Group of young people in Dekese, DRC, January 2018 ©Thomas Dechentinnes (UNICEF)

Since August 2016, more than 1.3 million people have been displaced in the Great Kasai region, which currently hosts over a third of IDPs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Violence broke out after the killing of a community leader on 12 August 2016 and fighting between the national government and the local militia rapidly spread to neighbouring provinces. Today all the 5 Great Kasai provinces are declared level 3 emergency, UN’s highest level of emergency.

To better inform humanitarian response planning and delivery, REACH is deployed since December 2017 in support of the Shelter and WASH Clusters implementing a joint Shelter/WASH assessment in Kasai Central. Thanks to the mobilisation of 16 partners, 14 of which are local NGOs, the assessment is covering 75% of Aires de Santé, which are an administrative sub-division of the Province.

Through this assessment, REACH will enable better response planning by identifying both vulnerabilities and needs of IDP and returnee households, and will provide an estimation of their caseload and geographic location. REACH will release an overall report, as well as factsheets and maps at Aires de Santé, outlining key findings to be used by Shelter and WASH Cluster partners for their response planning and implementation.

Following the completion of the assessment in Kasai Central, REACH will upscale its support to the Shelter and WASH clusters by rolling-out the assessment across other L3-crisis affected provinces.

For more information please visit the REACH resource centre.