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In the refugge camp of Iridimi, July 2007Chad
Website of the SDC in Chad: www.swiss-cooperation.admin.ch/tchad/
Chad is a priority country for bilateral aid. Ever since cooperation with this country began back in 1965, Switzerland has provided support for rural development, basic education and healthcare. Swiss aid programmes were initially intended to bolster public-sector development structures as well as the capacity of central government institutions. Over time, however, these programmes became more centred on helping family-owned agro-pastoral businesses and rural communities to better their living conditions and improve dialogue with state institutions and public services, the aim being to create conditions that would favour sustainable development. Still coming to terms with its recent past, Chad remains politically fragile to some extent and goes through periodic cycles of instability. Antagonism and political infighting affect the way the country is run. Early in February 2008, during a fresh outbreak of tension, the main armed opposition groups launched an offensive that rocked the government in power, thus heightening the uncertainty surrounding the country's stability. The crisis in Darfur continues to be a destabilizing factor. Apart from the ensuing humanitarian disaster, the crisis has exacerbated tensions with neighbouring Sudan, destabilizing the entire subregion.
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Development Cooperation: Priorities
The SDC’s strategy focuses on national poverty reduction policies as well as sectoral development policies in four key areas (i.e. agriculture and livestock breeding, infrastructure, healthcare
and basic education). Through its regional development programmes, the SDC is active in the main regions of the country, particularly those with the least access to education, healthcare and economic
infrastructure.
Switzerland’s bilateral development cooperation programme in Chad is directed at helping family-owned agro-pastoral businesses, socio-professional associations, rural communities and municipalities
as well as decentralized public services to improve existing capability in four complementary areas.
- Rural economy and transport routes: The programme supports the creation of a thriving rural economy by helping family-owned agro-pastoral businesses to establish production systems that are financially, environmentally and socially viable. The programme also uses a coherent approach to combat the erosion of rural transport routes and restore them where needed. This ensures the promotion of exchanges and commercial links between rural communities and gives them access to basic healthcare and education.
- Education and training: The programme supports the development of a decentralized system offering quality education that takes into account the economic and cultural realities of the local population and is mainly managed by municipal structures and local community associations.
- Healthcare: Improving access to basic healthcare services is essential. The programme provides a broader range and better-quality preventive and curative healthcare services. Here too, municipalities and communities are closely involved.
- More dialogue and consultation: The programme gives priority to involving local players, municipalities and communities in efforts to foster political dialogue and national debate on development issues that affect them directly. The aim is to bring about greater decentralization and suitable local governance.
The SDC is unanimously recognized for its grassroots approach with rural populations, its efficient action and pioneering efforts to bring about effective decentralization. Through its Cooperation Office, the SDC also maintains political dialogue with Chad’s national government and various international organizations that provide technical and financial aid to the country (i.e. UNDP, World Bank, European Union, USAID, the French Development Agency, GTZ, etc.). Through constant dialogue, the SDC seeks to promote the potential lever effect of its grassroots programmes on national development choices and policies and programmes in the priority sectors.
Geographical priorities
The programme is centred on three focal points designed to tap the potential and complementarities of the country's main regions and reduce regional inequalities:
- the wadi oasis in the north-east (Ennedi region) and the east (Wadi Fira region) where livestock breeding and horticulture are growth sectors;
- the Sahel zone in the central (Batha region) and western (Kanem region) parts of the country where livestock breeding is the main source of income;
- the Sudan focal point in the south-east (Logones region) and south (Moyen Chari, Mandoul and Pandé regions) of the country where the main activities are rainy season agriculture and tree
cultivation.
Humanitarian Aid: Priorities
Since 2003, approximately 235,000 people fleeing persecution in Darfur have taken refuge in eastern Chad in an environmentally fragile Sahel-Saharan region. Switzerland has responded with humanitarian aid, contributing three to four million CHF a year to the programmes of the ICRC, the UNHCR and the WFP since 2004. Experts have been seconded to UNHCR to set up refugee camps and guarantee appropriate management of the environmental resources and water supplies, both for refugees and the local population. Water and the environment, the sectors on which SDC/HA contributions focus, are vital for protecting the refugees and meeting the vital needs of the local population.
The humanitarian situation in Chad has manifestly deteriorated since 2006 because of the sub-regional dynamics of the conflicts in Darfur, the Central African Republic and Chad ( 
Information about
Sudan ). The clashes between the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) and the armed opposition in the north of the Central African Republic have driven some 48,000 refugees to seek refuge in
southern Chad. But above all, many civilians have already been wounded in the internal conflict between Chad's National Army and armed opponents of the regime, and nearly 140,000 have been internally
displaced, with numbers rising steadily, especially in the south-east of the country. Switzerland has adapted its humanitarian response to these new requirements with contributions to Doctors without
Borders Switzerland, the ICRC and the WFP. On 28 January 2008, the situation suddenly deteriorated. Armed opposition groups launched an offensive which carried the fighting to N'Djamena, with
devastating humanitarian consequences. According to the ICRC, more than 150 people were killed and nearly one thousand injured in the skirmishes, while 20,000 sought refuge in Cameroon where their
living conditions are worsening by the day. This situation calls for the putting in place of humanitarian structures to which Switzerland is contributing.
more
Country profile: Chad
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| Source: World Bank's World Development Indicators 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Background information provided by the BBC
Local SDC contact address:
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Chad (N'Djamena) |
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Bureau de la Coopération Suisse au Tchad |
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| Phone | +235 251 73 14 |
| Fax | +235 251 74 16 |
| ndjamena@sdc.net | |
| Website | www.swiss-cooperation.admin.ch/tchad/ |
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Additional Information and Documents Here, you will find more publications, links, documents and articles about Swiss development cooperation and humanitarian aid in this country. |