In response to the crisis that affected the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2013, a rapid and flexible tool was created that was capable of meeting the immediate needs of the population while allowing the country to be rebuilt sustainably. The EU’s first trust fund, the ‘Bêkou’ Fund, was established in July 2014 on the initiative of the European Union and three of its Member States: Germany, France and the Netherlands. Italy and Switzerland then joined the fund in 2015. The contributors pooled over 310 million euros and their operational resources, in close collaboration with the Central African authorities.
From the start, the Bêkou Fund adopted an original approach combining emergency relief and development aid, with a mandate to ‘support crisis resolution, reconstruction and development in the Central African Republic’. Eight years after its creation, the Bêkou Fund has entered a new phase of learning and consolidation (since December 2021, the Fund can no longer adopt new projects and is entirely focused on the implementation of ongoing projects). In view of this, a lesson learning study was carried out by Groupe URD.
The aim of this conference will be to discuss the lessons highlighted in the study and how its recommendations have been implemented. François Grünewald will present the findings of the study; an expert from UNICEF will present the specific characteristics of the Bêkou Fund via the WASH/EHA project carried out since July 2018, while the manager of the fund and the Team Leader for the Gulf of Guinea within the INTPA A4 Unit will explain how the recommendations have been taken into account in recent months in the European Union’s projects in CAR.