The first World Humanitarian Day was celebrated in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR) on 19 August with a ceremony and exhibition of humanitarian work attended by the Prime Minister of CAR and members of the government, the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) of the United Nations, diplomats and many members of the humanitarian community.

Six years ago, a truck-bomb exploded in Baghdad killing twenty-two people, including UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and one of the world’s great humanitarians, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Worldwide, more than 700 humanitarian workers have lost their lives in the past decade.

In CAR, a nurse working for an international NGO was shot and killed in 2007. SRSG Sahle-Work Zewde stated, “This year alone, humanitarian workers have been subjected to ambushes and armed robbery by bandits who threatened to execute them and left them stranded in the bush. They have been taken hostage by people who seek ransom, or who question their impartiality. But they are still here, and they deserve our praise and solidarity.” The occasion was marked by a minute of silence to remember the sacrifices which people all over the world have made to bring assistance to others.

Fragile progress

The Central African Republic is one of the world’s poorest countries, currently ranking second from bottom (178th of 179) on the Humanitarian Development Index. It has suffered from insecurity and violence across the north for half a decade, causing over 100,000 refugees to flee the country and a similar number to hide in the bush, too afraid to return home.

Since 2007, the international community has become increasingly aware of what was previously an all but forgotten conflict, causing humanitarian aid to increase from $10 million in 2005 to more than $100 million in 2008. It currently accounts for more than 30% of total overseas assistance to the country, and has proven particularly effective in targeting fragile zones across the north where development aid is slowest to arrive.

Resurgent crisis

Despite this, the situation remains precarious. Humanitarian funding to date in 2009 has fallen significantly. The UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund contributed $2.8 million recently, recognising it as an underfunded emergency. Even so, over $40 million of humanitarian needs cited in the country’s Coordinated Aid Programme (CAP) remain unmet. Continue Reading »

Catherine Bragg (centre) and Sitta Kai-Kai,
head of WFP (bottom right) with displaced
people living in the bush north of Kabo.

(Bangui/New York, 30 July 2009): United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Catherine Bragg, ended a five-day mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) with a call for improved protection of civilians in the country.

“Despite a general improvement of the situation in some areas, the situation is still very volatile and the displaced population remains traumatised,” said Ms. Bragg. “Fear is very evident amongst the people who had to repeatedly leave their villages and watch their homes and livelihoods being looted, burnt and destroyed,” she added.

She said the absence of the police and the judiciary in some areas has led to human rights violations and a culture of impunity.

Although some displaced people started to return to their places of origin in 2008, hostilities this year caused further displacement and slowed the momentum of return, she noted, expressing hope that efforts by all parties to restore peace and security will help limit displacement and encourage voluntary return of civilians to their homes.

Humanitarian agencies estimate that one million civilians are affected by conflict in the Central
African Republic, including 125,000 who are internally displaced.

Ms. Bragg also deplored the funding shortfall that humanitarian agencies continue to face. Current funding requirements amount to $97 million. Some $48 million of the total required for the humanitarian response remains outstanding.

During her visit, Ms. Bragg met President Francois Bozize and Prime Minister Faustin Archange Touadera. She also visited internally displaced people in the towns of Birao, Kabo and Paoua and had meetings with humanitarian workers in those areas.

Ms. Bragg said humanitarian organisations in some of the areas she visited still had difficulties accessing certain vulnerable groups due to insecurity and the bad state of roads and bridges, particularly during the rainy season.

The Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator urged the national authorities to ensure that humanitarian agencies had unhindered access to all those in need.

The full text of all press releases relating to this visit are available here:

Press release 1 - English (PDF) - 28 kb
Press release 2 - English (PDF) - 28 kb
Final Press release - English (PDF) - 24 kb

At an event held in Bangui on 28 January 2009, the government of the Central African Republic and the humanitarian community launched the country’s Coordinated Aid Programme (CAP) for 2009.

The CAP provides a coherent humanitarian strategy of the Humanitarian and Development Partnership Team to provide life-saving assistance to one million people affected by violent conflict and banditry in northern and southeastern CAR, protect their human rights and help them restart their lives.
Speakers at the official launch emphasized that the ongoing peace progress between the government and militant groups provided a unique opportunity to improve the humanitarian situation. Yet civilians continue to suffer from ongoing fighting, banditry and a lack of schools, hospitals and clean water in one of the world’s poorest countries.

For 2009, 11 UN entities, 5 local and 18 international non-governmental organisations have included 105 projects in the CAP for which they require $116m. Most urgently, $14.3m are needed for ten projects that were ranked as an immediate priority.

Download the documents

	Coordinated Aid Programme for Central African Republic 2009 (English | PDF | 109 pages | 2.7MB)
	Complete CAP 2009 Project List (English | PDF | 151 pages | 0.6MB)
	Summary of CAP 2009 (English | PDF | 16 pages | 1.4MB) Résumé du CAP 2009 (Français | PDF | 16 pages | 1.4MB)

For further information

• Visit the global CAP website: www.humanitarianappeal.net
• Contact:
  Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
  United Nations | Bangui | Central African Republic
  Nicolas Rost | rostn@un.org
  Gisèle Willybiro | willybiro@un.org

In Coordinated Aid Programme, 34 aid agencies ask for $116m for 2009 to fund humanitarian assistance in the Central African Republic

Pierre Holtz/UNICEF

On 19 November, John Holmes, Emergency Relief Coordinator, launched the Humanitarian Appeal 2009, with CAR being one of the countries covered by the appeal.

