NRC in Burkina Faso and Niger

NRC's operation

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

Our interventions include shelter, water sanitation and hygiene, education, livelihoods and food security, information, counselling and legal assistance.

Livelihoods and food security

Our livelihoods team are:

• supporting targeted households with income generating activities and reducing negative coping mechanisms
• supporting people living in displacement with negotiating access to land and distributing seeds and agricultural tools
• improving access to food and non-food items for the most vulnerable IDPs using the standard food ration value per household, through distribution of multi-purpose cash and food
• distributing small animals for livestock recovery

Shelter and settlements

Our shelter teams are:

• providing essential household items including kitchen sets, bedding, clothes, and mosquito nets
• providing complete shelter solutions either through temporary or transitional models
• 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
• advocating on issues related to the establishment of new sites

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)

Our WASH teams:

• promote appropriate sanitation and hygiene in schools and communities and rehabilitate WASH infrastructures
• drill and install of solar powered water systems in IDP sites and host communities
• construct school latrines, family latrines and emergency latrines in IDP sites

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
• constructing semi-permanent school blocks and repairing existing 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 assisting affected communities to:

• access information on legal civil documentation processes
• obtain the civil and identity documentation necessary to access rights and services
• understand and protect their housing, land and property right

NRC also leads the housing, land and property rights working group to build capacity and advocate with authorities, humanitarian actors and other stakeholders.

Camp management

In 2020, NRC supported the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) with the coaching of partner organisations and capacity building on camp management within the Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) site in Niger.