Chad

In the Guéra region of Chad, important arable land and other natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce due to climate change. This sometimes leads to serious conflicts between nomadic cattle breeders and local smallholder farmers. This situation is to be improved through the multi-layered Triple Nexus approach.

12.9.2024 | Crises, climate change and the concentration of markets are driving up food prices. In Chad, for example, a kilo of rice now costs twice as much as it did a year ago. The situation is similar in India and Myanmar. The way out of hunger is through local, sustainable agriculture.

With political crises and climate change exacerbating hunger in Chad and Niger, SWISSAID provided once more emergency aid in 2023 to alleviate the worst of the situation and avoid endangering years of reconstruction work in the country.

As an expert in the fields of agroecology and gender equality, SWISSAID works in nine countries. On the ground and in close cooperation with local partners, we promote initiatives by people who are independently seeking a way out of poverty.

Goats are an important pillar of many SWISSAID projects in Chad. Not only do they provide smallholder families in the Global South with vitamin-rich food, their manure also improves the harvest. And thus independence for many.

Heat, floods, desertification: The consequences of the climate crisis are being felt particularly strongly on the African continent. This is driving millions of people into poverty and flight. How SWISSAID’s work is creating hope together with the local population.

Achieving gender equality in rural areas, where 80% of the agricultural workforce is female, has been a cornerstone of SWISSAID’s work for decades. Development may sometimes seem slow, but the successes are there for all to see. As in Chad, where access to land, livestock and agro-ecology training is improving the living conditions of women, and with them those of their entire families.

Chad has been devastated by the heaviest downpours in three decades, resulting in unimaginable suffering. The heavy rains have stripped the people of their homes, farmlands, and crops. Those afflicted with hunger are in dire need of new seeds to ensure the upcoming harvest is secure. SWISSAID has initiated an emergency relief initiative to distribute seeds and food packages.

Marthe Tchere, a smallholder farmer from Bokyo in Chad, was one of the first to join SWISSAID’s goat project. Thanks to the animals, she can now feed her family, earn her own money and use it to send her children to school. And in doing so, she earns the respect of the men in the village.

The food report published by the Sufosec Alliance on the occasion of World Food Day on 16 October 2022 shows shocking results. It highlights the dramatic increase in hunger in the world with figures and testimonies from those affected in the South. But it also gives hope and shows a way out of the hunger crisis. For example, with agroecology.

3.10.2022 | In autumn 2021, we followed Yaya, Marceline and Esther, women farmers in Chad, who received support from SWISSAID through its Women’s Empowerment Project. One year later, the aid provided has enabled these women to improve their living conditions and those of their families, and to fight against hunger. In video and in pictures, they tell us about their situation one year later.

26.09.2022 | The war in Ukraine has drastic effects worldwide. Especially in our African partner countries, the consequences are worrying. People who were already threatened by hunger before are now facing food shortages and price increases for basic foodstuffs. On this page you will find news and developments in our partner countries.

For many families in Chad, there is often only one meal a day – little enough for the hard work in the fields. But without work, there is no harvest. Women in particular suffer greatly; they are often responsible for the family’s survival and take care of the household chores and work. The famine also often leads to disputes among the farming families. SWISSAID helps families in Chad to fight hunger and prevent conflicts.

Millions of people in Chad – often the women – produce their own food while the men work in the city. Due to the difficult climatic conditions, growing their own crops is often not enough to feed the family, and many people suffer from hunger. This is also the case for Esther and her family. SWISSAID is working on the ground to help these people.

Women in Chad bear a heavy burden: they often provide for their families, mainly their children, on their own, without having the rights and means to do so. This is the case of Yaya Adoum. Despite her hard work, this widowed peasant woman was unable to provide for her family. With the support of a SWISSAID project, she found a way to fight hunger.

27.08.2021 | More than 70 people participated in the webinar on local markets and food sovereignty organized by SWISSAID on August 24. All speakers as well as the guests agreed: Many people in the South are dependent on local markets. They, especially women, deserve more help, remuneration and weight for their products.

For many people in Chad, clean water is still not accessible. They drink polluted water in order to survive – and deadly diseases are a frequent consequence. Salvation lies beneath solid rock: SWISSAID is clearing the way for a healthier future for all women, children and men in Chad by drilling and providing the necessary infrastructure.

Although Chad is rich in oil, its population remains one of the poorest in the world. SWISSAID is supporting several civil society organisations in this Central African country in their efforts to improve the distribution of income in this sector and in their advocacy work on behalf of young people and women.

As a foundation for development cooperation, SWISSAID is also heavily affected by the corona virus. Faced with the crisis, each employee and each project had to reinvent themselves and often work in a hurry. On this page, you will find news from our partner countries for the months of March and April. –Translated with DeepL

15.04.2020 | Washing hands, restricting contacts, exposing fake news: the measures against the coronavirus in our partner countries in the south are similar to those in Switzerland. The only difference is that the general conditions are much more difficult. How SWISSAID is tackling the problem – and why hygiene is not only fundamental to health, but also counteracts the threat of conflict.

Women feed the world – yet they often have few rights. This is why SWISSAID has been working for decades to empower women. One of them, the farmer Louise Ndodjita, is successfully asserting herself in the male-dominated society of Chad. This is thanks in part to a literacy course.