In Defence of Lives and Livelihoods: Co-creating Pathways towards Peace and Prosperity for the Lake Chad Region [DEFENCE]
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Greenwich
Department Name: Natural Resources Institute, FES
Abstract
Peace and prosperity underpin the success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): from reducing extreme poverty and violent conflicts to ensuring peaceful and inclusive societies. But there are now more conflicts worldwide than at any time in the past 20 years, spurring massive displacement of millions of people, intensifying livelihood struggles in places such as the Sahel, and reducing opportunities for social cohesion and economic development. Many conflicts are a result of extreme poverty, especially in the Lake Chad region where over 30 million people are in poverty and almost every family is threatened by livelihood insecurity. Without concerted, collaborative action to promote peace and prosperity across the world, violence could drive 100 million people into poverty by 2030. This research is a direct response to this concern. Working in three fragile and conflict-affected Lake Chad territories in Chad, Niger and Nigeria, it will research and co-create locally valid, locally owned and locally sustained peace and prosperity pathways that will serve as decision-support tools to foster sustainable and inclusive development planning in fragile environments.
The pursuit of peace and prosperity can involve interconnected social, economic, ecological and governance challenges that entangle competing interests, norms, values, priorities and memories of historical past. As such, research on peace and prosperity pathways must incorporate a diversity of perspectives, worldviews and knowledge systems. Working with partners across the Lake Chad region (which include the University of Differ, University of N'Djamena, University of Maiduguri, and the Lake Chad Basin Commission), the research will (collaboratively) create a system of interlinked research and learning spaces (in the form of Transboundary Citizens Learning Alliances) to reveal the foundations of citizens' preferences and strategies for both socio-economic development ('prosperity') and meaningful and non-violent interactions ('peace'). It will employ a range of interdisciplinary, multi-scale, mixed method approaches (including young citizens panels, participatory scenario-based forecasting and backcasting) underpinned by the principles of knowledge co-creation (such as orientation on societal perspectives, acknowledgement of complex contexts and set of actors, and evaluation on the basis of contextual adequacy with iterative feedback loops).
The research brings together science and society in a reciprocally useful way to advance an innovative approach to knowledge co-creation and change-making. While it draws on pertinent research from relevant disciplines, such as conflict, peace, environment, development and ethnography, the focus on co-creation and use of peace-prosperity pathways to refocus development practice - notably in the Lake Chad region - represents a new innovation.
The goal of achieving peace and prosperity in the Lake Chad region has enormous economic and political significance for the UK (e.g. continued violence in the region has the potential to trigger youth migration threats in the UK in the longer-term). The research will generate new knowledge, alliances and tools that will foster sustainable peace and prosperity in the region and beyond. New knowledge on the dimensions of, and pathways towards, peace-prosperity will enhance progress towards SDG 1 (poverty reduction) and 16 (peaceful and inclusive societies); all leading to improved lives and livelihood opportunities for citizens. Additional impact will include: development of new knowledge co-creation approaches that can be applied in fragile settings; as well as capacity building of a new generation of young academics in conflict, peace and development research.
The pursuit of peace and prosperity can involve interconnected social, economic, ecological and governance challenges that entangle competing interests, norms, values, priorities and memories of historical past. As such, research on peace and prosperity pathways must incorporate a diversity of perspectives, worldviews and knowledge systems. Working with partners across the Lake Chad region (which include the University of Differ, University of N'Djamena, University of Maiduguri, and the Lake Chad Basin Commission), the research will (collaboratively) create a system of interlinked research and learning spaces (in the form of Transboundary Citizens Learning Alliances) to reveal the foundations of citizens' preferences and strategies for both socio-economic development ('prosperity') and meaningful and non-violent interactions ('peace'). It will employ a range of interdisciplinary, multi-scale, mixed method approaches (including young citizens panels, participatory scenario-based forecasting and backcasting) underpinned by the principles of knowledge co-creation (such as orientation on societal perspectives, acknowledgement of complex contexts and set of actors, and evaluation on the basis of contextual adequacy with iterative feedback loops).
The research brings together science and society in a reciprocally useful way to advance an innovative approach to knowledge co-creation and change-making. While it draws on pertinent research from relevant disciplines, such as conflict, peace, environment, development and ethnography, the focus on co-creation and use of peace-prosperity pathways to refocus development practice - notably in the Lake Chad region - represents a new innovation.
The goal of achieving peace and prosperity in the Lake Chad region has enormous economic and political significance for the UK (e.g. continued violence in the region has the potential to trigger youth migration threats in the UK in the longer-term). The research will generate new knowledge, alliances and tools that will foster sustainable peace and prosperity in the region and beyond. New knowledge on the dimensions of, and pathways towards, peace-prosperity will enhance progress towards SDG 1 (poverty reduction) and 16 (peaceful and inclusive societies); all leading to improved lives and livelihood opportunities for citizens. Additional impact will include: development of new knowledge co-creation approaches that can be applied in fragile settings; as well as capacity building of a new generation of young academics in conflict, peace and development research.
