Democratic Republic of Congo

CARE Rapid Gender Analysis Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – Mudja, Munigi and Kanyaruchinya IDP camps in North Kivu province

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the province of North Kivu, has recently been affected by insecurity resulting from conflict between armed combatants (militia) and the government forces (FARDC). This has had a negative impact on the territories of Rutshuru, Nyiragongo and Masisi. The fighting which began in Rutshuru and Nyiragongo, spread to the eastern part of Masisi territory, depriving the rest of the adjacent area, including Goma, of a supply route. The National Road 2 connecting Goma to Rutshuru, is controlled by the combatants since the October-November 2022 offensives. By December 2022, at least 530,190 persons have been displaced since the fighting began, including at least 318,114 women and girls. More than 88% of internally displaced persons (IDPs) live in collective centres (churches, schools, stadiums) and makeshift sites (camps), while the rest are hosted by host families. More than 137,000 IDPs were forced to return to their places of origin in Rutshuru and Rwanguba health zones when fighting intensified in October 2022. Population movements remain dynamic and evolve according to the security context. To have a response that considers the different needs, capacities and coping strategies of women, girls, boys, and men affected by displacement, CARE International in DRC conducted a Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) in the displacement camps of Nyiragongo Health Zone, Kanyaruchinya, Munigi and Mudja camps from December 2022 to January 2023. Focus group discussions, Individual and Key Informant Interviews were held with the affected population. Read More...

Women’s Voice and Leadership Program Formative Evaluation

The formative evaluation of the Women’s Voice Leadership (WVL) Program covered the period from its announcement in June 2017 to March 2021. The evaluation had three objectives: to determine if and to what extent Global Affairs Canada was “fit for purpose” to support WVL as a feminist program; to determine if WVL’s design features and implementation modalities were relevant and appropriate to address the needs of women’s rights organizations (WROs), and to determine WVL’s progress toward results. Read More...

RAPPORT D’ANALYSE SITUATIONNELLE, CARTOGRAPHIE SOCIALE ET ANALYSE DU POVOIR SUR COVID-19 DANS LA ZONE DE SANTE DE KATWA

Une de composante de ce projet de prévention contre la propagation de la pandémie COVID-19 dans la zone de santé de Katwa, consiste à conduire une analyse situationnelle plus approfondie dans les aires de santé ciblées par le projet dans le but de pouvoir déterminer les connaissances, les perceptions, les attitudes et les pratiques des membres de la communauté y compris des partenaires étatiques vis de la pandémie elle-même et de ses mesures de prévention. Par conséquent, l’exercice consiste à ouvrir des débats sur la Covid-19 et d’autres épidémies, à faire prendre conscience du problème et à amorcer le dialogue entre les principales parties intéressées à différents niveaux pour des stratégies de lutte plus appropriées.
La réalisation de cet exercice a comporté quatre (4) moments clés à savoir :
1. Atelier d’analyse situationnelle, cartographie sociale et analyse du pouvoir avec les acteurs clés
2. Enrichissement et collecte des données de l’atelier à travers des Focus groups dans les 9 Aires de santé
3. La phase d’analyse, compilation et rédaction du rapport (première version) des données
4. Restitution, capitalisation des amendements et des résultats de l’analyse.
Ce rapport relate le cheminement méthodologique et les résultats synthèse des travaux réalisés, ils seront ensuite complétés lors de l’atelier de restitution par les résultats complets des focus groups réalisés au sein de la communauté bénéficiaire dans la ZS de Katwa. Read More...

At the last mile: Lessons from Vaccine Distributions in DR Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the world, with just 0.87% of people in DRC having received even one dose. While the country has received 8.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, it has managed to administer 528,000 of them—just under 11% of vaccines available. In April of 2021, DRC became one of the first countries to return 1.3 million COVID-19 doses to COVAX because they could not deliver them to people before the vaccines expired.

The challenges that risked more than a million doses expiring are still in play for most of the country. In both January and February 2022, 114,705 vaccines expired in country because there was not enough investment in systems and health workers to deliver vaccines. To reach 70% of the population—62.7 million people—DRC will need to drastically scale up and accelerate COVID-19 vaccination.

