In 2024, researchers consulted two flood-prone communities on the Chari River about how they warn each other and prepare for floods, and what support they want from humanitarian organisations.
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Accountable and people-centred anticipatory action in Mani and N’Djamena-Fara
General Information
ISIG
Residents of two flood-prone communities in Chad described how they already warn each other and prepare for floods, and what support they want.
In 2024, Ground Truth Solutions and the research centre CRASH held two rounds of interviews and focus groups in Mani and N’Djamena-Fara with women, men, local authorities and community organisations, and documented a locally run system. Residents read river levels, plant and fish signs and elders’ knowledge, pass warnings on by word of mouth and through traditional leaders, and build bag-and-soil dykes through mutual aid and a community fund. The second round took the findings back to participants and tested a draft survey tool that other organisations can adapt. Participants asked for support that builds on these systems, with durable materials and long-term help, and for regular dialogue with the organisations working in their area.
Chad is highly exposed to climate hazards, and floods have grown more frequent and severe. According to the report, more than a million people were displaced by floods in 2022, and Hadjer-Lamis is among the most flood-prone provinces, with about a quarter of its population exposed. By 1 October 2024, more than 18,000 people in the province had been affected, and the Chari River had reached higher levels than in 2022. Mani and N’Djamena-Fara lie in the Haraze-Al-Biar department, where few humanitarian actors work. Residents said they had received no help from the government or NGOs in past floods. The Mani weather station was described as not working. GTS had previously documented that Chadian aid recipients feel unheard, and it designed this study to give anticipatory action programmes evidence on what communities already do and want.
Hazard Type
Geographical Scope - Nuts
Geographical Scope
Population Size
Population Density
Needs Addressed
Repeated flooding on the Chari River destroys mud-built houses, cuts roads to markets and to Cameroon, and raises food prices. It also strains health services and increases malaria and other illness. Official early warning is patchy because equipment, funding and staff are lacking, so residents rely on their own signs and networks. Humanitarian programmes seldom ask communities what they already do or need. The study set out to document local anticipatory practice and give programme designers a way to ask communities systematically.
Participants named people living near the river, women (especially pregnant women), children and older people as most at risk. Children risk drowning when bathing in the river. The report adds that people with disabilities or limited mobility, people with low education, those in remote villages and those working in the fields all day without a phone have less access to alerts. Women are about 13 per cent less likely than men to own a mobile phone across Sub-Saharan Africa, and rural literacy in Chad is far lower for women (14 per cent) than for men (47 per cent).
The anticipatory action is run locally by village and neighbourhood leaders, traditional authorities, local associations and a community fund. Residents reported no government or NGO support in past floods. The research itself was led by an NGO and a research centre, with the survey tool reviewed by humanitarian organisations working in Chad.
Preparedness is informal and community-based: monitoring of river levels, plant and fish signs, food and bag storage, house reinforcement and annual dyke building.
No formal flood protection or operational early warning equipment is described. Houses are mostly mud, roads become impassable in the rainy season, and the Mani weather station is reported as not working. Protection consists of temporary dykes built from soil-filled bags, which break and need repeated repair.
To learn how flood-affected communities anticipate floods, what they do, and what support they want. The work also fed the design of a survey tool that other organisations can use to gather community views on anticipatory action.
Individual interviews and focus group discussions in August 2024, a return visit in September–October 2024 to present and check the findings, and cognitive interviews to test the draft survey questions. In phase 1, 22 residents were interviewed (7 women and 15 men, including local authority and community organisation representatives and civil servants), and women’s and men’s groups met in separate focus groups. Phase 2 added four focus group sessions and six cognitive interviews.
Participants shaped the findings and the draft questionnaire, and their feedback was checked in the second round.
The communities’ own capacity sits in existing knowledge, mutual aid and community funds, which participants asked outsiders to strengthen. They also asked for training in income-generating activities.
Vulnerable Groups
Governance
Emergency Preparedness
Infrastructure Readiness
Engagement Level
Empowerment Level
Implementation
A people-centred look at how communities already anticipate floods: signs read by fishers and elders, word-of-mouth warnings shared at crossroads, markets, mosques and churches, and mutual aid for dykes and meals.
