Reversal of Land and Water Degradation Trends in the Lake Chad Basin Ecosystem

The project development objective (PDO) is to contribute to the sustainable management of land and water resources in the greater conventional basin of lake Chad. The project is designed to achieve the following three specific objectives: (i) build capacity within the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) and its national committees related to success in its mandate of managing land and water resources, (ii) enhance policy initiatives and transboundary institutional mechanisms to ensure that the member countries jointly develop and manage the Lake Chad basin’s resources, and (iii) conduct a transboundary diagnosis analysis (TDA), implements pilot demonstration projects, designs a Strategic Action Program (SAP) for sustainable management of the basin and mobilizes increased donor interest/support for implementing the SAP. This sustainable management of the resources is expected, in the long-term, to reverse the environmental degradation in the Basin.

This GEF grant is implemented by the World Bank and UNDP, while UNOPS is the implementing agency. The project has a total of six components. Three out of the six components of the project are implemented by the UNDP, two components are implemented by the World Bank, and one component is implemented jointly by the World Bank and UNDP.

The UNDP implements the following three components:
(i) Establishment of Program Management Unit and country lead agencies.
(ii) Strengthened stakeholder participation and education, involvement of stakeholders through development of local initiatives.
(iii) Key measurements, TDA and synthetic basin framework

The World Bank implements:

(iv) Enhanced regional policy initiatives and institutional mechanisms to address transboundary issues
(v) Donor support mobilized for SAP and LCBC plan implementation while the UNDP and the World Bank implement jointly:
(vi) Demonstration projects to test methodologies, stakeholder involvement and implementation modalities.

GEF decision sought: Pipeline entry and CEO approval for PDF B (1/7/2000). PM recommends pipeline entry and CEO approval for PDF C. January intersessional. CEO endorsement circulated to council. Recent developments: PDF-C implementation underway -- pilot projects identified, with pilot project outlines now in draft form ready for translation and distribution to LCBC technical committee for review. EA process underway.