CARE is working with 4 vaccination sites—2 in Butembo and 2 in Goma—to support with community mobilization in partnership with local leaders, health center operations, and training. With joint action and communication plans developed with chiefs, religious leaders, and local authorities, and additional equipment to protect health workers, those sites had vaccinated 1,132 people. In those 4 sites, we have also conducted several rounds of research and problem-solving using community dialogues between health workers and clients using the Community Scorecard, as well as the Social Analysis and Action tools, which provides the insights for this case study. The team has also supported local vaccination teams with IT infrastructure, personnel costs, and creating locally adapted COVID-19 communications plans.

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La République démocratique du Congo (RDC) possède un des taux de vaccination les plus bas dans le monde avec la lutte contre COVID-19. Seulement 0,87% des personnes en RDC ont reçu même une seule dose du vaccin. Alors que le pays a reçu 8,2 millions de doses de vaccin contre la COVID-19, il n’a réussi qu’à en administrer 881,204, soit un peu moins de 11% des vaccins disponibles administrés. En avril 2021, la RDC est devenue l’un des premiers pays à restituer 1,3 million de doses de COVID-19 à COVAX parce qu’elle ne pouvait pas les administrer aux personnes avant l’expiration des vaccins.

Les défis qui risquaient d’expirer plus d’un million de doses sont toujours en jeu pour la majeure partie du pays. En janvier et février, 114,705 doses ont expiré dans le pays parce qu’il n’y avait pas assez d’investissements dans les systèmes et les agents de santé pour livrer des vaccins. Pour atteindre 70 % de la population, soit 62,7 millions de personnes, la RDC devra considérablement intensifier et accélérer la vaccination contre la COVID-19.

CARE travaille avec 4 sites de vaccination – 2 à Butembo et 2 à Goma – pour soutenir la mobilisation communautaire en partenariat avec les leaders et structures locaux, les opérations des centres de santé et la formation. Ces sites avaient vacciné 1 132 personnes. Dans ces 4 sites, nous avons également mené plusieurs séries de recherches et de résolution de problèmes à travers des dialogues communautaires entre les prestataires des services et les clients avec la Carte Communautaire et l’analyse et l’action sociale, à l’aide de la carte de pointage communautaire, qui fournit les informations nécessaires à cette étude de cas. On a aussi appuyé les missions de supervisions avec l’infrastructure pour la connexion internet, la motivation des prestataires, et l’élaboration des plans de communication adaptes aux contextes.
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Community Scorecard in Emergencies Learning Brief

To be effective and equitable towards global populations, humanitarian organizations must adhere to the core standards and principles on quality humanitarian response. Since the inception of ideas on the centrality of local participation in aid in the early 2000s and the more recent evolution of that concept into accountability towards affected populations, the humanitarian community has sought to turn this doctrine into reality.
Accountability in humanitarian response requires that organizations carry out their efforts in an ethically and legally responsible manner that is inclusive of the communities they are seeking to serve. Of UNICEF’s nine Core Humanitarian Standards (depicted here to the right), three specifically refer to mechanisms of accountability towards affected peoples: response is based on communication, participation and feedback; complaints are welcome and addressed; actors continuously learn and improve. In practice this could include centralizing the voices of affected peoples by engaging communities in needs and performance assessments and decision-making. Achieving this is often hindered by the constraints inherent to conflict settings such as lack of localization of assistance, communication between actors, and exploration of needs.
CARE’s Community Score Card
Seeking to actualize these principles of community participation and accountability into our programming, CARE developed the Community Score Card as part of a project aimed at developing innovative and sustainable models to improve health services. Working in crisis settings requires an understanding of the lived experiences of people, the power dynamics, and micro-politics that inform humanitarian response approaches. It also requires bridging the gap between civil society organizations, local and national governments, international non-governmental organizations, and impacted communities. Social accountability approaches do this by connecting citizens with those responsible for providing services. The Community Score Card (CSC) is a participatory social accountability mechanism for assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of services. Designed for ease of use and adaptation into any sector with a service delivery scenario, the CSC brings together users and providers of a particular service or program to jointly identify service utilization and provision challenges, mutually generate solutions, and work in partnership to implement and track the effectiveness of those solutions in an ongoing process of quality improvement. The CSC has five phases: (I) planning and preparation; (II) conducting the scorecard with the community; (III) conducting the scorecard with service providers; (IV) interface meeting where the all parties present their findings in the presence of duty-bearers and then jointly develop action plans; and (V) monitoring of the action plans and evaluation of overall process. Read More...

