Improving LRRD: the Central African Republic at the crossroads

19/05/2016

The WHS underlines the importance of managing complex crisis resolution phases effectively. As announced in February, Groupe URD carried out a situation analysis and organized a workshop on LRRD in CAR. The reports are now available online. This project builds on a variety of activities that we have carried out in CAR over the years, and notably the studies that we did there in 2014.

With the signing of peace agreements and the holding of elections, the Central African Republic is looking for a way out of the endless spiral of crises. Having worked towards recovery in cooperation with the international community, the transitional government drew up the Emergency and Sustainable Development Programme in 2014. This calls for the establishment of a prosperous and united society, living in security and peace and based on democratic values. Humanitarian NGOs, for their part, underline the complexity and fragility of the situation, and therefore the need to continue working in these contexts, in keeping with humanitarian principles.

Groupe URD’s mission involved:

Looking into mechanisms for coordinating priority actions between the different national and international organisations present in the field in relation to humanitarian aid and resilience.
Outlining a strategy to optimise the links between renewed development and emergency relief.
Developing an advocacy package to mobilise the resources needed to ensure that each actor was able to fulfil their responsibility in particular areas or sectors, and thus avoid dispersal and duplication.

The urban nature of the crisis in Bangui led Groupe URD to look into the issue of urban displacement. The mission provided an opportunity to engage in dialogue in view of the third United Nations conference on housing and sustainable development, Habitat III, which will be held in Quito on 17-20 October, 2016. This programme will aim to draw up a new programme that promotes urbanization as a positive force of development. This is in line with the strategy of numerous donors, including the French Development Agency. The latter has asked Groupe URD to work with them to organize a discussion between two cities, Bangui and Port-au-Prince, on the subject of urban development and recovery following a large-scale urban crisis.