The UNDP Regional Stabilization Facility for Lake Chad is pleased to introduce a Situational Briefs series focused on exploring the potential and emerging implications of COVID-19 for stabilization, recovery, and resilience in the Lake Chad Basin (LCB). The Situational Briefs series assumes that the spread of COVID-19 and the response strategies by governments at different levels have implications for communities, citizens, government programs and priorities, resources and capabilities. Experiences from other regions of Africa and the globe point to COVID-19 as a ‘watershed’ moment, marked by seismic shifts in local, national, regional and international realities.