Food Assistance Fact Sheet - Democratic Republic of Congo

April 3, 2013

Food Security Situation

CIA World Factbook

• Armed conflict and general insecurity have made the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) one of the world’s most complex and long standing.

• International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) 2012 Global Hunger Index reports that in contrast to recent years, the level of hunger in DRC is not listed as extremely alarming because of insufficient data on undernourishment.  

• DRC is one of the poorest countries worldwide, ranked last out of 187 countries on United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) 2011 Human Development Index. 

• The Humanitarian Action Plan (HAP) launched in 2013 by UN agencies, humanitarian partners, and the Government of DRC estimates 6.4 million people across DRC are food insecure and more than two million children under five years of age are acutely malnourished.

Food Assistance Programs

• The Office of Food for Peace (FFP) and its partners target 5.1 million food-insecure Congolese, refugees, and host communities in Orientale, North and South Kivu, Maniema, Katanga and Equateur Provinces.

• FFP partners with the UN World Food Program (WFP), ADRA, Food for the Hungry, and Mercy Corps on development and emergency food assistance programs improving agricultural sector capacity, maternal and child health and nutrition, civil participation and local governance, protection, disaster risk reduction, water and sanitation, natural resources management and biodiversity, and microenterprise productivity, and food aid distributions.

Food for Peace Contributions

Total Contributions:

Fiscal Year 2013 Contribution Breakdown:

Food Security Situation information is provided by IFPRI and WFP as of April 2013.