The Impact of COVID-19 on Women in Democratic Republic of Congo

Evidence worldwide indicates that women are disproportionately affected by the health and socio-economic impacts of intervention
measures applied for the control of COVID-19. Women make up the majority of the informal labour sector and are more likely to suffer job losses or reduced income as a result of closed borders, markets and shops, and restricted movement. Sexual and reproductive health services are often the first to face restrictions in terms of availability and access. School closures place an additional burden on women, who take on childcare responsibilities, including ensuring adequate nutrition. Girls who cannot go to school are at increased risk of sexual violence, pregnancy, and early marriage - a trend that was widely observed in areas affected by Ebola during the 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa. Risks are exacerbated for women and girls living in the poorest households in remote rural areas.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in March 2020, mixed methods data produced by the Social Sciences Analytics Cell (CASS) and its partners presents a dynamic where pre-existing disparities between men and women in terms of health, social protection and economic status are being exacerbated by the outbreak and its response. This report presents an integrated multidisciplinary analysis of the impact of COVID-19 and its response on women and girls in the DRC, highlighting changes that have occurred since the beginning of the outbreak. The objective of this report is to provide evidence to support decision-making for strategies to respond to the outbreak to ensure that the health, protection and economic security of women and girls is prioritised. Read More...

COVID-19 Rapid Gender Analysis DR Congo

Depuis le début de l’épidémie déclarée le 10 mars 2020 jusqu’en date du 26 Aout 2020, le cumul des cas est de 9.915, dont 9.914 cas confirmés et 1 cas probable. Au total, il y a eu 255 décès (254 cas confirmés et 1 cas probable) et 9.020 personnes guéries.i
En RDC, la prévention et la réponse à la pandémie COVID 19 sont guidées au niveau National par un « Plan de préparation et de riposte à l’épidémie de COVID 19 » publié en début Mars 2020. Ce plan comprend 9 objectifs bien définis mais les aspects spécifiques aux questions de protection transversale et de genre sont faiblement développés.
Quoi que les données nationales qui renseignent sur la situation épidémiologique en RDC ne soient pas désagrégées par âge et par sexe, il est évident que les hommes, femmes, filles et garçons des différents âges, situations sociales confondues ne sont pas touchées de la même manière par la pandémie à COVID 19 surtout que déjà traditionnellement, il s’observe un déséquilibre entre les hommes, les femmes, les filles et les garçons au niveau des rôles, responsabilités, accès et contrôle, participation et prise de décision et au niveau des aspects de protection.
Dans le souci d’améliorer sa mise en oeuvre pendant la période de la pandémie, CARE I DRC a fait une analyse genre rapide période du 15 Avril jusqu’en fin Mai 2020. Une mise à jour a été faite sur base des informations recueillies le 18 Juillet 2020. Cette analyse qualitative vise à renseigner sur les problèmes spécifiques des femmes, hommes, filles et garçons pendant cette période de pandémie à COVID 19. Les éléments issus des données secondaires appuieront la triangulation des informations. Les thématiques d’analyse sont : rôles et responsabilités, accès aux ressources, services et l’information, prise des décisions, influence des croyances, sécurité, et sante / bien être. Les informations ont été recueillies dans les villes urbaines et cités rurales dans lesquelles CARE I mène des activités et a des bureaux et au moins 1 staff. Les provinces concernées sont le Nord Kivu (Beni, Butembo, Goma et territoire de Nyiragongo), Sud Kivu (Bukavu et Uvira) et la ville province de Kinshasa. Read More...

