Democratic Republic of Congo country study: humanitarian financing task team output IV

The second largest country in Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo faces a vast range of development, humanitarian and peacebuilding challenges across its 26 provinces. The DRC sits at 176th place out of 189 countries listed on the Human Development Index (HDI) (UNDP, 2019). The humanitarian response in the eastern provinces of DRC has been ongoing continuously since even before the large-scale refugee influx from Rwanda starting in 1994. Current humanitarian crises also result from the conflict in the Kasai region, from the Congolese expulsed from Angola, and from the Ebola outbreaks.

Overall Official Development Assistance (ODA) to DRC has remained relatively stable over the past several years, and is equivalent to about half of the annual expenditures of the GoDRC. Development funding saw a rapid decline following the 2011 elections before starting a slight increase in 2016, although less of this is passing through the UN system. According to OECD data, humanitarian assistance has also remained fairly stable with some fluctuations. OCHA Financial Tracking System (FTS) data, which uses a different definition of humanitarian assistance, shows a significant increase in 2018. Additional spending on the Ebola response will likely increasing funding even higher in 2019. This funding has not increased at the rate of needs expressed in humanitarian appeals, however, falling below 50% in 2018.