UNOAU participates in the second Regional Strategy for the Stabilisation Recovery and Resilience for the Areas Affected by the Boko Haram crisis

9 Mar 2022

UNOAU participates in the second Regional Strategy for the Stabilisation Recovery and Resilience for the Areas Affected by the Boko Haram crisis

The second Regional Strategy for the Stabilisation Recovery for Areas Affected by the Boko Haram crisis (RS-SRR) Regional Action Plan (RAP) 2022-2024 Workshop was held from 7-9 March in Abuja, Nigeria. UNOAU participated in this workshop which was convened by the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) and attended by participants from the African Union Commission, UN Head-Quarters, Agencies Funds and Programs, the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), think tanks and donors. It aimed at articulating an action plan that would define RS-SRR action at the regional level for 2022-2024. In line with the RS-SRR “New Way of Working” that emphasises the imperatives for the Humanitarian-Development-Peace nexus in implementing the Strategy, the workshop brought together UN and Non-UN humanitarian, development and peace actors at the regional level to articulate collective plans and actions for 2022-2024. At the end of the workshop, priority areas were identified to guide the development of the 2022-2024 RAP: capacity building of the LCBC Secretariat on RS-SSR implementation; cross border cooperation and dialogue; civil-military cooperation; and knowledge management. Other priority areas included communications and monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning.

It could be recalled that the crisis of Lake Chad Basin is a manifestation of three separate but inter-related and mutually reinforcing crises: a structural and persistent development deficit; a breakdown of the social contract that has manifested in violent extremism and insurgency; and a concerning environmental crisis that requires attention and resources to mitigate the impact on people and to help them to absorb shocks and adapt over time. It was against this backdrop that the LCBC embarked on a process to enhance cross-border cooperation on security and stabilisation, early recovery, and sustainable development. In 2019, the first RAP workshop took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to develop the RAP for the 2019-2021 workplan.