GEWEP II: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Programme II Final Report

GEWEP II works with and for poor and vulnerable women and girls. More than 8 160 000 women and girls live in our programme areas, and the end programme target is to directly work with 1 022 200.
The main impact is through Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs). The VSLA model came out of a pilot in Niger in the early 90s. Nearly 30 years later, there are more than 6.7 million VSLA members across the globe. Other organisations and governments have adopted CARE’s model, thereby multiplying impact. GEWEP continued to scale up VSLAs, and advocated for governments to recognize the model. The Governments of Burundi, DRC, Niger and Rwanda all recognize the important contribution of VSLAs to women’s economic empowerment, manifested within national strategies, policies and funds.
Women’s economic empowerment opens up for women’s participation. GEWEP supported women to come together and find confidence and common cause through VSLAs. We find VSLA women who actively participate in decision-making in formal structures, and who manage to stay there despite resistance from some men. This is the main success for women’s participation, across countries.
The shrinking space for civil society remains the most difficult challenge. In all countries, CARE’s main approach was to maintain good relations with those that are directly engaging with the field of women’s rights or who control the implementing areas or relevant political processes. This approach was successful in terms of preserving enough working space for CARE, GEWEP partners and other civil society actors working in the same field. Read More...

CARE Rapid Gender Analysis for COVID 19 East, Central and Southern Africa

The impacts – direct and indirect – of public health emergencies fall disproportionally on the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in society. Interconnected social, economic, and political factors pose complex challenges for the ECSA region’s ability to respond to COVID-19. The region already faces significant health challenges that would exacerbate the severity of COVID-19, such as high levels of malnutrition, malaria, anemia, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. Access to healthcare in the region is the lowest in the world, thus there is limited capacity to absorb the pandemic1. Gender-based inequality is extensive in the region. Women are at a higher risk for exposure to infection due to the fact that they are often the primary caregivers in the family and constitute 70% of frontline healthcare responders.2 Most women already face limited access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services, and the region struggles with high levels of maternal mortality. For example, mother mortality rates recorded in South Sudan were 1150 per 100 000 live births3. COVID-19 will only increase women’s safety risks and care burdens as health services become stretched and resources shift to COVID-19 responses.
Women and girls are at increased risk of violence during the COVID-19 period. Current rates of violence against women and girls combined with the prevalence of harmful traditional practices leads to increased vulnerability. Income loss and limited mobility, compounded with existing gender role expectations, may contribute to increases in intimate partner violence and other forms of gender-based violence. Read More...

Gender Analysis: Prevention and Response to Ebola Virus Disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The latest epidemic of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has rapidly evolved into the second largest outbreak in history. Deployed in an operational environment characterised by ongoing volatility, EVD prevention, treatment and containment efforts have faced multiple difficulties. Mistrust of EVD responders by local communities, coupled with targeted attacks on healthcare workers and facilities, have proved to be serious operational challenges. Despite a gressive efforts to stamp out the disease across three provinces, the virus has continued to spread and is responsible for the deaths of 3,303 people to date (as of 24th November 2019) with an overall fatality rate of 67%.

However, these casualty numbers hide the underlying characteristics of the EVD crisis. The reality is that the majority of fatalities consist of women (56%), and children (28%). Adult men constitute just 11% of EVD deaths. Yet fatalities alone do not fully demonstrate the differential ways in which men, women, boys and girls are exposed and experience the immediate risks and longer-term consequences of the disease. Socially prescribed cultural norms, attitudes and practices in relation to gender and age dictate how individual women, men, girls and boys are differentially impacted by the EVD crisis. It is therefore critical to better understand the socio-behavioural underpinnings to EVD aetiology. In light of the gendered dimensions of the EVD crisis, CARE International in DRC commissioned a Gender Analysis of the EVD crisis in North Kivu in order to provide information about the different needs, capacities and coping strategies of women, men, girls and boys during the EVD crisis. Read More...

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