Open letter to the USAID in DRC: More than 90% of the relief ends in the expenses of Agencies

We are wondering about this humanitarian actions which end in the pockets of actors rather than helping people, on ground the situation is to bad because IDPs do not get the necessary aid, here is our letter attached ” LETTER 19 JULY 2024 TO THE USAID IN KINSHASA DRC

We hope that reforms should be considered as priority during this humanitarian truce introduced by the United States of America.

        NREF: 19/COJESKI/NK/07/2024                                                      Monday July 22nd, 2024  

CC:

The European Union Mission,

Kinshasa/ DRC

The United States Embassy

Kinshasa/ DRC

The Country Representative of the USAID,

Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: Open letter on the management and the focus of the relief aid for a greater impact in North Kivu, DRCongo.

The Collective of Youth Organizations for Solidarity in the Democratic Republic of Congo known as COJESKI, Coordination of North Kivu is composed of various youth initiatives in the whole province of North Kivu including IDPs and Refugee Youth Initiatives among others.

Witnesses and victims of the prevailing situation, we are also highly preoccupied by the current humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic mainly in North Kivu in particular and in other provinces in general. While we are also engaged on efforts towards lasting solutions to the conflicts and instability in North Kivu by addressing the root causes, we are overwhelmed by the deterioration of the humanitarian situation especially around Goma despite interventions to the point that we are wondering if humanitarian interventions are the option to go for and how far should we promote it.

Contrary to what we are hearing about the shortage of enough funding to address the current humanitarian crisis, we believe that such debate should also include discussions on the management of the available relief aid, the transparence and inclusive participation of all stakeholders in the whole decision-making process. Last week during your mission here in Goma, we were informed that generally 75% of the available relief aid ends in the administrative costs of international relief organizations, the 25% of the funds is given to a local implementing organizations which also are likely to hold between 10 % and 15% for their administration costs and in the process only 10% reaches to the Internally Displaced Persons yet this 10% will also face embezzlement from the local administration by the camp management.

Our regular field visits in Bulengo, Lushagala, Sam Sama and Rusayu One IDP Camps show the presence of IDPs who have never been registered in order to access relief aid and have stayed without aid, we also observed that a family of 10 people who are registered only five people are given the relief aid, and while the quantity mentioned for each person has never been achieved and it is either divided by three or by two, what is given is always less than what is provided. Generally relief aid interventions have highly ignored the specific needs of vulnerable and marginalized groups of people in Camps which require approaches that are based on equity. For the last three years not much has been done in order to pay a particular attention on the plight of IDP living in host families in Goma and how their presence has negatively impacted on these host families, despite all these still Goma does not benefit from projects which focus on development in order to balance the situation.

We are concerned by the approach of only relief aid to IDPs in camps despite the existence of opportunities which can favor economic reliance which should have been part of the interventions. We clearly observe the close relationship between poverty and life in IDP Camps and therefore approaches that focus of poverty reduction should be part of lasting solutions, yet near us there are opportunities which should be capitalized in to address relief aid dependency. It is not the best decision made that people in Kanyaruchina, Don Bosco and Bushagala IDP Camps are still depending of relief aid up to now three years ago, those in Bulengo are also making two years still waiting for aid in order to survive.

We have denounced the commercialization of the relief aid through a well maintain mafia operations in which available aid is diverted and sold in various markets in Goma yet IDPs are suffering, and in the process those who are supposed to stop this practice tend instead to threaten, intimidate and attack whistle-blowers who denounce such practices, yet they remain vulnerable as they are not funded in their activities. It is on the same way that we observed that the recent field mission in Goma did not incorporate opportunities to have a different view, different ideas as generally those who were invited in various meetings were then the same people, the same organizations which are part of this humanitarian crisis and who seem deploy efforts to make the situation worse.

As we draw this ugly situation highly exploited by the relief aid agencies, we are wondering about the inexistence of funding towards the promotion of peace and end of war so that people can go back to their villages.

We therefore formulate the following recommendations

To ensure that each IDP in camps and outside camps is identified and gets relief aid monthly in quantity and in quality,

To involve the whole diversity of actors in the decision-making about the current relief aid and ensure that is offered in total transparency,

To hold accountable all those who have abused the existing relief aid and ensure that a high percentage of the aid goes directly to people by prioritizing working directly with grassroots organizations and local initiatives,

Strengthening efforts of human rights organizations that are documenting human rights violations and advocating for the transparency of the available aid,

To put in place particular funding which will focus on addressing the root causes of the conflict and the restoration of peace, including peace initiatives at the community levels,

To put in place interactions and communication channels with all stakeholders at all levels in order to share views and plan for what may work better,

To consider the option of giving money (cash) to IDPs who have stayed long in Camps especially those who haven there for two years and above,

Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos

Coordonnateur Provincial