Logistics Support to WFP operations, and Logistics & Emergency Telecommunications Cluster Augmentation in Central African Republic

This operation expired in April 2016.

Special Operation 200605 will provide WFP and the humanitarian community with the augmented logistics and emergency telecommunications support services required to respond to the present crisis in the Central African Republic. This will be achieved through: the deployment of a trucking fleet; the repair of looted and damaged infrastructure; and the strengthening of structures to support the emergency telecommunications and logistics clusters.

The Special Operation has five components: truck fleet augmentation and workshop rehabilitation; rehabilitation of damaged WFP warehouses; logistics cluster support; emergency telecommunications cluster support and services; and bridge rehabilitation.Together, these components will augment WFP and aid agencies capacities to respond to the humanitarian needs of over 500,000 people.

The Special Operation will augment the country’s transport capacity and bridge infrastructure. It addresses the urgent need to reestablish looted communication centres in seven locations throughout the country. The logistics and emergency telecommunications clusters, activated in 2007, will be strengthened to enhance coordination and information sharing among United Nations agencies, international and local non-governmental organizations that are responding to the crisis. In addition to coordination, the logistics and emergency telecommunications clusters will provide services to about 80 organizations through transport and warehousing support, as well as information and communications technology services, access to communication networks and radio training.

-----------------------

Budget revision 5 is for additional CD&A and DSC, and an extension in time to augment Logistics Cluster and Emergency Telecommunications Cluster activities in the Central African Republic (CAR) from 1 January 2016 to 30 April 2016. As remarked in the 2016 CAR Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), the country has very limited logistics capacity and infrastructures; this adds to the volatile security situation and to the expected challenges deriving from the country being a landlocked one. As a consequence, access for humanitarian actors to the people most affected by the crisis is limited and very difficult.