Organisations
Publications
Okpara U
(2022)
Harms to Community Food Security Resulting from Gender-Based Violence
in Land
Scheffran J
(2023)
Tipping cascades between conflict and cooperation in climate change
| Description | Work Package A.1: Drivers, dynamics and challenges of violent conflict in the Lake Chad region A novel mixed methods approach was developed for (i) understanding the policy environment in which violent conflict is undermining lives and livelihoods, as well as to (ii) unpack the drivers, dynamics and challenges of violent conflict in the Lake Chad region. First, results indicated that the policy environment across the region is characterised by decade-long, reoccurring high level engagements amongst politicians (ministers, governors), UN entities (UNDP, OCHA, UNEP), international donors (EU, USAID, UK, AU, World Bank, AfDB), the military (MNJTF), civil society groups, NGOs and citizens through a variety of regional and international platforms (e.g. the Governors' Forum, Council of Ministers of the Lake Chad Basin Countries, Summits of Heads of State and Governments of the Lake Chad Basin Countries, High Level Conferences on the Lake Chad Region, Donor-Led Regional/International Conferences, etc) involving the Lake Chad Basin Commission. These have led to multiplication of debates, policies and action plans on resilience, peace and development (policies are somewhat needs-based and driven largely by external donors operating at institutional/government decision-making levels). It is unclear what roles citizens (and in particular victims of conflict, climate and emergency) play in policy decisions, especially those relating to rehabilitation, reconstruction, resettlement, stabilisation and peacebuilding. Mismatch between state/donor interventions and citizens' expectations contribute to heightened hostility towards regional policies. In the face of entrenched distrust and heightened aggression, several vulnerable citizens are now more inclined to accept the seemingly hopeful ideologies of terrorist actors who (with the enticement of banknotes and the promise of eternal salvation as martyrs or of a wealthy life as rebel fighters) manage to recruit (former) fishermen, farmers and herdsmen into their ranks. The worsening conditions of citizens in the face of increasing fragility, conflict and complex emergencies suggest a need to rethink the way in which policies and development programmes are framed, negotiated and pursued across the region. Second, drivers of conflict cut across sociocultural, economic, environmental, political, psychological and cognitive factors. Our research observed that a less understood driver of conflict in drylands is thermal discomfort. We investigated this and found substantial evidence suggesting a link between thermal discomfort and conflict through population growth and behavioural vacillation (aggression, hostility, unpredictive adaptive response patterns) in the presence of social, economic, political and environmental stressors. In other words, rising thermal discomfort leads to higher conflict events (during wet and dry seasons); and significant rise in the number of human population experiencing thermal discomfort leads to increases in the rate of violent conflict. This finding advances new insights in research on the psychology of social conflict and violence, as well as enquiries relating to climate security and development. Dynamics of conflict in the region is observable across dry and wet seasons. In particular, conflict and violence often increase during the wet seasons when water and land are readily accessible and weather conditions are favourable for livelihood activities. Zero-sum struggles during surplus seasons often diminish cooperative interactions. With increases in vegetation density and forest cover, conflict actors intensify attacks on citizens and retire to their (secret) hideouts afterwards; and as many transit (conflict-prone) territories become flooded and unmotorable, the capacity of the military to provide protection for citizens become weakened. The challenges arising from conflict and violence in the region are many. A key concern is the spill-over economic and humanitarian effects which oftentimes drive new forms of conflict (kidnapping, banditry, gender-based violence), undermining (open) regional trades and fuelling conflict economies - these factors often compound one another, reinforcing fragility (weak state capacity and authority, and absence of state legitimacy) and trapping the region in a vicious circle of conflict and complex emergencies. Stakeholders invited to our project inception workshop in Borno State Nigeria in February 2023 validated the findings from WP A.1. They inspired new interests in conflict transformation driven by social justice, human rights and citizen wellbeing. Since the project is still active, our next step is to take these findings forward to inform future activities and our cross work-package deliverables in the coming months. |
| Exploitation Route | First, the findings from WP A.1 will be taken forward to inform future activities (e.g., citizen labs, consensus conference) and our cross work-package deliverables throughout the project cycle. Second, they will be disseminated through academic publications, blog posts via the project website (www.prosperityandpeacepathways.co.uk), conference presentations (e.g., specialist meetings/forums on the Lake Chad region) and policy briefs (targeting relevant policy makers and civil servants). |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Security and Diplomacy |
