North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are experiencing complex emergencies resulting from years of armed conflict, struggles for control over natural resources, intercommunity violence over land rights, and natural disasters. Due to the continued presence of armed groups and the lack of control by the country’s military, the situation is likely to deteriorate further. As a result of the ongoing conflict, the Humanitarian Needs Overview 2021 for the DRC states that the severity of displacements in North Kivu and Ituri is catastrophic, with deepening needs in three or more humanitarian sectors.
In response to the conflict, FHI 360 is implementing the Project for Humanitarian Assistance Serving Eastern DRC (PHASED), which encompasses integrated health, nutrition and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) activities to service more than 15.8 million individuals impacted in the target areas. FHI 360’s response to the humanitarian needs in Ituri and North Kivu through this project is a multisectoral approach focused on meeting immediate, lifesaving needs with a focus on delivering services through government structures and systems. These activities are being conducted with collaboration and support to government mechanisms, such as the Provincial Health Division (DPS, or Division Provinciale de la Santé) and health zone authorities.
FHI 360 is paying incentives to facility staff, providing pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, conducting regular on-the-job supervision and offering technical support to manage and maintain health systems in a sustained manner. FHI 360 is supplementing the support provided to the health sector with nutrition activities, including integrated treatment of severe acute malnutrition and maternal, infant, and young child nutrition in emergencies counseling.
The WASH component focuses on hygiene promotion through trainings and support provided to local community health workers and rehabilitations of WASH structures at facilities, in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and within host communities. FHI 360’s WASH interventions aim to increase the quantity of water available for IDP and host community populations and support environmental health activities such as solid waste management in health facilities, at IDP sites and within host communities through the provision of tools and equipment and the organization of community cleanup events.
