NORCAP’s Lake Chad Localisation Programme launched in 2017 following the Oslo Humanitarian Conference for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region, convened to address humanitarian crises in the four countries surrounding Lake Chad: Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon.
The programme pairs two specialists in each country: a localisation specialist and a gender specialist. Together, they work to strengthen local organisations’ capacities and influence in humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding efforts. This is achieved through three main approaches: building civil society capabilities, promoting systemic change, and increasing local organisations’ visibility.
In the stories shared here, we showcase a series of approaches taken by NORCAP specialists to localising humanitarian response across the Lake Chad Basin region. These demonstrate how targeted support to local organisations, particularly women-led groups, is transforming humanitarian action from the ground up.
