The food security situation remained very alarming at the end of 2023, according to the OCHA situation report published at the end of October, which estimated that around 3 million of the 3.4 million people in need were food insecure in CAR. These figures are in line with the projections in the IPC's analysis of acute food insecurity published in November 2022. In this projection, the Prefecture of Basse-Kotto revealed a total of 222,173 people in crisis and emergency situations out of 324,963 individuals analyzed. The causes of this situation include the difficulty of access, which limits assistance, the functioning of markets and the pursuit of survival activities by the population.
In addition, the rise in fuel prices has led to a reduction in trade flows. In order to prevent households from further developing strategies that would be detrimental to their survival if nothing is done, WFP food assistance would compensate for the household food deficit.
Against this backdrop and given the scarcity of funding due to the economic crisis and a number of other emergencies requiring a humanitarian response around the world, the WFP decided to implement a new approach to identifying households, known as targeting, based on the classification and prioritization of households according to vulnerability criteria defined by community representatives and socio-economic data collected on tablets. The aim is to ensure that the assistance available reaches the most vulnerable beneficiaries possible.