Despite progress made in many areas, the Central African Republic remains in a state of crisis. To fund and expand the humanitarian response, the Humanitarian and Development Partnership Team (HDPT) in CAR has published its 2008 “Coordinated Aid Programme,” appealing to donor countries to fund urgent projects intended to meet the needs of one million people affected by ongoing violence in the northern part of CAR.

The Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) is a funding mechanism in which projects managed by the United Nations, NGOs and other stakeholders come together to approach the donor community funding international development activities. In 2007, the CAP -among many other issues- provided temporary shelter and basic household items to 193,000 people affected by conflict in the Central African Republic;

The following is an excerpt from the 2008 Coordinated Aid Programme (the conventional name used in CAR) as published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Things are on the move in the Central African Republic (CAR): the conflict in the northeast, which threatened to unsettle the entire country, has stabilised following April 2007 peace accords between the Government and the Union of Democratic Forces for Unification (UFDR), and a United Nations-mandated European Union force is to be deployed to the area to prevent the violence in Darfur and Chad from spilling into CAR. Further, the Government is about to hold an inclusive political dialogue with all political actors in CAR. In the same positive vein, the Government presented its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper to development partners in Brussels on 26 October 2007. The strategy, covering the next three years, emphasises human rights, security sector reform, and rural development. Macroeconomic management has been praised, and the Bretton Woods institutions have re-engaged. In sum, there is a real window of opportunity for urgently needed recovery and development in CAR.

Despite these significant achievements, the situation has continued to deteriorate in the northwest, stretching from there along most of the porous border with Chad. Violence between militants, government forces, and bandits continues to haunt and displace people many of whom have fled from their homes for a second time. Some of the 197,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have sought refuge in towns; others have fled to the bush; both are united in needing emergency relief and being cut off from their water pumps, clinics, schools, and livelihoods. Health and nutrition indicators point to the gravity of the situation, and research suggests that gender-based violence strikes well over 15% of women and girls in some parts of the north. The humanitarian consequences of violence will continue to plague people far beyond the end of the conflict at hand.

The international community’s response to the emergency is now rising to the challenge. During 2007 the Humanitarian and Development Partnership Team (known as HDPT, the team is an innovative partnership of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies geared up its activities to help people in need. Its members established 35 offices around the country, compared to just seven a year earlier. Protection by presence is becoming a reality in CAR, and thanks to enhanced advocacy, suffering and abuse no longer escape the attention of the international community. Coordination has been strengthened by the establishment of clusters and the Emergency Response Fund (ERF). Indeed, the ERF, which is led by the Humanitarian Coordinator with programme support from OCHA and administrative backing by UNDP, has played a critical role in CAR by enabling more donors and NGOs to engage and to address breaking emergencies as soon as they occur.

To continue its work in 2008, the HDPT has, together with the Government of CAR and donors, decided on three strategic priorities: enhancing the protection of people affected by the conflict in the north by stepping up the presence of humanitarian organisations; providing timely and adequate lifesaving assistance to people who are deprived of their rights; and ensuring coherence and complementarity between humanitarian assistance, early recovery, and development programmes. Clusters and innovative funding mechanisms, e.g. the ERF, will help the aid agencies to meet their priorities.

All NGOs and United Nations (UN) agencies, working under the auspices of the HDPT, will work towards meeting these priorities. This ‘Coordinated Aid Programme’ includes 76 projects, all of which the clusters and the Humanitarian Coordinator have vetted and ranked according to six criteria: relevance to key needs and strategic priorities; location; timing; the extent to which a project supports humanitarian action; gender; and capacity- building. As such, each project included in this CAP has been ranked ‘immediate’, ‘high’ or ‘medium’. Any project not meeting the rank of ‘medium priority’ was not included.

It is now critical to build on the progress made in 2007 and maintain the presence established in order to stand by people in need. To that end, NGOs and UN agencies participating in this CAP require US$ 92.6 million to meet the urgent needs of one million people struck by crisis in the northern part of CAR. Donors are called on to provide funding as soon as possible.

Click here to download the full CAP 2008 for CAR (PDF; 4 MB)
Click here to download the list of prioritised projects (PDF; 843 KB)

For more information and to make a donation towards the funding of the CAP, please visit http://www.humanitarianappeal.net.