The journey of Chad’s National Adaptation Plan

The Republic of Chad is named after Lake Chad, the second-largest lake in Africa that provides the largest wetlands in Chad. From the 1960’s to the 1990’s, Lake Chad had a steep reduction in size by 95 percent due to a combination of drought and excessive use of irrigation. Today, Lake Chad’s size continues to fluctuate but remains relatively stable. The lake remains an important freshwater resource in Chad’s arid landscape and needs to be safeguarded from the impacts of climate change.

The average temperatures in Chad are projected to increase exponentially, which would mean lower crop yields, more strain on water resources and degraded soil and lands for farmers. The Government of Chad has taken the required steps to build resilience for the current and future climatic changes and impacts. Chad started working on its National Adaptation Plan (NAP) in 2018 with full size project funding of $US 5.7 million from the Global Environment Facility and implementation support from UNDP. In 2019, additional support from the UNDP-UNEP joint National Adaptation Plan Global Support Programme (NAP-GSP) contributed to the finalization of Chad’s NAP document.