CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Major needs, major challenges

Photo: Caterina Pino/IRIN

According to OCHA estimates, there are almost 192,000 displaced people in CAR. Most of them do not live in IDP camps

BANGUI, 4 February 2011 (IRIN) – Access and funding are among the major challenges facing the 30 or so international agencies working in the Central African Republic (CAR), a country ranked 159 out of 169 in the 2010 UN Development Programme’s Human Development Index.

Local armed groups, inter-ethnic clashes and attacks by foreign groups such as the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) restrict access in large parts of this country of 4.5 million people – 192,000 of whom were still displaced in October 2010, according to estimates by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The displaced, whose numbers have risen from 168,000 at the beginning of 2010, are mainly in northern and eastern parts of the country, where armed groups proliferate and violence and impunity are at their worst. They live not in camps, but mainly in the forest, without access to health care, clean water and food, according to OCHA and UNICEF.

Aid workers with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Spain told IRIN the security situation seriously affected their freedom of movement.

Many have fled to neighbouring countries, especially Chad or Cameroon, or to remote areas in the hope of finding safety, but if they find it they invariably have harsh conditions to put up with – no food, little clean drinking water, and no access to health care or education.

“Access became a major constraint in 2010 in several parts of the north and southeast due to increased rebel group and LRA attacks throughout the year. The country was already in a very fragile recovery stage but the recent developments brought it back to an emergency state that makes it very difficult for the humanitarian community to operate,” Benny Krasniqi, country director of medical NGO The MENTOR Initiative, told IRIN.

“There are either impassable roads or accessible ones which are very insecure. Our movements in areas of the northeast are restricted to some major axes, but areas around them are completely cut off. The impossible logistics make it very hard for us to get information in remote areas and intervene in a timely fashion in order to provide basic services to the local population,” he added.

A major problem in securing renewal funding is that CAR is not a high-intensity conflict with massive population displacements, so it goes largely unnoticed in a world with tsunamis, earthquakes, flooding and social unrest on a mass scale

Funding

“Funding for programmes here in CAR has been a constant challenge. The major part has thus far been short-term grants which, given the complexity and restraints – weather, poor infrastructure, shortage of materials, etc. – make timely implementation extremely problematic,” Leland Montell, country director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), told IRIN.

“The loss of a single major donor, as happened to IRC this past year in the protection sector, can lead to the closure of projects, layoffs, and mistrust of the entire NGO community in a given area. It is very destructive to a country programme. Add to this the instability inherent in a post-conflict context, and it is challenging to maintain a cohesive approach,” he said.

“A major problem in securing renewal funding is that CAR is not a high-intensity conflict with massive population displacements, so it goes largely unnoticed in a world with tsunamis, earthquakes, flooding and social unrest on a mass scale,” he added.

“Many [donors] still prefer to invest in more complex emergencies, like the neighbouring places such as Darfur and Chad,” Krasniqi told IRIN.

Funding requirements for the 2011 Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) are US$128.8 million for 118 projects (the figure was $149 million in 2010), but as of November 2010 the CAP was only 43.5 percent funded. As a result, the Humanitarian Country Team is trying to maximize the use of additional funding from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and the Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF).

According to OCHA, $6 million was made available via CERF in 2010, and 11.4 million via CHF ($6 million for projects starting in 2011).

Krasniqi pointed out that it is often difficult to get donors to understand that operating in the CAR context means aid delivery costs are very high.

“Material and all sorts of technical equipment must be purchased either in Cameroon or Chad, and then one has to wait for a month for stuff to be delivered.The other option would be ordering goods in Europe and paying shipping costs, which would mean waiting 3-4 months for the actual delivery,” he said.

Human resources

Another challenge is the high turnover of international staff and the difficulty of deploying even national staff in some areas.

“Recruiting staff for our programmes became a nightmare for many of us [aid agencies]. Working here does not seem to be considered as sexy as Haiti, Pakistan or Sudan, so recruiting for a post may take months, creating huge operational gaps,” said Krasniqi.

“Even if international aid agencies offer competitive salaries, it is not easy to find people able to fill some technical jobs – and also, who would want to be posted to the risky and remote areas?”

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source http://www.irinnews.org

The Kenya Women Finance Trust Limited (KWFT) was established to help women entrepreneurs develop their business models through
microfinancing.

In 2010 KWFT, planned to increase its clients to 600,000 and disburse Sh20 billion (nearly $250 million USD) countrywide.

The small to medium size business loans not only spur companies, but also create employment opportunities, especially in rural
areas. Other personal loans allow women to access money for their children’s education so they needn’t siphon off money from their businesses to support their families.

