• Approval date: 6 September 2023.
• Project name: Support Programme for Reconstruction of Grassroots Communities, phase 2 (PARCB-2).
• Amount: donation of €12.62 million from the Transition Support Facility.
  Joint funding in parallel with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): US$5 million.

• The aim of the second phase of the Support Programme for Reconstruction of Grassroots Communities is to facilitate reintegration and increase access to basic socioeconomic services for communities affected by the political and military crisis in the Central African Republic. The programme will help strengthen the achievements of interventions in the areas covered by phase 1 and extend them to the country’s interior. It will also contribute to job creation and developing entrepreneurship through rapid-impact agro-pastoral activities (poultry farming, fish farming, beekeeping, dairy production, etc.), small-scale mining and strengthening the community reintegration process.

Components

Component 1: support for re-establishing resilient socioeconomic activities, stabilisation and social cohesion.
Component 2: capacity building for institutions and beneficiaries.
Component 3: programme management.

Area and target population 

The project covers the capital of the Central African Republic, Bangui, and three prefectures – Ouaka, Haute-Kotto and Basse-Kotto – whose populations have been severely affected by the political and military crisis and which have had less support from various development partners. 

Expected outcomes 

• PARCB-2 will facilitate the socioeconomic reintegration of at least 3,500 former combatants, unemployed young people and vulnerable women, and the redeployment of 800 civil servants and state officials in the public services. 
• It will provide training for around 5,000 unemployed young people aged 15 to 25 years and ensure their long-term socioeconomic reintegration. It will also help create 9,500 jobs, provide equipment and training for over 100 groups of producers, farmers, fishers, beekeepers, dairy producers and small-scale miners, and for 200 women involved in productive activities and selling subsistence products. The women and young people concerned will be offered support with production and transport to improve their income. Salaried jobs will be created for unemployed young people and women in the project area, thanks to income-generating activities launched by the beneficiaries during the implementation and post-project phases.
• The programme has been designed in conjunction with UNDP as a follow-up to demobilisation and disarmament activities in order to stabilise communities and improve the income and living conditions of populations affected by the political and military crisis, by restoring social cohesion and community participation. It will help prevent young people from being enlisted into armed groups, slow the rural exodus and promote the socioeconomic integration of young people and women through entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector. 
• The construction of socioeconomic infrastructure will further open up the rural areas that will benefit from the project and increase communities’ access to basic socioeconomic services, such as education, health and sanitation. Capacity building for the project’s beneficiaries should strengthen social cohesion and entrepreneurial capabilities, as well as the ability of institutions to deliver high-quality basic social services to communities. Technical supervision by the Chamber of Agriculture and Tourism for agricultural, farming, fish farming and fishing, beekeeping, dairy production and small-scale mining cooperatives will help to improve the working conditions of numerous households and boost the economic situation of families affected by the crisis.

• Around 1.6 million people will benefit from the programme, including 880,000 living in the project areas (51% of whom are women). The indirect beneficiaries are the inhabitants of neighbouring prefectures, local and national service providers, and financial intermediaries.