This is a plea for the Central African Republic.
The Central African Republic (CAR) today finds itself in a state of chronic medical emergency. Five separate retrospective mortality surveys, carried out by MSF and other researchers, in prefectures accounting for the majority of the population, show excess mortality above what is considered to be the “emergency threshold.”
And yet the commitment by the country’s government and by the international community is going in the wrong direction.
The government has been decreasing its investments in health, as have international donors, while humanitarian assistance
has failed to reduce the widespread medical crisis.
The risk is high that the Central African Republic will become trapped: not considered urgent enough for significant emergency
aid; not considered trustworthy enough for meaningful development assistance.
For the sake of CAR’s 4.4 million people, this cannot be allowed to happen. Existing levels of medical assistance are plainly insufficient to the scale of the needs. The country needs more actors conducting larger medical operations that reach more of the population.
In this paper, we outline the experiences, analyses and concerns of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) after 14 years working in the country. The report opens with a summary of the published evidence on CAR’s mortality over the past 18 months by MSF and other researchers. We then analyse the various causes for this before summarising the inadequate existing levels of assistance provided by all the various actors, including firstly the government of CAR, but also the international community including ourselves. We conclude with a call for greater medical assistance to the country.
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And yet the commitment by the country’s government and by the international community is going in the wrong direction.
The government has been decreasing its investments in health, as have international donors, while humanitarian assistance
has failed to reduce the widespread medical crisis.
The risk is high that the Central African Republic will become trapped: not considered urgent enough for significant emergency
aid; not considered trustworthy enough for meaningful development assistance.
For the sake of CAR’s 4.4 million people, this cannot be allowed to happen. Existing levels of medical assistance are plainly insufficient to the scale of the needs. The country needs more actors conducting larger medical operations that reach more of the population.
In this paper, we outline the experiences, analyses and concerns of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) after 14 years working in the country. The report opens with a summary of the published evidence on CAR’s mortality over the past 18 months by MSF and other researchers. We then analyse the various causes for this before summarising the inadequate existing levels of assistance provided by all the various actors, including firstly the government of CAR, but also the international community including ourselves. We conclude with a call for greater medical assistance to the country.
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