According to the 9th IPC analysis led in June 2013, 6.35 million people experience food insecurity in DRC, classified in IPC phases 3 Crisis and 4 Emergency. Compared to the previous analysis of October 2012 (updated in December 2012), there has been a very slight overall improvement.
Efforts made through the various interventions allowed to avoid humanitarian catastrophes, but did not compensate for the continuity or the resurgence of some food crisis factors, evidenced by recent assessments showing a high degradation of the food and nutrition situation in some provinces, and the persistence of armed and intercommunity conflicts with recurrent populations movements (internally displaced people, refugees, repatriated and returnees from Angola.
Regarding the spatial dimension, while a higher number of territories have been classified in crisis i.e. phase 3 (82 regions in June 2013 against 77 in December 2012 and 63 in June 2012), on the other hand the number of territories in phase 4 i.e. emergency have decreased, from 7 in December 2012 to 5 in June 2013. While 4 provinces had areas in phase 4 during the previous analysis, only 2 provinces still do: Northern Kivu (Rutshuru, Nyragongo, Masisi and Walikale) and Katanga (Manono), which shows a slight decrease in the severity of acute food insecurity.
Food and nutritional security indicators still reflect a problematic situation due to the persistence of unfavorable structural causes:
- very low agricultural productivity due to the precarious production factors
- presence of epizootics and phytopathology
- frequent flooding
- high isolation of agricultural production areas
Poor and borderline Food Consumption Scores reach more than 50% and even up to 70% of the population in some territories. Due to, among other things:
- poverty
- low purchasing power
- epidemics
- poor nutrition practices,
Other factors include:
- intercommunity conflicts
- the negative impact of the important inflow of refugees from Central African Republic and repatriated populations of the Republic of the Congo on the host population of Western Equateur
- inflow of returnees in the provinces of Eastern Kasaï and Bandundu following the ultimatum of Angolan authorities
all contributing to destabilizing the precarious food balance in the aforementioned provinces.
Regarding the response.
The persistence of civil insecurity and populations displacements in particular in the eastern provinces (northern Kivu, southern Kivu, eastern province and Maniema) and in the center and north of the Katanga province, and the chronic food insecurity have to some extent hindered and limited the impact of interventions implemented by the food security community in DRC. In order to improve the situation and meet efficiently the needs of vulnerable populations, it is recommended among other things that :
- the Government and its partners improve the humanitarian access to areas confronted with armed conflicts and ensure the protection of vulnerable populations;
- Humanitarian and Development actors continue and intensify their current efforts especially in armed conflict areas;
- the Government and its partners improve the coordination and the complementarity of interventions for better efficiency and endeavor to ensure the continuum of emergency, rehabilitation, transitory, and development activities (strengthening the resilience of communities) in order to break the vicious circle of poverty and food insecurity in DRC;
- Technical and Financial partners of the Government provide the necessary resources to meet the identified needs.
Regarding the IPC analysis in DRC. It is recommended to:
- support a higher appropriation of the IPC by the Government
- develop sustainable funding mechanism to avoid cessation of activities
- strengthen capacity of national stakeholders
- decentralize of the IPC analysis process at provincial level
- leading the analysis of chronic food insecurity using the specific IPC tools.