| Description | Our data collection work and stakeholder engagement under WP A.1 have opened up opportunities to establish a Lake Chad Region Conflict and Environment Observatory to provide a regionally responsive conflict and environment open data platform, offering an integrated one-stop data shop and a unified data access to different public and private entities. Our factsheet collections produced every month (since May 2022) track, monitor, collate and document conflict and environmental incidences across the region. PI Uche Okpara is aware (through his engagement across the region) that decision makers and development actors are being asked to make multiple and complex environmental, peace and development decisions in quick succession. The range and urgency of evidence they require is continuously growing - and it is not easily accessible. Currently, data and information on conflict and environment in the region are scattered over different websites, portals, platforms and databases on the state, regional and international level. The factsheets (that the observatory produces) contribute to global media accounts of the conflict, climate and security situations in the region; and fulfil requests from the Lake Chad Governors' Forum for briefings on conflict and ecological trends. Ongoing work on social impact pathways prioritises the observatory as a useful data source that could support the peace and conflict transformation work of different decision makers and stakeholders - helping to advance the Lake Chad Basin Commission Information and Knowledge System Services; and facilitating the translation of data and transmission of findings into policy and practice. Building on the groundwork of this project and in response to the lack of a clear conceptual understanding of how the idea of prosperity and peace pathways draws on and accounts for the knowledge held by local communities and stakeholders in fragile developing states, PI Uche Okpara facilitated an international dialogue forum in Abuja Nigeria in July 2022 which brought together different actors/practitioners. At the behest of the Germany's Federal Foreign Office and the US Department of State, PI Uche Okpara addressed the Ministerial Conference on "Sustaining peace amidst the climate crisis" in Berlin in May 2022, offering insights on ways to tackle differential vulnerabilities in climate and conflict hotspots using the Lake Chad region as a case study. In addition, drawing on insights from this project, PI Uche Okpara has developed a new module on Fragility, Conflict and Emergency (for postgraduate students) and he continues to contribute to the training and development of the next generation of conflict and development researchers and practitioners. Discussion of pathways to societal impact during our inception workshop in Borno State Nigeria in February 2023 led to the creation of a local citizen lab at the University of Maiduguri to advance our project plan to connect and innovate in order to deliver meaningful prosperity and peace pathways. This lab (alongside other labs to be established in Diffa and N'Djamena) is expected to bring together policy experts, politicians, traditional and religious leaders, academics, local citizens and other stakeholders to co-create unified pathways of change for the region. Meanwhile, research on conflict and climate has enabled the development of a new framework that could help improve understanding of the role of thermal discomfort in conflict outcomes in drylands. This has opened up new opportunities for further research on gender-based violence in climate conflict contexts (Co-Investigator in a new funding award on gender-just landscape) and conflict data scoping research in Northern Nigeria (Co-Investigator in another funding award). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Security and Diplomacy |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Agricultural innovation pathways to peace in fragile contexts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Presentation/talk given to students on 'Agriculture for Sustainable Development' programme at the University of Greenwich, UK. The purpose was to inspire new ways of viewing agricultural innovation through my research and experience of working in conflict zones where people's livelihoods revolve around agriculture and the use of natural resources. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | COP26: Mobilise Now to Counter Climate Conflict |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | On the occasion of COP26, I advanced an opinion piece to inspire new global conversations on ways to counter climate conflict, outlining the approaches I am adopting in my project to help overcome the security consequences of climate change in the Lake Chad region. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.nri.org/latest/news/2021/cop26-mobilise-now-to-counter-climate-conflict |
| Description | International Dialogue Forum on the Prosperity and Peace Nexus in the Context of Increasing Climate, Conflict and Food Insecurity Risks |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In both prosperity research and peace studies, there has been no conceptual enquiry and almost no reference to a wider notion of prosperity and peace pathways that draws on and accounts for the vast wealth of knowledge held by local communities and stakeholders in fragile developing states. This realisation informed the hosting of a two-day (hybrid) international dialogue forum in Abuja Nigeria in July 2022. The forum brought together participants from academia, NGOs, CBOs, national and subnational governmental agencies and the private sector. Over 35 in-person participants attended and contributed to the dialogue forum. Being a hybrid event, 63 persons registered online via our Eventbrite platform - 33 participants joined and engaged with the various dialogue sessions virtually. The dialogue forum was structured around: - 4 keynote speeches by leading (invited) scholars in the UK, US and Nigeria - 3 spotlight personality interviews (coordinated by the project team - co-designed interview guides supported this activity) - 4 world café sessions (coordinated by the project team - co-designed information sheet supported this activity) Institutional affiliations of in-country organisations invited to support the hosting of the dialogue forum include: the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nigeria), Bayero University Kano and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. They all offered in-kind planning ideas/advises, recommended speakers and expert participants, disseminated information about the event and generously shared their knowledge and experiences of prosperity and peace during the event. Outcomes from the forum include (i) new interdisciplinary meanings of prosperity