Source:  The Standard

send in by Lisa Mendelson

COTE D’IVOIRE: Political crisis affects supply of ARVs

Photo: Kate Holt/IRIN

ABIDJAN, 4 February 2011 (PlusNews) – As Côte d’Ivoire’s political stalemate drags on, NGOs are becoming increasingly concerned about its effect on the supply of life-prolonging antiretroviral medicines.

“The street protests, blockades and other problems have disrupted the supply of antiretrovirals (ARVs) in different areas; patients in Abobo District on the northern side of Abidjan were only able to buy drugs at the end of January,” said Yaya Coulibaly, president of the Ivoirian Network of People Living with HIV (RIP+), an umbrella organization for 65 NGOs fighting HIV/AIDS in Côte d’Ivoire.

“The phone has not stopped ringing for several days. There is anxiety and constant stress among HIV/AIDS patients,” he added. “We fear that events here are having an impact on their mental health and aggravating the pandemic in Côte d’Ivoire,” he told IRIN/PlusNews.

Coulibaly said he believed the situation was more critical in areas controlled by the former rebels, the Forces Nouvelles.

“Only the Public Health Pharmacy is supplying drugs in these areas. Unfortunately, vehicular access is blocked to the south. We have learned that in Danané, in the far west, ARVs could only be provided two weeks ago, after a two-month wait,” he said.

RIP+ executive director Claude Bayeto expressed fears that treatment interruptions could lead to drug resistance, which the country’s health system was not fully equipped to handle.

“If there is no improvement and the crisis continues, we will stop taking in new patients and deal only with those we already have,” he added. “And if nothing improves, we must fear a disaster.”

The phone has not stopped ringing for several days. There is anxiety and constant stress among HIV/AIDS patients

The last shortage of ARVs in Côte d’Ivoire was in 2005. People living with HIV/AIDS were hit by a three-month break in supplies.

Antiretroviral therapy was made free of charge by the Ivoirian government in August 2008. In 2010, an estimated 104,000 Ivoirians were on ARVs, largely due to funding from the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief and other international organizations fighting HIV/AIDS.

Aid blow

Support from another key donor, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has approved grants worth more than US$290 million to Côte d’Ivoire, has also been affected by the crisis. Contacted by IRIN in Geneva, the Fund confirmed that: “Due to the political instability the Global Fund has taken measures to safeguard its stocks and funds in Ivory Coast, but continues allowing procurement and distribution of life saving drugs against HIV virus and malaria.” The Global Fund is also authorizing implementers to carry on essential operational activities on a case-by-case basis.

The World Bank, which also pledged an estimated $20 million to fight AIDS in Cote d’Ivoire, has closed its offices in Abidjan as a result of the crisis.

“We have assurances that the Global Fund will fund emergency programmes. The money, we learn, is available,” said RIP+’s Bayeto. “But some sites backed by the World Bank will very soon be in trouble. We are in the second year of project implementation and closure of this office is a concern.”

“Serious consequences”

Nathalie Sadia Gahaley, executive director of the NGO Lumière and Action, has also warned of serious consequences for patients if donor support is compromised.

“We have already been affected by the withdrawal of donors, because we did not foresee it,” Gahaley told IRIN/PlusNews. “We have around 35 people living with HIV/AIDS who receive breakfast and lunch so they can take their medicines. But now we are running out of supplies. And I am not sure we can honour our obligations to our patients who have to eat well in order to take their antiretrovirals.”

She said the situation was particularly difficult in areas where there had been outbreaks of violence.”When there were street demonstrations, patients in trouble spots were unable to reach us to get their food rations. Now we only get around 20 regular visits for food. We are appealing for a humanitarian corridor to be set up by those who make decisions among international humanitarian organizations.”

Margueritte Doffou, director of The National Fund to Fight AIDS (FNLS) said her organization was looking into solving the situation.

“At the moment FNLS funds are not being used to purchase ARVs,” RIP+’s Coulibaly said. “The fund was awaiting the completion of the elections to benefit from taxes on tobacco and airline tickets… Unfortunately, the situation is not normal. We have to find something else,” he said.

HIV-positive Sévérine Tanoh, a 29-year-old dressmaker from Abobo, is worried. “The [political] events occurred at the beginning of my treatment. I stuck it out. There were only three days when I didn’t have any ARVs. Now everything is back to normal,” she said.

“ARVs are my second breath of life; I therefore appeal to all parties to be responsible, and guarantee our survival,” she added.

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source http://www.irinnews.org