About the Support Platform for CAR solutions
Since 2013, the Central African Republic (CAR) has been experiencing a protracted political and social crisis resulting in inter-community violence and forcing more than one third of the CAR population to flee within the country or to neighboring countries. The CAR Solutions Support Platform is an inter-governmental mechanism that aims to promote solutions for those forcibly displaced by the situation in CAR.
In April 2022, representatives of the seven concerned governments (Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and South Sudan) signed the Yaoundé Declaration with the objective to pursue a regional approach to deliver solutions for refugees, Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and returnees from the CAR, whilst maintaining protection and promoting self-reliance.
The Yaoundé Declaration gave mandate to UNHCR to establish a dedicated regional cooperation mechanism to mobilize political, technical, and financial support from all relevant stakeholders at local, regional, and global levels towards a comprehensive response to the CAR displacement crisis, combining humanitarian assistance with longer-term development interventions, in line with the strategic vision and objectives articulated in the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR).
Following consultations with governmental partners, UNHCR has suggested to launch a Support Platform for Solutions to the CAR Situation (CAR-SSP) with UNHCR playing the role of the Secretariat. The CAR-SSP is then considered as a regional cooperation framework where technical policy dialogue will be facilitated to implement the Recommendations from the Yaoundé Declaration in favor of the search for long term solutions to CAR refugees IDPs and returnees.
The CAR-SSP was officially launched during the first regional ministerial meeting of the Steering Committee in Bangui in October 2023. Placed under the High Patronage of H.E. Faustin-Archange TOUADERA, President of the CAR, it reached four main objectives: the validation of the governance structure, the development and validation of the 2024 regional roadmap, the validation of the terms of reference for the group of supporting partners (Core group), and the official launch of the Support Platform. Also officially launched during that meeting, the Core group, so far composed of the African Bank of Development (AFDB), the Amahoro coalition, the European Union’s DG for International Partnerships (INTPA), the Swiss cooperation, the United States of America’s Agency for International Development (USAID/PRM), the World Bank in CAR, committed to actively supporting and to mobilize the necessary resources to implement solutions.
In the aftermath of the Bangui meeting, the seven signatory States also demonstrated their strong political to advance solutions to the situation of the CAR forcibly displaced persons: they developed comprehensive national action plans promoting the socio-economic inclusion, resilience and empowerment of the CAR forcibly displaced to the international community. Only Sudan could not send its plan due to the current security situation.
The High-Level Event on solutions to the CAR crisis organized during the Global Refugee Forum 2023 (HLE-GRF-2023) has boosted the attention of the international community on the need for solutions to people affected by the CAR crisis and has contributed to the increase of the core group membership. Governments signatory of the Yaoundé declaration have formulated joint commitments to improve access to rights, to enhance social services in areas of return, and to promote employment, with the aim of creating and enabling an environment for the sustainable return and reintegration of nearly 300,000 refugees expected to voluntarily return between 2024 and 2027.
2023 was the first year of the implementation of the Recommendations of the Yaoundé Declaration through the implementation of the CAR-SSP. To this end, the secretariat of the platform, the signatory government and the UNHCR operations have contributed to reach the two following sub-objectives demonstrating an impact at different levels of execution:
- to establish and empower a regional institutional framework, with the support of the international community;
- within the regional cooperation framework, to channel policy dialogues in favor of the implementation of the commitments of the Yaoundé Declaration.
As 2024 will be the year of implementation of the national action plans, it will be also the year for national authorities to demonstrate their ownership. The Secretariat will stand ready to support them.