A well before rehabilitation, Vakaga.
Photo : B. Chrétien/ TGH
Rehabilitating a well, Vakaga.
Photo : B. Chrétien/ TGHIn 2008, the European Commission decided to provide a specific financial envelope to development projects in Vakaga, a remote prefecture north-east of the Central African Republic. Triangle’s commitment to driving long-term development projects in the CAR, in the wake of the country’s crisis, led naturally to a partnership with the European Commission’s Delegation and enabled the launch of an extensive programme in October 2008.
Planned to last 32 months, the programme, “Restore Essential Services & Revitalize the Social Fabric of Vakaga Prefecture” aims to improve conditions of access to water and primary education in the area. This implies supporting the reconstruction of social and community ventures in the villages involved in the scheme, particularly by helping each village rebuild its organisations managing essential services such as drinking water and primary education.
Geographically isolated from the rest of the country, culturally discriminated, Vakaga Prefecture shows a rare level of under-development; a level that five years of rising insecurity have further impacted.
Even today, the representation of state administration is far from perfect and sometimes erratic. In the absence of support, the communities have to rely on their own, extremely limited, means. The resulting lack of services has been aggravated by a deficiency of maintenance activities (due to growing insecurity since 2000) and the destructions that took place during conflicts at the end of 2006 and early 2007.
The population’s situation is therefore extremely difficult, both in terms of daily existence and future perspectives.
The programme presented aims to moderate this difficulty. Its general objectives, that comply with the Millenary aims, are:
- Contribute to reducing the percentage of the population that does not have a steady supply of drinking water
The level of access to water in Vakaga is among the lowest in the CAR: less than 30% of people have access to potable water, less than 45% consume water considered clean, and over 85% have to travel more than 500 meters to get water. 10 bore holes will be built and equipped with hand-operated pumps during the first quarter of 2010.
- Contribute to providing access to primary education for all children
The level of access to education is also very poor and management capacities are weak. Vakaga suffers from the lowest illiteracy rate in the CAR and the proportion of non-state teachers is the highest. 25 schools will benefit from creation of new classrooms or rehabilitation of current classrooms.
More specifically, the programme aims to increase the availability of state infrastructures providing better access to essential services. Our action will focus on developing local capacities in relation with the target services, in order to ensure the durability of services opened through the project and empower the region’s socio-organisational fabric without which every development venture remains vain. The programme will integrate two important aspects: the necessity of having an active administrative representation in the area and the socio-economic realities of the Prefecture and the CAR in general. Indeed, while the State’s presence in Vakaga is fully necessary, it cannot, for the time being, provide all essential services; the community and its organisations still have an important role to play...
A woman using a foot-operated
pump, Vakaga.
Photo : TGH |
Hygiene awareness in schools.
Photo : F. Monneret/ TGH |
Prefectural School of Birao rehabilitated
by Triangle.
Photo : J. Nikwitegetse |
Reading class, Birao.
Photo : Jeanne-Marie Dourlen/ TGH |
Learning to read in Vakaga.
Photo : TGH |
