The Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) was established in 1964 by the four riparian countries, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. The Central African Republic joined the LCBC in 1998 and Libya in 2009. The Commission pursues the following three objectives: a) to increase regional cooperation among the members; b) to mediate conflicts arising between members over border violations and disputes; and c) to protect the transboundary water resources of Lake Chad Basin for the benefit of all riparian states. To date the LCBC has had difficulties in achieving these objectives due to constraints at a range of levels (political, institutional, financial and personnel).

The GIZ and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) are advising the LCBC in organisational and technical matters respectively. The aim is to further strengthen the Commission’s management capacities to carry out its mandate.

AHT has been providing support to the LCBC since 2005. The focus is on strengthening the Commission in the field of knowledge and information management. In October 2014 AHT has been charged with a subsequent phase until 05/2018 of the Programme aiming to enhance the Commission’s planning, cooperation and communication capacities.

In October 2017 the current phase was extended until 04/2020 and the two existing GIZ modules of the programme “Strengthening Organisational Capacity of LCBC” and “Climate Change Adaption in Agriculture” have been combined into one module, consisting of three components.