MEDIA ADVISORY

The 4^th Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum

INVITATION TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA

What: The 4^th Lake Chad Basin Governors’ under the theme “New Opportunities for Peace in a Shifting Security Context”

The 4^th  Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum will commence with a Pre-Forum with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the region from the 3rd – 4th of July 2023 to help enhance inclusivity, promote knowledge exchange on partnerships, innovative practices and tools that contribute to the effectiveness of interventions in the region.

When: 5-7 July 2023.

Where: N’Djamena, Chad.

Who:     The Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS) of the AU Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) & the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), The forum will convene the governors of the eight Boko Haram-affected territories in the Lake Chad Basin and partners to explore opportunities for promoting peace and strengthening regional collaboration on key priority areas along the theme 

Why:

Over the past two decades, the Lake Chad Region has been severely impacted by the Boko Haram insurgency and other related conflicts. The impacts range from massive internal and cross-border displacement, the destruction of the social fabric and property, human rights abuses, disrupted public services, and limited capacities of government institutions. In response to the security and conflict challenges, the governments of the four riparian countries established a joint military task force called the Multinational Joint Task Force in 2015 to launch a coordinated military counter-offensive against Boko Haram. The establishment of the Taskforce was later followed by the development of a Regional Strategy for Stabilisation, Recovery and Resilience by the Lake Chad Basin Commission with the support of the African Union and UNDP in 2018.

Since the development of the Regional Strategy for Stabilisation, Recovery, and Resilience (RS-SRR) in 2018, the strategy has acted as a regional architecture for responding to the complex security, humanitarian and development issues plaguing the region. It emphasises the need for a comprehensive, multi-sectoral, and coordinated set of sub-national, national, and cross-border initiatives to achieve long-term stabilisation, recovery, and resilience.

As a result, several initiatives and programmes have sprung up to facilitate regional cooperation, respond to humanitarian needs and foster peace and development in the region, one of which is the Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum.

The forum occurs amidst shifting conflict patterns and emerging challenges that have resulted in widespread displacement, damage to the social fabric, interrupted public services, and weakened institutional capacities across the affected countries – Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria.

Objectives:

Under the overarching theme of “New Opportunities for Peace in a Shifting Security Context”, the Fourth Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum objectives are to offer:

1. An opportunity to the eight Governors to strengthen ownership of the Forum process
2. Create opportunities for multi-stakeholder engagement with the Governors to consolidate gains and advance regional cooperation on key priority areas.

The forum seeks to:

• Enhance understanding of the emerging security trends in the region and the implications of the ongoing efforts to complete the restoration of state authority.

• Discuss pathways for community reintegration and transitional justice in the region.
• Examine the role and implication of Vigilante Groups and Government-affiliated non-state security actors in the region.
• Find ways of scaling up and building partnering for solutions to the situation of forcibly displaced (refugees and IDPs) in the region.
• Provide options for Climate Security and Natural Resource Management in the region
• Examine the agropastoral, farmer-herder dynamics, and implications for community resilience and sustainable peace in the LCBC Region.

Expected Outcome:

Stakeholders will agree on a shared understanding of the trajectory of the security situation in the Lake Chad Basin region and proffer different programmatic and policy pathways to long-term Stabilization, Peacebuilding and Sustainable Development in the region.

Participants:

The forum will convene the governors of the eight Boko Haram-affected territories in the Lake Chad Basin and partners to explore opportunities for promoting peace and strengthening regional collaboration.

Media representatives are invited to attend and cover the 4^th Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum

For media inquiries, please contact:

1. Mr. Gamal A. Karrar, Senior Communication Officer | Information and Communication Directorate | African Union Commission | E-mail: GamalK@africa-union.org
2. Ibbo Daddy Abdoulaye, Director, Information, Communication and Technologies, Lake Chad Basin Commission | i.daddy@cblt.org
3. Ugochukwu Kingsley Ahuchaogu, Regional Communications Analyst, UNDP Sub-Regional Hub for West and Central Africa | ugochukwu.kingsley@undp.org

Information and Communication Directorate, African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@africa-union.org
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