Currently operational in three of the four Lake Chad Basin countries: Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria. Currently funded by the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO).
$5.4M funded in Chad and Cameroon
&
$4M expected for Nigeria in upcoming round
Funded by
German Federal Foreign Office
Total Funding Envelope in 2025 for Cameroon & Chad.
Launched at the 5th Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum, Maiduguri, Nigeria — 31 January 2025 → Read the press release
Why Do We Need the Nexus Funding Facility?
The Lake Chad Region faces a long-term crisis characterized by violent extremist groups, massive displacement, and severe climate change impacts, leading to insecurity and human suffering. Without a strategic, coordinated, and regional approach, resources will not be fully utilized to capacity, and the root causes of instability will remain unaddressed.
To overcome these challenges, the Nexus Funding Facility (NFF) will:
- Strengthen the coordination among donors and humanitarian, development, and peace actors for an integrated approach and collective impact
- Reinforce strategic oversight, accountability, and reporting lines for consistent action
- Encourage greater national and regional ownership of donor activities for locally-driven initiatives
Objectives of the NFF
The Nexus Funding Facility (NFF) is a multi-donor fund, facilitating integrated and sustainable solutions for the ongoing crises in the Lake Chad Basin. It operates under the Regional Strategy for Stabilisation, Resilience and Reconstruction of the Lake Chad Basin Commission Regional Strategy for Stabilisation, Recovery and Resilience (RS-SRR)
The NFF aims to reduce inefficiencies and duplication by ensuring that humanitarian, development, and peace actors cooperate towards common goals through shared analysis and joint planning. This coordinated approach aims to overcome humanitarian needs and provides a path to dignity, safety, and security.
The NFF provides flexible, multi-year funding to consortia of specialized national (I)NGOs and UN agencies. By promoting coordination, the NFF not only provides essential resources but strengthens the RC/HC's mandates, enhancing the effectiveness of interventions.
Finally, this approach seeks to break the cycle of dependency and build long-term resilience for people in need.
The SMDF and NFF were officially launched on 31st January 2025 at the 5th Lake Chad Basin Governors’ Forum in Maiduguri, Nigeria, with the support of Germany and Sweden.
The NFF within the Special Multi-partner Delivery Fund (SMDF)
The NFF is the Nexus Window, Component 3, of the broader Special Multi-partner Delivery Fund (SMDF), a regional basket fund established to provide strategic financing for the implementation of the RS-SRR across the Lake Chad Basin. The SMDF brings together three complementary components: institutional support to the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC); disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation, reinsertion and reintegration (DDRRR) of persons associated with Boko Haram; and the NFF itself.
Operationalized through a regional window, the SMDF harnesses collective action from UN agencies, governments, donors, and civil society to enable coherent, multi-agency responses to the crisis. Within this architecture, the NFF serves as the dedicated vehicle for joint humanitarian, development, and peace programming, thereby incentivizing partners to move away from siloed approaches and towards area-based, nexus-oriented interventions.
How the RSF, SMDF and NFF complement each other in the Lake Chad Basin
The Regional Stabilization Facility (RSF), the Special Multi-Partner Delivery Fund (SMDF), and the Nexus Funding Facility (NFF) are connected instruments supporting the transition from stabilization toward recovery, peacebuilding, resilience, and longer-term development in the Lake Chad Basin.
While each mechanism has a distinct role, they contribute to the same broader objective: supporting implementation of the Regional Strategy for the Stabilization, Recovery and Resilience of the Boko Haram-affected Areas of the Lake Chad Basin Region (RS-SRR), in close collaboration with the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), national authorities, UN partners, NGOs, civil society, and donors.
RSF: stabilizing conflict-affected areas
The RSF is the front-end stabilization instrument. It works in selected conflict-affected locations to help restore minimum conditions for return, resettlement, protection, basic services, livelihoods, local governance, access to justice, and trust in state institutions.
In practical terms, the RSF helps create the conditions that allow recovery and development actors to engage. It focuses on areas where insecurity, displacement, and weak state presence have severely affected communities and the social contract.
SMDF: the broader regional transition architecture
The SMDF is the umbrella regional fund designed to carry the RS-SRR forward beyond site-based stabilization. It supports the transition from stabilization to recovery, peacebuilding, and development through three interconnected components:
- strengthening the institutional and operational capacity of the LCBC;
- supporting a more harmonized regional approach to exits from Boko Haram and related DDRRR/SPRR work;
- financing coordinated HDP nexus programming through the NFF.
The SMDF therefore complements the RSF by helping to consolidate stabilization gains and support a more strategic regional transition.
NFF: the HDP nexus financing window
The NFF is Component 3 of the SMDF. It is the financing window specifically designed to bridge the gap between humanitarian action, stabilization, recovery, peacebuilding, and development.
Its role is to incentivize joint programming across humanitarian, development, and peace actors. The NFF supports consortium-based implementation involving UN agencies, international NGOs, national NGOs, and civil society organizations, with a strong focus on localization, cross-border approaches, and flexible multi-year programming.
What makes the NFF different
The NFF is not only a funding mechanism. It is a governance and programming platform for collective nexus action. Its distinct value lies in the combination of:
- regional anchoring through the LCBC and the RS-SRR;
- national grounding through country-level priorities and nexus task forces;
- mixed consortia involving UN, NGO, and civil society actors;
- a strong localization ambition;
- explicit humanitarian-development-peace programming;
- cross-border and regional logic;
- independent technical review;
- flexible, catalytic, and multi-year financing.
