The Central African Republic (CAR) successfully held its first Development Partner Round Table in Brussels on Friday, gathering much needed donor support for the impoverished nation. Donors pledged to spend USD 600 million over the next three years to finance crucial humanitarian and development projects.

The CAR government, represented by President François Bozizé and Prime Minister Elie Doté, presented its milestone Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) to 130 international participants and sought funding for future development.

Donors—including China, the EC, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, France and UN agencies—committed to a total of USD 600 million over the next three years. Other attendees indicated their possible willingness to make commitments after reviewing existing budgetary priorities. The initial commitments represent USD 200 million dollars in annual funding for CAR by 2010—thus tripling the amount of foreign development aid given in 2005.

The meeting was opened by President Bozizé, who implored the international community to take a fresh look at his country. He highlighted that Central African Republic had held internationally-approved elections in 2005 and had spotlighted both security and justice sector reforms as part of its development strategy.

The UN’s Resident Coordinator in CAR, Toby Lanzer, gave a vivid presentation to participants. He said development assistance had “collapsed in CAR despite a general increase of aid given to the region.” He quoted statistics showing that assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa had risen by 54% since 1985, but fell by a dramatic 60% in Central African Republic.

Louis Michel, the EC Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, reminded attendees that CAR’s major challenge remained the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, which also seeks to halve all countries’ poverty levels by 2015. Central African Republic is one of the three poorest countries on earth and, as opposed to virtually all sub-Saharan African countries, has stagnated in human development over the last thirty years.

The meeting was organized with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the European Commission and the World Bank.

The Round Table meeting will be followed by more consultations on specific projects and needs with the respective donor countries and multilateral organizations. These meetings are likely to take place in Bangui, the Central African capital within the next year.

All conference presentations, strategy papers, and other documents are available under the conference website www.car-round-table.net.

For our full picture gallery of the Round Table please click here.