Central African Republic - Covid-19 Crisis Response Budget Support Programme (PABRC)

The COVID-19 Crisis Response Budget Support Program in Central African Republic (PABRC-RCA) aims to support the efforts made by the Government to control the pandemic and help to mitigate its negative economic and social impacts. PABRC-RCA is aligned with the Government’s Response Plan to combat the pandemic. It complements the Regional Program to Support Member States of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to fight the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) approved in June 2020. As at 13 July 2020, there were 4 259 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in CAR, 1 142 of which were declared ‘recovered’ and 53 deaths. The number of infections rose most rapidly in June with 2282 cases, i.e. an average of 87.8 infections per day for this month alone compared with 12.4 for the March to May period. Two thirds of the cases are due to local transmission but almost 85% of imported cases come from neighbouring Cameroon, causing tension that is affecting regional trade and integration. This situation represents a complex challenge since the Douala-Bangui corridor is vital for CAR’s trade because the country is completely landlocked. The proposed program will be financed from ADF resources allocated to the COVID-19 Rapid Response Facility (CRF). It was appraised in April 2020 following a request by the Government to the Bank in March 2020. It is an UA 4.5 million from ADF-15 and UA 6 million from TSF Pillar I budget support operation whose resources will be disbursed in a single tranche for each instrument. The measures retained under PABRC-RCA will be implemented over the 2020-2021 period and focused on the following two components: (i) protecting the labour force productivity against the outbreak threat by supporting the health response; and (ii) mitigation of the pandemic’s economic and social impacts.