The country’s Coordinated Aid Programme (CAP) 2009 includes 105 projects which require funding of just over $116 million. It seeks to provide aid to 1 million Central Africans hit by the conflict. The 2009 CAP strategic priorities are to (i) deliver life-saving assistance, particularly health care and safe water; (ii) protect people struck by violence against violations of their human rights; and (iii) integrate early recovery and humanitarian action.

Ten projects to provide basic healthcare and human rights protection, as well as a humanitarian air service to enable aid workers to reach people in remote areas and transport relief items, are ranked as an immediate priority. Just over $14m are needed for these most urgent activities.

Click here to download the 2009 Coordinated Aid Programme for CAR (PDF, 2.6MB) and here for more information, including all projects and the funding status of the Coordinated Aid Programme

Pierre Holtz/UNICEF/Feb 08

The United Nations humanitarian wing today appealed for donors to provide another $26 million to support its aid activities in the impoverished Central African Republic (CAR), where more than 200,000 people remain displaced from their homes by persistent conflict and banditry over the past two years.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the aid programme launched by the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the CAR this year needs $116 million in funding, but has received only $90 million so far.

UN agencies have vastly expanded the number of programmes they provide in the CAR to help the growing numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees now living in neighbouring countries such as Cameroon, Chad and Sudan.

Humanitarian agencies have also strengthened their presence outside the capital, Bangui, by increasing their number of offices from seven just two years ago to 46 this month.
Continue Reading »

When families are forced to flee their villages because of violence, they often have to leave behind some of their most valuable assets: seeds and tools for farming. This leads to an even bigger loss: their harvest.

Because of ongoing violence, food security is a major issue in the Central African Republic. Although some early projects are making a difference, more needs to be done; local food prices are increasing rapidly for food produced both inside and out of CAR .
Continue Reading »

Rebel excersizing in a training camp in north-eastern CAR.

Now that years of conflict in the Central African Republic are starting to wind down,  opportunities for economic recovery have begun to open up in many parts of the north.  There are still many challenges; principle among them road banditry which places a heavy burden on trade and local economies.  However, in spite all of this hardship, the people in the north have shown remarkable resilience.

In Paoua, for example, large proportions of the local and displaced populations are now working within cooperatives, women’s groups or other associations.  Also, since late 2007, people in many parts of the country have begun returning to their villages and rebuilding their houses and livelihoods, particularly in Birao,  around Kabo, and between Ouandago and Kaga-Bandoro.

With this accelerating return home, aid organisations are helping to create economic opportunities for communities that have been roiled by violence.  To that end, micro-credit programs and support to small farm cooperatives are now available in eleven places across the country.  Additionally, 48 kilometres of dirt roads have been rehabilitated so far this year and there are plans to work on an additional 282 kilometres.

Since restarting economic activity will be key to sustaining the Central African Republic’s fragile progress, many aid organisations have planned to focus their activities on the local economy for the rest of the year.  Programmes supporting farmers, herdsmen and fisherman will help strengthen the link between humanitarian and development assistance as well.

In Paoua, women communities receive help from the
Danish Refugee Council to set up small businesses.

Most recently, humanitarian organisations were called upon to assist people ravaged by the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) near Obo on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  They acted quickly to provide  protection, basic health and education services to a weakend population.  As in the north, these emergency activities will soon be linked with early recovery projects (in road rehabilitation, for example), so that the population can start re-building better lives.

Get more details in the 2008 Coordinated Aid Programme Mid-Year Review (PDF - 2.8 MB).

Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies together have ranked all projects in the emergency appeal for the Central African Republic (CAR), which is a part of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) for 2008.

Overall, 37 of 75 projects in the country’s appeal were identified as ‘high’ or ‘immediate’ priority. These projects, which carry a price tag of $29 million, will provide life-saving assistance to 1 million people, including 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 3,000 Sudanese refugees. Continue Reading »

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. Continue Reading »

Aid agencies working in the Central African Republic have renewed their emergency appeal for the country. The mid-year review of the Coordinated Aid Programme (CAP) for CAR was launched today by Toby Lanzer, UN Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator. Read a summary of the appeal below.

Violence has now displaced a greater proportion of the population in the north of the Central African Republic (CAR) than in any other country of the world. Torching villages, unknown in CAR until November 2005, has become routine, summary executions reign in a climate of impunity, and rape shatters the dignity and health of the country’s women.

This is the reality faced by one million people scattered in small villages or seeking refuge in the bush along the borders with Chad and Sudan. And it comes on top of the world’s most oppressive poverty which has seen almost two thirds of CAR’s population of 4.2 million survive on less than US$ 1 per day. Continue Reading »