and peace in crisis contexts; and (ii) a co-designed approach for framing prosperity and peace nexus and pathways. NGO participants reported that the interdisciplinary model of engagement adopted offered new learning and opened new ways of bringing together individuals and organisations who are less likely to work together on prosperity and peace topics. The forum informed the launch of a special issue (call for papers in related subject areas - Climate, Land, Food Security and Sustainable Peace) in the Journal of Land with a deadline for May 2023. Impacts include: NGO participants (inspired by new understanding of prosperity and peace pathways) reported decision to apply the knowledge gained in their ongoing community work, pursuing cross-sectoral engagements and practice in related subject areas in their communities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.nri.org/latest/news/2022/prosperity-and-peace-examining-the-nexus-between-the-two |
| Description | Meeting with the Governor of Diffa during the 2023 High-Level Conference on the Lake Chad Region |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to take part in a recently concluded High-Level Conference on the Lake Chad Region held in Niamey, Niger Republic, from 23-24 January 2023. The Conference was hosted by the Governments of Niger, Germany and Norway, as well as the United Nations represented by the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in partnership with the Lake Chad Basin Commission. During the Conference, I participated in the session on "Climate change and insecurity - the consequences on food security" which is my core area of research since the past 10 years. I met and interacted with many key stakeholders working on peace and sustainable development initiatives. In particular, I met with the Governor of Diffa, Niger Republic. Diffa region is one of the Prosperity and Peace Pathways project fieldwork site. The meeting sparked an interest to work with the Governor to deliver a workshop and carry out fieldwork in Diffa as part of the project targets in 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://prosperityandpeacepathways.co.uk/2023/02/11/dr-uche-okpara-participated-in-a-high-level-conf... |
| Description | Project Inception Workshop - "Against the Odds: Delivering Meaningful Prosperity through Peace in the Lake Chad Region" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Our project inception workshop in Nigeria was hosted in partnership with the Centre for Disaster Risk Management and Development Studies and the Centre for Peace Diplomatic and Development Studies, both at the University of Maiduguri in Borno State, Nigeria. The workshop (hybrid) brought together thirty-five (35) in-person participants and ten (10) virtual participants - that is 45 people (overall) made up of selected representatives of civil society groups, government officials, the military and the academia. Participants exchanged views on a variety of cross-cutting topics linked to the prosperity and peace pathways project. The workshop was structured around specific project priority activities and stakeholder insider analysis. Our overarching goals were to: - Officially introduce the project to various in-country stakeholders (see project website at prosperityandpeacepathways.co.uk) - Cross-compare statistical results from our climate and conflict research with stakeholders' narratives on the insecurity situation in the Lake Chad region in order to better identify conflict trends, dynamics and triggers, and explore challenges and solutions collaboratively - Discuss contested meanings of conflict prevention, mitigation, resolution and management (CPMRM), including to o describe local CPMRM processes o address what 'everyday' peace and prosperity mean o identify how CPMRM can foster/undermine prosperity and peace goals o identify ways to use cultures and livelihood interests (and other means) to foster CPMRM locally - Confirm safe locations across the basin region where fieldwork can be conducted, including discussions on setting up, operating and managing Local Citizens (Learning) Labs across the region and the benefit of a conflict and environment observatory focused on the Lake Chad region - Identify communities/locations hosting environmental stewardship, livelihood rehabilitation and community reconstruction and resettlement projects The workshop (i) challenged our assumptions about approaches for conflict prevention, management and resolution and how these are different from conflict transformation strategies locally; (ii) enabled us to synthesise knowledge gaps bothering on conflict drivers and the security consequences of climate/environmental change; (iii) inspired us to reframe our questions and methods for establishing and operationalising local citizens labs and a Lake Chad region conflict and environment observatory; (iv) sharpened our reasoning in relation to fieldwork activities in conflict zones; and (v) informed our understanding of how to engage citizens and grassroots organisations in co-creating knowledge and advancing solutions locally. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | The prospects for stabilisation, recovery, and resilience in the Lake Chad Basin Region |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a specialist, invited presentation given to a global audience on the topic "complex relationships between climate change, violent conflict and fragility in the Lake Chad Basin Region" jointly organised by the Centre for Global Development and Centre for Global Security Challenges, both at the University of Leeds in partnership with the Lake Chad Basin Commission and UNDP. The talk sparked debates and enquiries into the implications of conflict spill over and how multiple conflict types are interacting and compounding one another in a time of 'polycrisis', inspiring the pursuit of new understanding via a specialist conference on conflict and security holding in May 2023 (see https://css.leeds.ac.uk/call-for-papers-cgsc-and-ejis-conference-18-19-may-2023/). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://css.leeds.ac.uk/events/the-prospects-for-stabilization-recovery-and-resilience-in-the-lake-c... |