College Cork and adelphi, Berlin. He specialises in the areas of climate and security, and his work focuses on state responses and adaptations to climate change, resource-related conflicts and humanitarian crises.

Chitra Nagarajan

Chitra, a Senior Conflict Analyst based in Borno, Nigeria, led and coordinated all field research on the conflict analysis for this assessment. For more than 15 years, she has conducted research and programmes related to issues including human rights, gender, climate change and conflict.

Florence Sylvestre

Florence is Director of Research at IRD and Deputy Director of the European Centre for Research and Teaching in Environmental Geosciences (CEREGE) in Aix-en-Provence, France. Through her research she provides expertise to shape development policies, particularly in the Global South. In recognition of her work, she was awarded Chevalier de l’ordre national du méritein 2014.

Oli Brown

Oli is an Associate Fellow with Chatham House. He has been working on environment, security and development for the past 17 years. From 2014-18 he coordinated UN Environment’s work on the environmental causes and consequences of disasters and conflicts.

Remadji Hoinathy

Remadji is a senior researcher at Institute for Security Studies, based in N’Djamena, Chad. Previously, he directed the Center for Research in Anthropology and Human Sciences (CRASH) of N’Djamena in Chad. A former fellow of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, with a PhD in anthropology from Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg (Germany), Remadji helped lead the field research for this assessment in Chad.

Mamtsai Yagai

Mamtsai is a social cohesion and community development expert, contributing to the development of basic services, promotion of youth employment and prevention of violent extremism in the Far North Region of Cameroon for the past 20 years. He supports the implementation of the Lake Chad regional stabilisation strategy and helped lead the field research for this assessment in Cameroon.

Timothy Ali Yohanna

Timothy is the Executive Director of Grassroots Researchers Association, an NGO that promotes human rights, peace building and development in Nigeria. Timothy has made great contributions in peacebuilding and countering violent extremism, and supported the conducting in-depth participatory research in Nigeria for this assessment.

Binh Pham-Duc

Binh is a Postdoc Researcher at CEREGE, France where he focuses on applications of satellite remote sensing data for studying the variation of the environment, and effects of climate change on the water cycle at regional scale.

Adrien Detges

Adrien Detges is a Project Manager at adelphi. His work focusses on the intersection of climate change with foreign, security, and development policy. He has also taught at Freie Universität Berlin and conducted research into environmental stress and armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa.

Stella Schaller

Stella is a Project Manager at adelphi in the field of climate diplomacy. Bridging research and policy, she coordinates advisory projects for the German Federal Foreign Office and international organisations. Currently, she is leading research on populism and climate change and on the SDGs.

Susanne Wolfmaier

Susanne is a Project Manager at adelphi where she specialises on climate change, peace and security. Her work focuses on policy responses to climate-fragility risks. Susanne oversees the coordination of the Lake Chad Risk Assessment project.

Copyright of the pictures are with the individual persons (except for Janani Vivekananda, Martin Wall, Stella Schaller and Susanne Wolfmaier for for which copyrights are with adelphi).

NEWS

The Economist - How climate change can fuel wars

May 23 2019

Wilson Quarterly - Oasis in Crisis: Lake Chad

July 26 2019

August 29 2019

Climate change is a critical factor in Lake Chad crisis conflict trap

May 14 2019

Lake Chad Crisis - Knowledge Hub

August 18 2018

About adelphi

adelphi is a Berlin-based think tank and public policy consultancy on environment, development, and foreign policy. With a staff of more than 200, adelphi provides high-quality interdisciplinary research and strategic policy analysis, public policy consulting and training, and facilitates dialogue for governments, development partners, and international organisations.

The Lake Chad Risk Assessment project was made possible through the generous support of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.