Niger is facing a serious multidimensional humanitarian crisis whose effects have been exacerbated following the coup d'état on July 26, 2023. In particular, the regions of Tillaberi and Maradi are characterized by severe structural weakness and instability, compounded by climatic phenomena such as floods, droughts, and sandstorms, as well as increasing insecurity due to the presence of non-state armed groups in the cross-border region with Mali and Burkina Faso and banditry in Maradi, which cause mass displacement and social conflict, exacerbating the resources available at the communal level.
It is in this context that ECHO (Directorate General for European Humanitarian Aid Operations) is funding two projects to strengthen local response to emergencies in the Tillaberi and Maradi areas, aimed at improving the capacity of some Niger municipalities to respond to multi-hazard shocks and population displacements by transferring technical expertise and logistical resources to municipalities, supporting local basic services, and carrying out mitigation works. One example is the project "Strengthening preparedness, warning and response to multi-hazard shocks in fragile areas to ensure the fastest possible local response, in Niger" which started in May 2021 and is scheduled to end in April 2025, whereby COOPI together with Mercy Corps is working to transfer skills in managing emergencies such as massive displacement of displaced people and environmental disasters to local authorities in 4 municipalities-Ayourou, Ouallam, Gabi, Madarounfa. Through close collaboration with mayors and representatives of technical services, Catastrophe Risk Management Committees were established at the commune level, consisting of commune and community representatives, and their members were trained on emergency stockpile management during a disaster or displacement. In addition, small-scale community facilities have been designed for disaster mitigation and preparedness, such as an evacuation center.
In addition, since May 2024, COOPI and Mercy Corps have been implementing a 24-month response to existing multi-hazards in 8 municipalities, which include the 4 intervention municipalities of the first project and the municipalities of Tillaberi and Gotheye in the Tillaberi region and Chadakori and Guidan-Roumdji in the Maradi region. The project, titled "REPAR - Strengthening preparedness and local response to multi-hazard shocks in Niger", is implemented in collaboration with mayors and technical services, some of whom serve as Vulnerability Monitoring Observatories and collect key information provided by the so-called Community Early Warning and Emergency Response Systems, active at the village level, regarding population displacement and natural disasters, and then deliver it to the municipalities, thereby strengthening the municipal system of preparedness and local response to natural disasters and displacement.
With a view to working with actors already provided for in the regulations at the municipal level, the project envisions that the management of emergency stockpiles will be entrusted precisely to technical services and other actors at the municipal and community levels. The project aims to harmonize activities in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction with other humanitarian actors, which is expressed in the formalization of a coordination mechanism for public and private actors; in fact, among the project activities are coordination meetings with local and international NGOs intervening in the sector in Niger, such as the DRC - IRC - Concern Consortium, aimed at standardizing intervention approaches in the sector, harmonizing and sharing training modules for municipal actors, results and good practices learned at the national level.
Finally, small-scale mitigation works in response to displacement, such as rehabilitation of school facilities (desks, doors, gates), upgrading of some health centers, setting up a warehouse to hold emergency supplies in each municipality, rehabilitation of water infrastructure, and provision of contingency kits for schools to cope with catastrophic events, are also carried out under this project.
