Reducing people’s vulnerability to climate risks and environmental degradation in conflict-affected Niger: the ICRC’s conflict–climate–resilience programme

In Niger, the convergence of growing climate risks and armed conflict impacts all dimensions of people’s lives, from their health to their livelihoods, and their access to clean water and food. Insecurity and a blatant deficit in development – which translates into a very high prevalence of multidimensional poverty, a dearth of critical infrastructure and a high reliance on rainfed subsistence agriculture – leave people highly vulnerable to climate change, with drastically limited adaptation pathways.

While the impacts of climate change are further threatening already deficient agricultural productivity, insecurity and restrictions on people’s movement have led to an increased pressure on and competition for accessible land, water points and wood. This has resulted in a decline in food production and a significant rise in food prices. At the same time, livestock selling prices have plummeted, as herders can no longer reach distant markets to sell their animals at a better price because of insecurity. Alternative livelihood options are few. Seasonal labour migration to neighbouring countries has become too unsafe to undertake, and jobs in urban centres are not readily available for people with a limited education or none at all.

Searching for local solutions

As in many other conflict-affected countries, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has long implemented a combination of programmes to reduce the impact of armed conflict on people’s integrity and safety, and to strengthen their food and economic security and access to water and health care in Niger. Activities include bilateral dialogues with arms carriers, emergency food distributions, livelihood support for farmers and herders, digging wells sustainably, support for the development of urban water infrastructure, and the construction of health facilities. These activities are often undertaken in partnership with the Red Cross Society, civil society organisations, public authorities and service providers.

In recent years, ICRC teams decided to develop a holistic conflict–climate–resilience programme that aimed to achieve sustainable impact by integrating longer-term environmental and climate risks into the design of activities through an area-based, multi-disciplinary and multi-year approach, in line with its commitments under the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organisations.

The delegation teamed up with local experts to deepen its understanding of people’s reality and how they adapt. A study on the specific situation of herders and ways to support them was led by local experts. Another study by the Groupe URD, carried out by local and international researchers, considered the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on communities enduring conflict, and assessed how its programmes could be further tailored to integrate these dimensions. At the same time, the delegation explored low-tech solutions that could be designed with and owned by the communities, reinforce people’s coping strategies, and help mitigate tensions within and between communities by reducing competition for land and water.

From 2022, building on its long experience in Niger and operational guidance developed jointly with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, the ICRC began piloting a set of activities, informed by the knowledge, priorities and perspectives of communities. This helps ensure that local knowledge is built into the response, and that it is owned by the communities and, therefore, more sustainable. Activities aim to strengthen the resilience of the livelihoods of farmers and herders affected by conflict, improve water management, and reduce environmental degradation.

For instance, agropastoral communities in Diffa received support to create 300 kilometres of firewall strips to protect grazing land from bushfires, to rehabilitate vaccination infrastructure that has been covered by sand storms and moving sand dunes, and to provide animal vaccination services. In the community of Chetimari, where ICRC monitoring found that more than two-thirds of households had experienced at least one weather-related shock over the last decade, support was provided to build two kilometres of flood dikes through community work programmes. The aim was to protect households from flooding from the Komadugu river, safeguard fields and enable water retention for post-flood rice cultivation. In addition, the ICRC helped the water resource department resume its monitoring of river levels by providing new gauges with colour codes. When the water reaches a worrying level, local committees receive a warning by phone and through local radio stations and can strategically position extra sandbags that have been provided by the ICRC.

Actions are also ongoing to help farmers through the rehabilitation of land that has been eroded by rains, flooding and winds, and the provision of locally adapted seeds. Actions aimed at transforming organic waste into marketable products (like fertiliser) are being explored in partnership with local waste management and recycling organisations. Enhancing access to fertiliser is particularly important given that imported conventional fertiliser is banned from local markets, because it could be used to prepare improvised explosive devices.

In Tera, a small town in the Tillaberi region, the ICRC worked with a local organisation, Jeunes Volontaires pour l’Environnement, to provide fuel-efficient stoves to 1,800 families. These reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the need for wood, therefore also reducing deforestation and helping to lessen tensions over resources. Local artisans are being trained so that the stoves could be manufactured locally; 600 vulnerable families from the host community benefit from the outputs of this on-the-job training programme. Similar activities are taking place in Tahoua and Diffa.

