Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has substantial reserves of valuable minerals, yet 59.2% of its population live on less than US$1.25 a day (World Bank, 2005) and the country is beset by multiple security crises subjecting civilians to extremely high levels of violence and prompting large-scale and frequent population displacements. Despite the existence of a peace process, successful elections in 2006 and the deployment of a large UN peacekeeping mission, levels of violence, including sexual violence against women, and humanitarian needs remain enormous.

Since the breakdown of the peace process between the Government of Uganda and Ugandan rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in 2008, the LRA has perpetrated horrific attacks on the Congolese population in the remote Garamba park area of eastern DRC, as well as across the borders into Southern Sudan and Central African Republic (CAR), displacing tens of thousands. The UN estimated that 1.64 million Congolese were internally displaced in 2011.

Humanitarian aid to DRC increased almost ten-fold between 1995 and its peak in 2008, though those increases in volume have not always corresponded with the levels of humanitarian need. DRC was considered a ‘forgotten emergency’ until a concerted campaign of advocacy from NGOs and the UN, combined with changes in the UN appeal process and the introduction of the humanitarian financing elements of the UN’s humanitarian reform process, prompted a significant upturn in funding after 2005.