Together, the RSF, SMDF, and NFF form a complementary architecture: the RSF helps stabilize selected areas, the SMDF provides the broader regional transition framework, and the NFF finances joint nexus action to help sustain and expand those gains.
NFF in Practice
The NFF is supporting integrated projects to improve access to essential services, rebuild livelihoods, and promote social cohesion in conflict-affected communities. This includes immediate humanitarian assistance like food and healthcare, along with long-term development efforts such as agricultural training, small business support, and stabilization as well as peacebuilding measures, e.g. conflict resolution workshops. By addressing both immediate needs and root causes, the NFF aims to create sustainable solutions for lasting peace and stability.
Country Priorities 2025–2026
National priorities are identified at country level with local and international partners, using existing sectorial and thematic plans. They are validated by National Nexus Task Forces (NNTFs) through an inclusive process involving local authorities, government, civil society, and international partners.
- Cameroon — Far North Region
Including hard-to-reach and cross-border areas
- Sustainable livelihoods & food/nutrition security
- Inclusive and durable basic social services
- Social cohesion, peacebuilding & community stabilization
- Climate resilience & natural resource governance
- Localization & inclusive governance
- Chad — Lac & Hadjer-Lamis Provinces
Including cross-border dynamics with Cameroon
- Essential social services
- Livelihoods & food security
- Social cohesion & community participation
- Inclusive local governance & institutional legitimacy
- Climate resilience & disaster preparedness
- Nigeria
NFF Nigeria Priorities
Priority 1: Protection, Social Cohesion, and Community-Level Justice & Security
This priority focuses on strengthening community protection, trust, and peaceful coexistence in areas affected by insecurity, displacement, explosive ordnance risks, gender-based violence, child protection concerns, and trauma.
Key areas of focus include:
- community cohesion, peacebuilding, and local justice;
- local peace committees and inter-community dialogue;
- women- and youth-led social cohesion initiatives;
- community-based protection mechanisms;
- prevention and response to GBV, child protection risks, and explosive ordnance threats;
- mental health and psychosocial support, healing, and reintegration.
Priority 2: Resilient, Climate-Smart Livelihoods and Economic Recovery
This priority supports sustainable livelihoods and economic recovery in communities affected by food insecurity, poverty, disrupted markets, climate shocks, and limited access to income opportunities.
Key areas of focus include:
- vocational training and income-generating activities, especially for women and youth;
- support to small businesses, SMEs, and market-driven recovery;
- climate-smart agriculture and support to farmers;
- livestock, pastoralist, irrigation, and water management support;
- sustainable natural resource management;
- climate adaptation, early warning, preparedness, and environmental restoration.
Priority 3: Inclusive, Conflict-Sensitive Basic Services and Human Capital
This priority aims to improve access to essential services for host communities, IDPs, returnees, women, children, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups, while strengthening social cohesion and resilience.
Key areas of focus include:
- primary healthcare, maternal and child health, and MHPSS;
- formal and non-formal education, school rehabilitation, and teacher support;
- safe and inclusive learning environments;
- safe water, sanitation, hygiene, and waste management;
- civil documentation and access to social services;
- community participation, feedback, and accountability mechanisms;
- inclusion in social protection, financial, and digital services.
Priority 4: Governance and Regional Cooperation
This priority supports local governance, accountability, and cross-border cooperation as enablers of sustainable recovery and resilience.
Key areas of focus include:
- inclusive and conflict-sensitive local systems;
- community engagement and feedback mechanisms;
- stronger links between communities, authorities, and service providers;
- support to whole-of-society approaches to IED threat mitigation;
- cross-border coordination, information sharing, early warning, and market linkages.
Governance Structure
The NFF structure is designed to ensure accountability, transparency, and effectiveness, leveraging diverse stakeholders' strengths while focusing clearly on strategic objectives. For full details on the governance bodies and their respective roles, see the Governance tab.
Why We Should All Work Together to Make the NFF a Success
- The NFF's inclusive governance structure ensures strategic coordination, regional oversight, and local ownership of humanitarian, development, and peace efforts in the Lake Chad Basin region.
- By pooling multiple donors' funding and expertise, the NFF maximizes the impact of bilateral funding streams.
- It builds on successful coordination between humanitarian and development actors, integrating peace activities to address the Lake Chad Basin region's long-term instability and reduce ongoing humanitarian needs.
- The NFF involves local and national actors through national HDP Working Groups and the regional Governance Board to ensure both ownership and long-term commitment.
Get Involved
Our Donors
The NFF is made possible through the generous contributions of its donor partners. Their funding enables coordinated, multi-year responses to the Lake Chad Basin crisis.
German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en
The GFFO, supports crisis prevention, stabilization, and transitional assistance in some of the world’s most fragile contexts.
Interested in contributing to the NFF? Contact the Secretariat at: [email protected]
Past Call for Proposals 2025
The NFF launched its first Call for Proposals (Stage 1 — Concept Notes and Stage 2 — Full Proposals) for Cameroon and Chad in 2025. Eligible consortia including at least one national CSO were invited to submit by 23 November 2025. Visit the Calls for Proposals tab for full details, templates, and eligibility requirements.
The next Call for Proposals is expected in the second quarter of 2026.
For information and updates, contact the NFF Secretariat: