29 September 2009: More than 355,000 people, including 90,000 children will benefit from a $2.8 million allocation in the most recent underfunded emergency round to support humanitarian agencies working in the Central African Republic (CAR).
CAR has faced political and economic instability, with high rates of chronic poverty and limited social infrastructures to provide basic services. In 2009, the humanitarian situation has been deteriorating in CAR, particularly in the north of the country due to ongoing and emerging armed conflicts and heightening ethnic tensions.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) will use $420,000 to improve protection efforts through profiling 360,000 IDPs in Bamingui-Bangoran. It will also assist emergency gender-based violence interventions for close to 12,000 women in conflict-affected Ouham Pendé. Some $320,000 will assist the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide emergency food assistance to 2,000 people and coordination and support services for the delivery of emergency assistance. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been allocated $173,000 to provide agricultural inputs to 3,000 vulnerable people affected by malnutrition. The Fund has allocated $155,000 to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality by reinforcing the heath system and using effective methods to reduce obstetrical haemorrhages for approximately 220,000 women. The World Health Organization (WHO) will benefit from $550,000 from CERF to strengthen public health facilities for emergency preparedness and response for the basic health needs of 2,800,000 vulnerable people in the north and south-east.