Central African Republic (CAR) Emergency Food Crisis Response Project

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The Central African Republic (CAR) is among the most fragile countries in the world with a history of recurrent cycles of violence. Following a major security crisis in 2013 that displaced over 25 percent of its 4.9 million people, CAR has embarked on a long recovery process. However, despite the signing of a peace agreement in 2019, conflicts and violence continue to affect the country’s economic performance. Average GDP growth has been low and not inclusive over the past decades. Poverty remains pervasive with an estimated 71 percent of the population living below the international poverty line (US$ 1.90 per day, 2011 PPP) in 2019. Measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, including border closures and restrictions of movement within the country, have put additional strain on the already fragile economy. The COVID-19 crisis had a substantial effect on households’ purchasing power across the country. It also disrupted already fragile agricultural input supply chains, which is expected to reduce the availability of inputs necessary for the ongoing and forthcoming agriculture campaigns, which in turn could amplify local supply shocks due to reduced domestic production. In addition, heavy rains/flood and water scarcity/droughts become more frequent with climate change, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and causing human and economic losses. Severe flooding has further undermined food security by negatively affecting the output from the last cropping season and placing additional burden on already strained household income. As a result, an estimated 1.93 million people (41 percent of the population) currently face high acute food insecurity and this number is expected to increase to 2.31 million people (48 percent of the population) by August 2021. Further, it is estimated that 1.3 million people do not have enough food, 42.3 percent of children under 5 years are suffering from chronic malnutrition and 5.8 percent are in acute malnutrition. The magnitude and scale of the food crisis emergency in CAR have overwhelmed the response capacity of the government, whose narrow fiscal space is overstretched to deals with multiple crisis simultaneously. In view of the unmet needs in food and nutrition security, US$50 million is granted from the IDA Crisis Response Window (CRW) to help alleviate the situation. The proposed Emergency Food Crisis response is well aligned with the World Bank Group Country Partnership Framework (CPF) in CAR for FY21–25, as well as with the WBG FCV Strategy. CAR is one of the most fragile countries in the world, where the risk of recurrence of conflict is higher if the level of food insecurity is high. Indeed, improved food security will help mitigate some of the spillovers of long years of conflict in the country.The project will be implemented through four components:Component 1: This component will support an accelerated supply response focused on restoring and preserving the productive capacity of farming households to enable continued and expanded production of key staple foods and livestock that is resilient to climate change. It will be have three sub-components:Subcomponent 1.1: Support food production and household nutrition Subcomponent 1.2: Support to seed protection and linkages to market opportunities Subcomponent 1.3: Strengthening hydro-meteorological information for early warning Component 2: Labor-intensive public works for resilience will finance livelihood support programs through labor-intensive public works (LIPW) in six prefectures and in Bangui. The LIPW will provide short-term relief to food-insecure households through cash-for-work activities, while at the same time fostering adaptation to climate change and enhanced resilience to flooding. It will have two subcomponentsSubcomponent 2.1: Rehabilitation and maintenance of small-scale agricultural infrastructuresSubcomponent 2.2: Rehabilitation and maintenance of drainage infrastructure in Bangui Component 3: Project Management and CoordinationComponent 4: Contingent Emergency Response Component