Central African Republic: Cash and Voucher Assistance Snapshot (CVA) (1 January - 30 June 2024)

CONTEXT

During the second quarter of 2024, 23 humanitarian partners with US$ 19.3 million assisted 406,894 people in need across 38 sub-prefectures, using Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA). The dwindling resources for the humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2024 reflects on the downward trend in the number of people reached with CVA during the second quarter. Compared to the same period in 2023, there is a decrease of 9 percent of people reached (406,894 versus 447,414). The gradual downward trend in people reached by CVA in CAR began at the end of 2021 and has continued during the period under review. The use of CVA modalities were also affected by this downward trend. The most affected modality were vouchers, which have a sharp decrease of 77.76 per cent (20,800 compared to 93,549 in the second quarter of 2023). A slight decrease was observed in the use of electronic transfers (1.39 per cent) and cash transfers (0.6 per cent). However, there was an increase in the number of localities covered by CVA interventions (38 sub-prefectures compared to 35, an 8 per cent increase) and implementing partners (23 operational actors compared to 22, a 4.5 per cent increase). The amount distributed in CVA in the second quarter of 2024 has increased by 65 per cent compared to the same period in 2023 (US$19.3M versus US$ 11.7M). Whilst there was a considerable increase in the amount for CVA, there was a decrease in the number of people reached. The rise in the costs of implementation of CVA activities could be explained by the general inflation in the country and the subsequent higher operational costs for humanitarian assistance, including the sharp increase for fuel.