To increase trust, first improve communication

To meet the needs of vulnerable people in Chad, where protracted humanitarian crises persist amid economic, political, and environmental instability, we must first listen to them. Eastern Chad has hosted Sudanese refugees since 2003, while refugees and returnees from the Central African Republic (CAR) have been steadily fleeing to the south. Boko Haram’s attacks in the Lac province terrorise inhabitants, disrupt
livelihoods, and have displaced thousands of people. For three years, decreasing food production has left many food-insecure. Last year’s rainy season brought Chad’s heaviest rainfall in 30 years, causing further displacement and death. Climate shocks are particularly severe in eastern Chad’s Sahelian zone, exacerbating the dual pressures of chronic food insecurity and a large community of refugees. People were being pushed to the brink, even before government measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 began hampering the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Ground Truth Solutions (GTS) – in partnership with the Core Humanitarian Standard Alliance (CHS) and with funding from the Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation (SIDA) – supports humanitarian actors to include the views of affected communities in their decision-making. Since 2018, GTS has conducted five rounds of face-to-face surveys with aid recipients in the Logone Oriental, Lac, and
Ouaddaï provinces and analysed their perceptions. For this fifth round (conducted between November 2020 – March 2021), we expanded to Moyen Chari and Wadi Fira. The survey results were shared with community leaders in Lac, Logone Oriental and Wadi Fira (March 2021), whose recommendations are integrated into this report. We also solicited online feedback from humanitarian staff in February 2021.