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Central African Republic Humanitarian Fund (CAR HF) Factsheet

Countries
CAR
Sources
OCHA
Publication date

The Central African Republic Humanitarian Fund (CAR HF) collects donor contributions to make funding directly available to humanitarian partners working on the ground so they can deliver timely and effective life-saving assistance and protection to the most vulnerable people in need.

At a glance

Despite peace-building efforts, CAR is caught up in a cycle of conflict, which has spread into several areas of the country, including regions considered relatively stable, creating growing humanitarian needs and fear that the country will plunge into chaos.
Civilians, particularly women and children, continue to suffer from the consequences of the conflict and are increasingly exposed to protection risks and acute humanitarian needs. One in four people are displaced, while 2.9 million people, more than 60 per cent of the Central African population, is in need of humanitarian assistance and protection.

Chronic underfunding further affects the ability of humanitarian actors to respond to the increasingly urgent needs of the population.

In 2019, the humanitarian community in CAR will require $430.7 million to provide life-saving assistance for 1.7 million people whose needs are most acute. Of these, $165.6 million are urgently needed by June 2019 to sustain operations and avoid a deterioration of the humanitarian situation.

Eleven years of life-saving aid

Established in 2008, the CAR HF is a multi-donor country-based pooled fund (CBPF) managed by OCHA CAR under the leadership of the Humanitarian Coordinator (HC). Since its inception, the Fund has received $210.4 million from 14 donors and allocated $198.1 million to save and protect the lives of millions of people in need. In 2018, donors contributed $28 million to enable the humanitarian community to address some of the most critical and urgent needs in the country.

In 2019, the CAR HF will continue to enable urgent humanitarian assistance in line with priorities set out in the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). The Fund will also strengthen its accountability and risk management framework, support the funding of joint need assessments and analyses to enhance evidence-based responses and prioritization, encourage multi-year funding and programming to reinforce funding predictability and much more.

Invest in humanity

The CAR HF is an opportunity for donors to pool their contributions to deliver a stronger and more coherent response in CAR. Investments in the Fund will allow partners to reach the most vulnerable people and will help ensure maximum impact of limited resources:

• CAR HF is timely and flexible: The Fund supports the delivery of an agile response in a fluid and rapidly changing environment, allowing operational partners to act quickly knowing that resources are available immediately for the most urgent life-saving activities.

• CAR HF supports leadership, coordination and a needs-based response: Under the leadership of the HC, a wide range of relief partners jointly asses and prioritize the most urgent needs through an inclusive and transparent process, fostering collaboration and collective ownership of the emergency response.

• CAR HF is efficient and accountable: The Fund minimizes transaction costs and provides transparency, accountability and robust risk-management. Recipient organizations are thoroughly assessed, and relief projects are monitored with regular reporting on achievement and impact.

• CAR HF offers value for money: It ensures the most strategic, effective and efficient use of limited resources in difficult and often dangerous circumstances, making taxpayer’s money go as far as it can to save lives and reduce the suffering of women, girls, boys and men caught up in the crises.

Coordinated, timely allocations

Funding from the CAR HF is directly available to a wide range of relief partners – including national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN Agencies and Red Cross/Red Crescent Organizations – for activities prioritized within the framework of the CAR Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).

The HC is supported by the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and the CAR HF Advisory Board. The advisory board includes representatives of donors, national and international NGOs and UN agencies and advises the HC on strategic decisions of the overall allocation process.
Operational support is provided by the Joint Humanitarian Financing Unit (JHFU), led by OCHA with the support of UNDP. The JHFU is based in Bangui, CAR and manages the Fund to ensure allocation processes and monitoring remains close to operational partners and their projects, while maintaining a close link to strategic decision-making.

Like all CBPFs, the CAR HF is designed to complement other humanitarian funding sources, such as bilateral funding and the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.