A gender-split, two-round design that returned findings to participants.
A questionnaire of 37 questions with a step-by-step guide for adapting it elsewhere.
The questionnaire lists French, Arabic, Kotoko, N’Gambaye, Fulfulbé and Kabalaye as languages for receiving alerts. Most participants identified as Arab, Kotoko or Sara.
Ground Truth Solutions, with the Centre de Recherche en Anthropologie et Sciences Humaines (CRASH). Funded by the H2H Network’s H2H Fund, supported by USAID.
GTS has run perception studies in Chad on the accountability of humanitarian aid, and it has a climate adaptation work stream.
Ground Truth Solutions; CRASH; the H2H Network; residents of Mani and N’Djamena-Fara, including women, men, fishers, elders and young people; local authorities and traditional leaders; community-based organisations; civil servants; humanitarian organisations that reviewed the tool.
- GTS and CRASH set out to document community perceptions, preferences and priorities on anticipatory action in Hadjer-Lamis, and to develop a survey tool for larger-scale data collection.
- In August 2024, they held interviews and gender-separated focus groups in Mani and N’Djamena-Fara.
- They analysed the results and drafted a survey tool.
- In September–October 2024, they returned to both communities to present the findings, check them and gather further views on priorities such as community funds.
- They tested key questions through cognitive interviews with new participants.
- They consulted humanitarian organisations on the findings and the tool.
- The report was published in November 2024 in English and French.
External project funding, a research team with local partners, interviewers and facilitators, field travel, and report design and translation.
Two fieldwork phases between August and October 2024, followed by the report in November 2024.
Experience of the Implementing Organisation in DRM
Target Audience
Resources Required
Timeframe & Phases
Participation Results
Communities in these two areas run their own early warning and mutual aid, and they want outside support to build on it, not replace it. Participants asked for sustainable materials for dykes and houses, official weather information to complement local signs, and support for livelihoods. The authors argue that triggers and programmes should account for the broader economic situation, because a flood in a year of high prices does more harm. People value two-way dialogue and clear explanations of how their input will be used.
Fieldwork took place while the rainy season was starting, so some areas were already flooding. The team worked in only two communities, so the findings cannot be generalised to the province. Pastoralists who move seasonally and some ethnic groups did not take part, and women were a minority of those interviewed individually. Women and men gave similar answers, but the authors warn that this does not prove their needs are the same. To strengthen the findings, the team went back to participants to check them, tested questions with new participants and asked humanitarian organisations to review the tool. The authors say the questionnaire must be adapted and tested before use in other areas.
Implementation risks include narrow coverage (two communities), missing groups such as seasonal pastoralists, fewer women than men among individually interviewed residents, and consultation fatigue among participants. The study addressed these with a validation round with participants, cognitive testing of questions with new participants, review of the tool by humanitarian organisations and an explicit limitations section. For future surveys, the report advises using enumerators with no aid-agency ties, keeping local authorities out of respondent selection and checking data quality daily.
Risk & Mitigation Plan
Scalability and Sustainability
The community system is self-funded through a community fund, contributions of labour, bags and food, and help from relatives and businesses outside the area. It is under strain: dykes need constant repair, and time spent on them reduces income. The study itself was funded externally.
The approach can be repeated wherever organisations want community views before designing anticipatory action. The report says the questionnaire reflects the two communities and must be adapted and tested elsewhere. It sets a sample of at least 400 people for a margin of error of about 5 points and gives guidance on sampling, enumerators and data cleaning.
The study used no technology beyond standard data collection. The communities share warnings mainly in person. Some use phones, social media or contacts at the meteorological service, but access is uneven.
No public information on costs was found in the sources reviewed. Based on the available information, direct costs covered the research team, fieldwork logistics, translation, report design and illustration.
No public information on recurring costs was found in the sources reviewed. A repeat would need survey teams, enumerator training, translation and analysis.
Programmes that want to reach these communities should work through existing local structures, such as chiefs, associations and community funds, and plan support over years, not one flood season. Participants also asked that organisations share what they learn with each other, to avoid repeated consultations with no visible result.