These activities are in line with Niger’s adaptation priorities. Some of these actions – such as creating and maintaining firewall strips – would typically be carried out by public agencies, but these have long ceased operating owing to a lack of means and capacity, as well as the long-standing conflict-related risks that have limited their access to some regions.

Successes and areas for improvement

ICRC climate–conflict–resilience activities in Niger provide both immediate humanitarian assistance and contribute to the development of resilient systems and coping capacities, building on a long experience in the country and the region. Early observations confirm that such responses can help reduce future humanitarian needs and strengthen resilience by increasing livelihood security and reducing environmental damage and tensions surrounding the use of resources. This in turn reduces the risk of negative coping mechanisms of communities exposed to armed conflict, and enhances the capacity of the affected population to cope with risks.

It is, however, clear that humanitarian organisations alone cannot ensure adequate and comprehensive climate adaptation. Gaps lie both in the scale of programmes and their longer-term vision when it comes to adapting livelihoods and ensuring sustainable access to water, sanitation, health care and energy.

Successes

Continuing to learn: The importance of adapting programmes based on regular monitoring is at the heart of programmatic efforts in Niger, and so is the ambition to ensure that relevant learning contributes to strengthening programmes in other countries. For instance, the monitoring of activities to create flood dikes has shown that bags that are more resistant to solar radiation should be used to enhance the sustainability of the action (as sand bags otherwise deteriorate fairly rapidly); such activities could be paired with agricultural support to maximise the impact; and the technical capacity of local committees and Red Cross volunteers should be reinforced to ensure that climate risks are integrated across programmes. A holistic impact study focusing on activities in support of herders is now being launched.

Adapting to the local reality and working with local partners: Activities in Niger are similar to those implemented by other organisations at a community level in non-conflict settings – such as strengthening systems and infrastructure, and helping communities rethink their livelihoods – but in ICRC areas of operation they are developed and adjusted with particular attention to how they may affect the dynamics of the conflict and drivers of vulnerability. They also build on the ICRC’s long-standing presence and conscious effort to understand conflict-affected communities in their complexity. To ensure these activities meet the needs of communities and are sustainable, they are designed at the local level, in collaboration with local authorities and service providers, and with communities. This is important because in unstable settings, where the government may be weak or may not control large portions of the territory, it is not always possible to work on a large scale through centralised institutions.

Going beyond an emergency response: ICRC activities in Niger are, in part, supported by development funding. This reflects a recognition of ways in which humanitarian programming can help limit development reversals (or development going backwards), and ideally, lay some of the groundwork for further efforts towards sustainable development by development actors and public authorities. It is also an acknowledgement that humanitarian organisations can have a sustainable impact in environments where traditional development approaches encounter limits.

Areas for improvement

Strengthening access to actionable information: Despite investments in forecasting capacity and anticipatory action, farmers report uneven access to both short- and longer-term weather forecasts and a lack of guidance from agricultural authorities and experts in determining what and when to plant in light of forecasts. This can severely impact yields and people’s food and economic security (particularly as farmers who lose their harvests often have limited means to plant again), as well as people’s physical safety in the face of droughts and floods.

Addressing the time- and spatial-scale gap: Even though humanitarian activities may contribute to preserving development gains through incremental adaptations, they do not reach all communities that are in need of support and tend to be too short in time to adequately and comprehensively help communities adapt to current and future climate impacts. For instance, investment is critically needed to improve the water-management capacities across Niger to ensure that storm water does not destroy fields, homes and infrastructure; that farmers and pastoralists benefit from it; and that people have access to clean water during both dry spells and periods of intense rain. To address these gaps and provide a more comprehensive and long-term climate-resilient response, the authorities must be involved and supported by development organisations and climate experts. Development organisations have recognised the need to invest in conflict and fragile settings, but, despite some progress, their efforts continue to collide with their ways of operating, financing mechanisms, and restrictions on where they can work.

Adapting to changing conflict dynamics: The dynamic nature of conflicts, with variations in the intensity of the violence over time and space, can severely reduce humanitarian access and hinder the implementation of activities in areas previously relatively stable. Similarly, a change in political posture or government can result in a reduced humanitarian space and hamper procurement. In Niger, strong partnerships with local organisations, often established during periods of relative calm, have helped ensure some continuity in programming when circumstances change. In that sense, the development of strong working relationships can provide a lifeline when humanitarian access is reduced or when the humanitarian space shrinks.

Catherine-Lune Grayson is Head of Policy at the International Committee of the Red Cross.