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
- Violence, population movements and natural disasters continue to weigh heavily on the children of the Central African Republic. Despite some decrease in insecurity and conflict-related violence , 2.8 million people (nearly half of the country’s population) will require humanitarian assistance in 2024. This includes 1.3 million children.
- UNICEF's will prioritize life-saving, multisectoral interventions strongly focused on internally displaced and returnee children and those in communities affected by shocks, in alignment with the inter-agency response strategy for the country. UNICEF will address humanitarian needs through humanitarian and development interventions – including a focus on durable solutions to displacement.
- UNICEF is appealing for $66.7 million to meet the critical humanitarian needs of 1 million of the most vulnerable children and their families.
Key planned targets
764,891 children screened for wasting
350,000 people with safe and accessible channels to report sexual exploitation and abuse
250,000 people accessing a sufficient quantity and quality of water
180,000 vulnerable people recently affected by shocks benefiting from life-saving multi-sectoral interventions
Funding requirements for 2024
Country needs and strategy
Humanitarian needs
The humanitarian situation in the Central African Republic remains concerning. Violence, displacement, natural disasters continue to affect people, particularly those in the most vulnerable areas. Between October 2022 and September 2023, more than 224,195 individuals experienced at least one shock that triggered the need for a humanitarian response. These were linked primarily to violence (67 per cent) and natural disasters (16 per cent).
Internal displacement persists, and as of August 2023, 488,866 internally displaced persons were reported in the country. While 25 per cent fewer than in 2022, numbers remain high, and the needs of displaced populations significant. Coupled with this, in April 2023, the country experienced an influx of refugees and returnees, including 23,570 people fleeing conflict in the Sudan and 37,400 coming from Chad. These movements have amplified humanitarian needs; they have put pressure on already fragile areas.
Humanitarian access remains a significant concern, especially in the western part of the country, due to ongoing attacks and the presence of explosive devices.
Recurring epidemics are expected to take their toll on children in 2024 – this on top of an infant mortality rate that is already the fifth-highest globally. Unsafe water usage contributes to the fourth-highest mortality rate related to water in Africa, and 2.2 million people will require humanitarian WASH assistance, including more than 1 million children. All these circumstances impact children's nutrition status: the number of children under 5 years of age with severe wasting is projected to reach 45,473 in 2024.
Approximately 850,852 children will require humanitarian protection interventions. Documented child rights violations decreased from 925 in 2021 to 773 in 2022, but cases of documented child recruitment increased from 329 in 2021 to 443 in 2022. And documented incidents of sexual and other gender-based violence leapt from 11,592 in 2021 to 23,644 in 2022 (including 4,256 children). The proportion of children among victims of sexual violence rose from 35 per cent in 2022 to 43 per cent in the first half of 2023.
Child marriage is widespread: 61 per cent of women aged 20–24 were married or in union before age 18. In humanitarian contexts, child marriage is often used by families as a negative coping strategy due to declining income. And child marriage and early pregnancy, along with insecurity and the need to travel long distances to school, are the main factors that lead girls to drop out of school; only 38 per cent of girls reach secondary school. In 2024, around 1.2 million children will require education support.
Adequate and timely assistance can prevent millions of children from facing the harms and risks emerging from the vulnerable context in which they live.
UNICEF’s strategy
In 2024, UNICEF will prioritize child-centred, life-saving interventions and risk reduction to support displaced people, returnees and host communities affected by shocks. The
UNICEF-led Rapid Response Mechanism will gather alerts, assess needs and provide critical, multisectoral life-saving interventions, including WASH, health and nutrition services, along with humanitarian cash transfers. The Rapid Response Mechanism will expand its focus on children and their families by providing complementary interventions in child protection, mental health and psychosocial support and education, where needed and feasible.
The WASH sector strategy aims at improving the health, education and nutritional status of internally displaced people and host communities affected by shocks. Short-term assistance in WASH will promote prevention of water-borne diseases through hygiene, in areas at risk of outbreaks.
UNICEF will deliver emergency education interventions, incorporating psychosocial support, distribution of teaching and learning materials and teacher training. Following the emergency response, UNICEF will introduce a broader set ofinterventions to enhance the community's capacity to respond to future shocks. This expanded approach will integrate protection and WASH activities into the education response, as well as community engagement.
UNICEF will prioritize malnutrition prevention and the early detection of child wasting, expanding preventive measures nationwide. Primary health care interventions will serve as the entry point for a broader intervention to support mothers and children that will encompass nutrition services, mental health and psychosocial support and the use of social protection platforms.
Given the increased use of explosive devices in the country, UNICEF will enhance community mine risk education. UNICEF will also continue to support the expansion of mechanisms to identify, demobilize and reintegrate children associated with armed forces and armed groups. Gender-based violence risk mitigation, prevention and survivor assistance interventions will also be prioritized alongside protection from sexual exploitation and abuse.
The strategy for social and behaviour change and accountability to affected populations focuses on empowering communities to take greater ownership of the aid delivery process. This will be achieved by establishing and enhancing community platforms, developing community-led feedback and complaint mechanisms and reinforcing humanitarian information services.
Multipurpose cash transfer responses will be integrated into programmes.
UNICEF will continue to ensure coordination and leadership of 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.