Humanitarian Fund allocation in the Central African Republic - 4 August 2020

The Central African Republic Humanitarian Fund allocates US$ 9 million for duty of care and coordination support, as well as the sectoral and multisectoral response to the urgent shortcomings of the 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan.

Bangui, 4 August 2020 - The Humanitarian Coordinator for the Central African Republic (CAR), Ms. Denise Brown, has allocated US$ 9 million from the Humanitarian Fund (HF) to support sectoral and multisectoral response to the urgent underfunded needs of the 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) in favor of the most vulnerable groups and internal displaced persons (IDP) on sites and with host families. This emergency funding will also serve at providing a helicopter through the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) to ensure in-country medical evacuations for humanitarian personnel. It will also ensure the delivery of essential cargo in hard-to-reach areas, support coordination through the funding of cluster co-facilitators' positions, and multisectoral need assessments for the 2021 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO).

Thanks to this funding, 31 emergency projects will be implemented in the priority sectors of emergency shelter and non-food items, camp coordination and camp management, water, sanitation and hygiene, education, food security, nutrition, logistics, protection and coordination. As for the precedent CAR HF allocation, the reserve modality was chosen to foster a prioritization process that promoted a rapid selection of projects, allowing efficient and timely disbursement of the funds.

"The Humanitarian Fund allocation will enable humanitarians on the front line to use a helicopter to deliver life-saving assistance in hard-to-reach areas, and will help providing a multisectoral response to the most urgent humanitarian needs of the underfunded 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan", explained Mr. François Batalingaya, Head of OCHA in CAR. This funding will target the most vulnerable people, including IDPs in the prefectures of Bamingui-Bangoran, Basse-Kotto, Haute-Kotto, Haut-Mbomou, Mbomou, Nana-Gribizi, Nana-Mambéré, Ombella M'Poko, Ouaka, Ouham and Vakagha. While focusing on the most urgent needs prioritized through the 2020 HRP, this allocation also complements the efforts to address various needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic in CAR, including the envelope of US$ 5 million granted by the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) which is covering, among others, health needs.

With this third reserve allocation, the CAR HF has allocated US$ 21.9 million in favor of the crisis-affected population since the beginning of the year. "I warmly thank the donors for their generosity and confidence in the CAR HF, a funding mechanism that ensures predictable, flexible, and timely humanitarian funding to meet the needs of vulnerable communities," said the Head of OCHA in CAR.

Recently in CAR, the already critical humanitarian situation has sharply deteriorated, especially in the North, East and West following increased armed groups clashes. About 659,000 people are internally displaced. With 4,614 confirmed COVID-19 cases including 59 deaths as of 2 August, the country faces humanitarian needs that exceed by far the existing response capacity. Only one in three Central Africans has access to safe drinking water, while the country has the second highest maternal mortality and third highest infant mortality rates worldwide. In the first half of the year, 192 incidents affecting humanitarian workers were registered, including 2 deaths and 17 injuries. The updated 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan is only 35.1% funded, which represents US$ 194.6 million out of the 553.6 million required.

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For more information, contact

Maxime Nama, Head, Public Information Unit, namacirhibuka@un.org; +236 70 12 24 43

Francois Batalingaya, Head of Office, francois.batalingaya@un.org, + 236 70 60 10 66

*Press releases are available on www.unocha.org or *www.reliefweb.int

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