Central African Republic Appeal
Humanitarian Action for Children
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition, education, health and protection services. Return to main appeal page.
Central African Republic snapshot
Appeal highlights
- Due to the combined effects of conflict-related violence, price increases linked to war in Ukraine and the consequences of climate change, 3.1 million people, including 1.4 million children, will be in need of humanitarian assistance in the Central African Republic in 2023.
- UNICEF’s response will prioritize child-centred, life-saving interventions supporting internally displaced people, returnees and host communities impacted by the multifaceted crises. In line with its new country programme, UNICEF will focus on community engagement, localization and humanitarian-development-peace nexus approaches.
- UNICEF will provide 60,000 children with treatment for severe wasting, support 250,000 children with learning materials and ensure access to safe water for 300,000 people. Protection needs will remain at the heart of the response, with 140,000 children accessing mental health and psychosocial support through UNICEF's programmes.
- UNICEF requires US$75.3 million to meet the needs of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic, including US$19 million to step up the nutrition response to severe wasting in children aged 6-59 months and US$14.6 million for the Rapid Response Mechanism, the main entry point for UNICEF’s multisectoral response to new humanitarian needs.
Key planned results for 2023
59,400 children with severe wasting admitted for treatment
140,000 children/caregivers accessing community-based mental health and psychosocial support
500,000 women and children accessing gender-based violence mitigation, prevention, response
300,000 people accessing a sufficient quantity and quality of water
Funding requirements for 2023
Country needs and strategy
Humanitarian needs
The humanitarian situation in the Central African Republic remains critical and volatile, although insecurity and conflict-related violence have somewhat decreased since the peak of the 2021 post-election crisis. From January to September 2022, the UNICEF-led Rapid Response Mechanism recorded 104 alerts, compared with 112 over the same period in 2021. The share of conflict-related alerts decreased from 70 per cent to 56 per cent, while flood related alerts increased significantly, with about 85,000 people affected at the end of September. The number of internally displaced people has also decreased since the post-election crisis spike of 722,000 in September 2021, but remains at a high level, with 652,000 internally displaced people recorded at the end of August 2022.
Humanitarian needs remain high. Persistent fuel shortages, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, along with sharp increases in food prices, are further worsening an already precarious situation for the 3.1 million people (including those who are displaced) in the country – 63 per cent of the population – who will need of humanitarian assistance in 2023. This includes 1.4 million children and 460,000 people with disabilities.
The number of children under 5 years of age who require treatment for severe wasting is expected to again rise by about 10 per cent in 2023, to 69,000. Two thirds of the country’s children do not attend school regularly or at all, so 1.4 million children will need help to access education in 2023. An estimated 944,000 children need protection from the psychosocial impact of conflict and the risk of sexual violence, among other protection risks. Around 58 per cent of the population will lack access to water and sanitation in 2023, a sharp increase due to conflict-related destruction of infrastructure. Meanwhile, epidemics, including measles, are expected to remain prevalent in 2023.
Humanitarian access will remain a major concern. Numerous attacks and the presence of explosive devices (especially in the northwest) have made the Central African Republic one of the world’s most dangerous places for humanitarian workers, limiting humanitarian access even as humanitarian needs continue to grow.
UNICEF’s strategy
UNICEF’s humanitarian response in 2023 will rely on close collaboration with partners and community networks, the use of pre-positioned supplies and UNICEF's network of five subnational offices in the country’s most affected areas. UNICEF's response will prioritize child-centred, life-saving interventions supporting internally displaced people, returnees and host communities impacted by the protracted conflict, recurring epidemics and natural hazards.
The UNICEF-led Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) will collect alerts and assess new crisis situations and share results with the humanitarian community. The RRM will provide a mix of essential household items, critical WASH services and multipurpose humanitarian cash transfers to vulnerable children and families. While maintaining strong coordination with external actors, the RRM will also further expand its role as the entry point for complementary UNICEF responses, including child protection quick response teams, health and nutrition mobile clinics and intersectoral mobile units.
UNICEF will further support the Government in its efforts to respond to epidemics and mobilize partners to address preventable childhood illnesses, malaria and HIV.
UNICEF will provide access to quality treatment for children suffering from severe wasting. To reduce malnutrition in the long term, UNICEF’s response aims to increase the proportion of infants aged 0-5 months who are exclusively breastfed to 50 per cent and the proportion of children aged 6-23 months who are receiving the minimum dietary diversity to 21 per cent (by 2025). To achieve this and to reduce the need for emergency treatment in the long term, UNICEF will apply a multisectoral approach using the health, food and social protection platforms.
UNICEF will focus on delivering comprehensive and sustainable responses to education through an integrated approach that also includes child protection and WASH. More broadly, UNICEF will invest in sustainable and resilient WASH infrastructure in underserved areas and maintain emergency WASH services in sites for internally displaced people.
The protection of children remains central to UNICEF’s response. UNICEF will advocate for an end to grave violations against children and strengthen the Monitoring andReporting Mechanism; the organization will also support efforts to release children associated with armed groups, reunify separated or unaccompanied children and provide psychosocial support. Gender-based violence risk mitigation, prevention and survivor assistance interventions will also be prioritized alongside prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. UNICEF will contribute to providing out-of-school children with access to safe learning spaces and quality education.
In line with its new country programme, UNICEF will focus on community engagement, localization and humanitarian-development-peace nexus approaches. Multipurpose cash transfer responses will be integrated into programmes.
Finally, UNICEF will work with line ministries to reinforce government capacities for humanitarian coordination and response and will continue to lead the Child Protection Area of Responsibility and the Nutrition, WASH and Education Clusters, as well as inter-agency efforts on accountability to affected populations.
Programme targets
Find out more about UNICEF's work
Highlights
Humanitarian Action is at the core of UNICEF’s mandate to realize the rights of every child. This edition of Humanitarian Action for Children – UNICEF’s annual humanitarian fundraising appeal – describes the ongoing crises affecting children in Central African Republic; the strategies that we are using to respond to these situations; and the donor support that is essential in this response.
