Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Transboundary river basins (TRBs), and its array of biodiversity, have created a web of
complex security, socio-economic and political interdependencies among populations,
communities and multiplicity of actors across the world. However, the continuous degradation
of these vital resources, resulting from natural and anthropogenic factors, has serious
implications for global development, peace and security. Indeed, it further threatens regional
resource base, induce livelihoods impairment, scarcities and conflicts over the utilisation and
control of strategic resources, particularly in the Global South. The study explored the causeeffect
analysis of the desiccation of Lake Chad basin and the dreadful Boko Haram crisis within
the prisms of human security and regional development. It reflects on the interconnections
among environmental change, human development, livelihoods, conflicts and the outcomes of
interventions - military and humanitarian in reconstructing human security and regional
development narratives in the Lake Chad Basin.
The research was contextualised within two theoretical frameworks: eco-violence, and the
capability approach. This was conceived to provide an improved understanding of both the
micro (individual or group interactions) and macro (large scale - national and multinational
actors) development processes, the enablers and constraints of human security in the region.
Their implications for regional development, security, sustainability and stabilisation process
are also elucidated. Mixed-method research and a case study design was adopted to specifically
study the Lake Chad impact area, covering 542,829 km2, across the four riparian countries -
Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Although, the conventional or active basin of the lake -
an estimated 984,455 km2 area was generally referenced. Purposive sampling was used to select
participants for semi-structured interviews, focused group discussions (FGD) and document
review. A total of 34 key informants, six (6) FGDs and 33 institutional documents (18
intervention and policy documents and 15 official bulletins) were utilised. These enable the
substantiation of primary data with secondary data – qualitative and quantitative (derived from
documents review). A thematic analysis of the causality of resource scarcities, livelihoods, and
conflict relationships in the region was undertaken. This includes an assessment of the regional
development process and the efficacies of security and humanitarian interventions in the Lake Chad Basin.The study revealed that the desiccation of Lake Chad and the destructive Boko Haram crisis
(since 2009) impede development in the region. The lake’s shrinkage (estimated above 90percent from 1963 till date), caused by environmental change and unsustainable human
practices or exploitation of the basin’s resources, have transboundary effects. These and the
humanitarian catastrophes caused by Boko Haram menace have heightened human insecurity,
and threaten communities’ fragility and transborder cooperation in the region. While regional
development processes and intervention have marginal impacts on the population and their
resilience capacities. Indeed, the complexity of the challenges overlaps with inconsistencies in
the region’s development processes and the interventions regime – security and humanitarian
management. Thus, addressing the consequences, while neglecting the root causes of human
security threats in the Lake Chad Basin, further heightens the population’s deprivations amidst
challenges of resource curse, geopolitics and its alteration of regional political economy. The
above underscores the dialectics between human security and regional development.
From these submissions, improved water resources and environmental management; inclusive
development - to address the root causes of insecurity; monitoring and harnessing of national
and regional development priorities; and integrated regional security-development strategy,
against the military-led humanitarian approach, are recommended as critical solutions. These
enhance a rethinking of human security and regional development matrix in the Lake Chad and
other TRBs in the Global South. Therefore, the study highlighted the imperative of mediating
exhaustive discourse on TRBs as Special Economic Zones (SEZ); constructive interactions
between development processes and actors (stakeholders); the use of groundwater as a
palliative; and the intrinsic mobility, multiactivity and multi-functionality of livelihoods in the
Lake Chad Basin. These can be pondered in (future research and policy) discourses to enhance
regional resilience, human security and sustainable development in the Lake Chad Basin.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/7336 |
| Date | 26 September 2020 |
| Creators | Badewa, Adeyemi |
| Contributors | Dinbabo, Mulugeta |
| Publisher | University of Western Cape |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Western Cape |
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