NRC in Burkina Faso and Niger

NRC's operation

In March 2019, NRC opened a country office in Niger aiming to respond to the humanitarian crisis in the country. Due to the emergency needs across the border in Burkina Faso, NRC initiated a response there in July 2019. We opened an office in Burkina Faso in August 2019 and started our emergency response in the Centre North region and later expanded into other provinces. Both countries are combined under one management in order to keep costs down and to facilitate synergies between the countries.

Our interventions include shelter, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education and livelihoods, and food security (LFS). In addition to this, there are opportunities to complement the response with information, counselling and legal assistance (ICLA) in both countries, especially in Burkina Faso where we will provide support on housing, land and property (HLP) issues.

Livelihoods and food security

Our livelihoods team are:

• Supporting targeted households with income generating activities (IGAs) and reducing their negative coping mechanisms
• Improving access to food for the most vulnerable IDPs using the standard food ration value per household
• Looking into cash and market-based approaches across the multi-sectoral response

Shelter and settlements

Our shelter teams are:

• Providing essential household items such as lifesaving non-food items (NFIs) like kitchen sets, bedding, clothes, mosquito nets, etc.
• Providing complete shelter solutions either through temporary or transitional models (Sahelian adapted model)
• Conducting site-coordination activities, especially site planning, to enable the installation of shelters and minimum basic services, delivered by NRC or in coordination with other actors

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)

Our WASH teams:

• Promote good sanitation and hygiene in schools and communities and rehabilitate WASH infrastructures

Education

Focusing on education in emergencies, we are:

• Supporting the formal system to increase hosting capacity for IDP children
• Providing adapted learning conditions to ensure the retention of students in schools
• Conducting awareness raising campaigns within the schools to promote inclusive education, enhance social cohesion and peaceful cohabitation between displaced and host community children
• Distributing education kits to improve the learning conditions of students
• Rehabilitating schools and classrooms
• Working to improve access to education in areas where schools are forcibly closed by armed groups, while protecting children from harm and promoting safe and inclusive learning environments
• Providing vocational trainings for marginalised youth while promoting apprenticeships, mentoring and career guidance

Information, counselling and legal assistance (ICLA)

We are exploring options to start ICLA programmes in Burkina Faso and Niger.

• In Burkina Faso initial steps have been taken to start activities that complement our shelter programmes. This includes, securing tenure for displaced people and resolving different land issues related to displacement.
• In Niger, we will start a project in Maradi with UNHCR on the prevention of statelessness. The project will ensure that both Nigerian refugees and the Nigerien population living along the border have access to civil documentation.

Camp management

Our camp management teams are:

• Supporting UNHCR with the coaching of partner organisations and capacity building on camp management within the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) site in Niger
• We are also working with national NGOs who are UNHCR partners responsible for running the Hamdallayeh ETM site

Rapid Response

Considering the fast deterioration of the humanitarian situation with new displacements occurring especially in Burkina Faso, we are implementing an effective first line response that is essential to saving lives. Within Maradi in Niger, we responded to the first wave of Nigerian refugees. We are looking to continue this emergency response with potential partnerships within Rapid Response Mechanism consortiums.

Advocacy Initiatives

Our advoacy focusses on promoting initiatives that draw attention to this crisis in the first quarter of 2020, including issues relevant to the Sahel approach across different countries. We are working with various media outlets to promote the rights of affected populations and to increase the overall level of funding.

Market Based (Cash) Assistance

We are looking into the modality of market-based approaches across a multisectoral response. Market analyses will be conducted to enable the progressive introduction of cash transfer mechanism for both shelter and WASH responses. Currently, there are discussions with the World Food Programme for cash-based interventions in the Centre North region and potentially in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso.

Plans for scaling up

Burkina Faso:

• Sahel region: an assessment has been carried out and NRC plans to intervene in the hardest to reach areas of the Sahel region, including Pensa, Foube and Dablo.
• NRC will expand into emergency water supply (ensuring longer-term solutions planning) and train communities on operation and maintenance. We will also supply maintenance kits to schools and public latrines.

Niger:

• Tillabéri: Further expansion into areas bordering Mali and Burkina Faso, focusing on Ayourou department.
• Maradi: Planning is going into durable solutions, such as classroom construction in refugee resettlement areas and livelihood opportunities for youth in both refugee and vulnerable host population communities.