Editor's note — MEDASH. This analysis note summarizes the main issues relating to children, social protection and resilience in Chad, drawing on publicly available reference sources (UNICEF, WHO, European Union — see "Sources" at the end of this note). It offers a cross-cutting reading of these issues in light of MEDASH SARL's areas of activity — energy, digital tools and local presence — and is intended to inform dialogue with technical and financial partners. It does not constitute an official position of any international organization, nor a contractual document.

1. General Context

Chad remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with nearly half of its population living below the poverty line. The country combines structural challenges — limited access to basic services, climate fragility, vulnerability to regional shocks — with situational crises, notably the massive influx of refugees from neighboring Sudan, which places considerable pressure on national health, education and protection systems.

Against this backdrop, Chad's National Development Plan to 2030 sets an ambitious course, but its implementation requires coordinated mobilization by the State, technical and financial partners, and the local private sector. This note maps out the most pressing issues for children and social protection, before identifying the cross-cutting levers — particularly energy and digital — capable of durably strengthening the responses.

2. Child Health and Nutrition: A Persistent Emergency

Despite a halving of under-five mortality since the early 1990s, Chad continues to record one of the highest child mortality rates in the world. Acute malnutrition durably affects young children, and the country ranks among the ten countries most affected by child food poverty globally.

The situation is compounded by periodic epidemic outbreaks (measles, cholera in the east of the country) and by inadequate local health infrastructure, particularly in rural areas where the lack of electrification limits the storage of vaccines and nutritional supplies as well as the continuous operation of health centers.

The levers identified for action include strengthening the cold chain for vaccination, solar electrification of health facilities and nutritional rehabilitation centers, and vector control to limit the transmission of malaria and other vector-borne diseases, which are major drivers of child morbidity.

3. Birth Registration and Children's Legal Identity

Chad has one of the lowest birth registration rates in the world. The absence of a birth certificate durably deprives children of access to school, health services and, later, full recognition of their civic rights. This deficit disproportionately affects rural populations, refugee and displaced children, and the most remote areas of the country.

Modernizing civil registration systems — digitizing registers, interconnecting them with social and health databases, and deploying mobile registration tools in health centers and remote areas — is a decisive lever for closing this gap. These systems must rely on secure and interoperable digital identity infrastructure, a condition for their reliability and sustainability.

4. Education and Child Protection in a Crisis Context

The Sudanese refugee crisis has triggered massive school dropout: two out of three refugee children are currently out of school. Beyond the humanitarian emergency, this situation durably weakens child protection systems, which are already confronted with harmful practices such as early marriage, particularly widespread in Chad.

Community-based care spaces (child-friendly spaces, training centers for adolescents) play an essential role, but their expansion and sustainability depend on basic material conditions: access to energy, water, and safe, functional infrastructure — particularly in camps and areas hosting displaced populations.

5. Cross-Cutting Levers: Energy, Digital Tools and Local Presence

These various issues converge on a common observation: the quality and continuity of basic social services in Chad depend heavily on two underlying infrastructures — access to energy and the reliability of information systems. Solar electrification of health centers, schools and community spaces in rural areas and refugee camps ensures the continuity of essential services independently of the national power grid, which is often absent or unreliable outside major urban centers.

Similarly, the digitization and securing of administrative records (civil registration, health files, nutritional monitoring) strengthens the ability to target and monitor social programs while reducing the risk of fraud and data loss. To be sustainable, these technical solutions must rely on local expertise capable of ensuring maintenance, adaptation to the Chadian context, and coordination with national authorities.

Diagram of cross-cutting levers supporting child well-being in Chad Pyramid diagram showing three sectoral pillars — health and nutrition, civil registration and social protection, education and child protection — resting on two cross-cutting infrastructures, solar energy and secure digital tools, all converging towards the well-being and resilience of Chadian children. Well-being and resilience of Chadian children 🩺 Health & Nutrition Vaccination, cold chain, vector control 🪪 Civil Registration & Protection Birth registration, legal identity, social targeting 📚 Education & Protection Refugee schooling, child-friendly spaces CROSS-CUTTING INFRASTRUCTURE — MEDASH LEVERS ⚡ Solar energy Health centers, schools, community spaces 💻 Digital & identity Civil registration, health records, nutrition tracking

Original MEDASH diagram: the three sectoral pillars of child protection in Chad rest on two cross-cutting infrastructures — solar energy and secure digital tools — whose quality and continuity determine the performance of the whole system.

6. Collaboration Pathways for Technical and Financial Partners

Actors able to combine sharp technical expertise (solar energy, digital identity, environmental health) with a strong operational presence on the ground in Chad are particularly well placed to support the implementation of multisectoral programs addressing these priorities. MEDASH SARL, a firm based in N'Djamena working in economic and sociological studies, IT integration, and the supply of equipment and internet services, identifies four concrete avenues for collaboration:

  1. Solar electrification of basic social facilities. Deployment of solar kits and mini-grids for health centers, nutritional rehabilitation centers, schools and community spaces in rural areas and refugee camps, to guarantee the vaccine cold chain and continuity of services independent of the national grid.
  2. Digitization and securing of social and health records. Rollout of mobile, interoperable birth registration tools, interconnection of civil registration, health and nutritional monitoring databases, built on secure digital identity infrastructure adapted to the Chadian context.
  3. Territorial diagnostics and feasibility studies. Needs mapping and prioritization of intervention sites (rural areas, refugee camps, regions with high birth-registration deficits) to effectively guide the investments of technical and financial partners.
  4. Local maintenance and skills transfer. On-the-ground support — based in N'Djamena — to ensure maintenance of solar and digital equipment, train local teams, and coordinate with national authorities, a condition for the sustainability of investments.

7. Summary

The challenges facing children and vulnerable communities in Chad — child mortality, malnutrition, low birth registration, school dropout, exposure to vector-borne diseases — are closely interconnected and call for integrated rather than sector-by-sector responses.

Actors able to combine sharp technical expertise with a strong operational presence on the ground in Chad are particularly well placed to support the implementation of multisectoral programs addressing these priorities. MEDASH stands ready to support international organizations, UN agencies and technical and financial partners wishing to explore any of these avenues as part of their programming in Chad.

Sources

Questions about this note?

MEDASH's Social Studies team is available to discuss this analysis or explore a collaboration pathway in more depth.

Contact us →