Democratic Republic of the Congo 2023 IFRC network country plan

ReliefWeb: Updates by Country 30.11.2022 08:32 Country: Democratic Republic of the Congo Source: International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies Please refer to the attached file. NATIONAL SOCIETY PROFILE The Red Cross of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was created in 1961 as an auxiliary structure of the public authorities. It is closely connected with the main ministries, both at national and provincial level, and is part of the Technical Secretariat set up by the Ministry of Public Health for the response to COVID-19. With a large network of trained and motivated volunteers, staff and real estate assets, the National Society has a strong added value to address the humanitarian needs in the country. According to its Strategic Plan 2019–2023, the priorities of the National Society for 2023 are to further strengthen the National Society’s organizational development and to improve the quality of its services for the benefit of the most vulnerable people. At the national headquarters, there is an operational management structure with technical units in the fields of health, disaster risk management and emergency response, and support services. The DRC Red Cross is equipped with a Provincial Disaster Response Team with 110 trained members, a national disaster response team with 30 trained members, and 10 staff trained as members of a Regional Disaster Response Team. The National Society has a pool of approximately 209,000 registered volunteers, 69.6 per cent of whom are men and 30.4 per cent women. It has a branch in each of the 26 provinces and 245 territorial committees. With 61 years of experience in helping the most vulnerable people, the National Society has extensive experience in responding to epidemics of cholera and Ebola, disasters including floods, volcanic eruptions and landslides, and population movements. Although the humanitarian challenges are enormous in many parts of the country, capacities and resources are limited to reach the whole country in a single one-year plan. The IFRC made the strategic decision in 2020 to support the DRC Red Cross in six pilot provinces out of the 26 in the country: Kinshasa, Equateur, North Kivu, Lomami, Mai-Ndombe and Kongo Central. The pilot provinces were selected on the basis of the National Society’s strategic plan, to build on what has been achieved on the ground. With the support of the IFRC and its membership, the DRC Red Cross has already rehabilitated buildings in some of these provinces where operations and programmes are underway. IFRC NETWORK ACTION IN 2023 Joint situational analysis The Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing a complex, protracted crisis resulting from a combination of factors such as conflict, environmental hazards and disease outbreaks. Internal and cross-border displacement, acute food insecurity and malnutrition, epidemics and protection issues affect the population. The DRC is about the size of Western Europe and is the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa. It is endowed with exceptional natural resources, including minerals like cobalt and copper, hydropower potential, significant arable land, immense biodiversity and the world’s second-largest rainforest. Most people in the DRC have not benefited from this wealth. A long history of conflict, political upheaval, instability and authoritarian rule have led to a grave, ongoing humanitarian crisis. There are more than 120 active armed groups in eastern DRC, with a resurgence of violence in 2022. The most active groups are the Allied Democratic Forces, the March 23 Movement , and the Cooperative for the Development of Congo . Conflict and violence continues to provoke significant displacement of populations. Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, son of Etienne Tshisekedi, the country’s longstanding opposition leader, won the December 2018 presidential election. He succeeded Joseph Kabila, who had led the country for 18 years, in the first peaceful transition of power in the DRC’s history. There are indications that a new social contract may be emerging between the state and its citizens, through the rollout of free primary education, increased transparency and public sector reforms, and an emphasis on conflict prevention and stabilization in eastern DRC. The next general election is scheduled for 2023. Economic growth rebounded to 5.7 per cent in 2021 after a pandemic-induced slowdown to 1.7 per cent in 2020. According to COVID-19 surveys, more than 10 per cent of household members have lost their jobs in Kinshasa, while 20 per cent have reduced their food consumption due to rising prices. However, the poverty rate decreased to 72.1 per cent in 2021 and is expected to decrease by one percentage point each year starting in 2022. This is due to favourable economic prospects, and despite the lasting adverse effect of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, the DRC is among the five poorest nations in the world and continues to have the second-highest number of people living in poverty in sub-Saharan Africa – more than 65 million in 2020. One in every six people living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa lives in the DRC. The DRC ranks 164 out of 174 countries on the 2020 , set at 0.37, which is below the sub-Saharan Africa average of 0.4. A Congolese child born today can expect to achieve only 37 per cent of their potential, compared with what would have been possible if they had benefited from a full, quality schooling experience and optimal health conditions. The main contributors to the low score are low child survival under the age of five, stunted growth and a low quality of education. The DRC has one of the highest stunting rates in sub-Saharan Africa, and malnutrition is the underlying cause of almost half the deaths of children under the age of five. Unlike other African countries, the prevalence of stunting in the DRC has not decreased over the past 20 years; in fact, it has increased by 1.5 million due to the very high fertility rate. Access to education has improved considerably over the last two decades, especially for girls and younger children. Between 2000 and 2017, primary school attendance increased from 52 to 78 per cent, but the quality of education is very poor.

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