The Government of Niger and the High Commission for the Improvement of the Niger River Valley (HCAVN) are constructing a $785 million dam on the Niger River, funded by a number of international actors including the World Bank, the French development Agency, and the Islamic Development Bank. The Kandadji Ecosystems Regeneration and Niger Valley Development Programme, known as Kandadji, aims to provide 130 megawatts of nationally-produced electricity to Niger´s grid, improve conditions for irrigated rice production in the banks of the Niger, and regulate the course of the Niger River. Proclaimed as a resilience-building solution to climate change hazards such as floods and drought, the project has been in development since the colonial period and more recently as part of campaign speeches based on a strong desire for electricity independence. This two-pronged objective was best described by the World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, Makhtar Diop - the Kandadji project is “a transformational development project that will deliver significantly more opportunity to communities, more food, water, and electricity, and less poverty in the poorest region of Africa." Diop´s  hopeful statement stems from a discourse of climate resilience, which paints politically-difficult development schemes in the colors and terminologies of climate change adaptation. Activists at the national and international scales have decried the dam project as a mistake,  based on the negative aspects of the project including the displacement of 30 to 60 thousand individuals (some of which have taken the Government of Niger to court demanding higher compensation but their case was denied), corruption and mismanagement by Nigerien government actors, and the high levels of uncertainty about the dam´s effectiveness as well as numerous more viable and cost effective alternative activities that would better strengthen agricultural activities, such as small scale irrigation.

With its French title, "Programme de régénération des écosystèmes et de mise en valeur de la vallée du Niger, ¨ the dam project appears to emphasize its environmental benefits, including the regeneration of ecosystems and the enhancement of the value of the valley. This point has been further emphasized by the inclusion of organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Global Water Initiative (GWI) in the consortium activities. The project´s three main objectives include: 1) to maintain a minimum flow of 120m3 per second; 2) to create improved condition for the irrigated land in the valley; and 3) to produce energy. Though, the third objective remains paramount to the project, one that has been processing since the idea came about under colonial rule in the 1920s. The long term goals of the project include: 1) the production of the 130 megawatts necessary to bring an overall system increase in energy to 55%; 2) 10 000 hectares under irrigated cultivation in the vicinity of the dam by 2018, with the potential to increase to 45 000 ha by 2034; and 3) the regulation of the course of the Niger river for which the overall output has decreased by 30% since the 1970s due to intermittent rainfall and other factors, including upstream development activities.