October 21, 2010

Mission to the CAR marks the beginning of the fourth edition of the Humanitarian Response Index

DARA has launched its HRI 2010 field missions by sending a team on a pilot exercise to the Central African Republic (CAR).

The pilot mission, which ran from 18th to 26th November, was encompassed in DARA´s annual efforts to refine and improve the methodology and survey questionnaire based on feedback and lessons learnt from previous years.

It is the second time that DARA members visit the CAR, thus allowing an opportunity to assess how the international community’s response has evolved over time.

The CAR, considered a neglected humanitarian crisis despite the increase in humanitarian funds since 2007, ranks 178 out of 179 in terms of human development and has a recorded life expectancy of 43 years. While humanitarian response is concentrated in the north of the country, where banditry and fighting between rebel groups and the military have forced the displacement of more than 200.000 civilians in the past years, the south of the country’s population is afflicted by an extreme deterioration of living conditions.

Central African Republic (c) DARA

The freezing of the wood, diamond and gold industries, which in turn have led to dwindling incomes in the south, have not but aggravated an already precarious situation. Malnutrition levels have flared within a population struck by illness and epidemic, and with minimum or non-existent access to medical assistance.

International humanitarian response in the CAR faces the double challenge of efficiently responding the multiple humanitarian needs all over a country with access and security problems, and of placing this crisis in its corresponding place within the priority list of donor countries.

In the course of 9 days, DARA’s team managed to interview the majority of UN agencies and NGOs present in the country.

Over the three years that the HRI has been in existence, DARA has carried out field research in a total of 33 humanitarian crises and collected about four and half thousand survey responses.

For more information on the international humanitarian response in CAR, visit www.hdptcar.net

Now in its fourth year, the HRI was created in 2006 by DARA and is a commitment made at The Clinton Global Initiative. It ranks 23 of the wealthiest donors (OECD/ DAC members) by analysing their performance against the Principles of Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD) that they themselves have signed up to.

In January, DARA sent a team to the Philippines and Indonesia to analyse the international response to two of the most relevant natural disasters in 2009. Information on these missions will soon follow. A team is currently in Nairobi, Kenya, looking into the response to the Somalian crisis.

DARA will soon upload a crisis report on CAR with the main findings.