The Central African Republic is a country where the socio-economic situation has, for many decades, gone from bad to worse. A succession of crisis situations and persistent conflicts creates tension and forces the population to displace. The inhabitants in the Northeast and Southwest, where the prefectures of Mambéré-Kadeï and Sangha-Mambéré in the territory are based, are affected by these displacements and debilitated by increasing food insecurity.

Under nourishment has become one of the major issues for the country where the chronic malnutrition rate exceeds the emergency thresholds defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), with a prevalence rate of 43.8% (Rapid SMART survey, CRf 2016).

The following major risk factors have been identified:

Inappropriate breast-feeding to infants from 0 to 6 months old and supplementary feeding practices,

Beliefs and taboos are major influencers on pregnant and breast-feeding mothers,

Not much variety in food (food based on cassava),

Limited access/availability to local produce in the markets due to low production,

Very little money coming in due to instability of income sources,

Deficient healthcare system and lack of interest by the community to use it,

Extremely insufficient access to drinking water in the area studied resulting in high vulnerability to waterborne illnesses.

Young mothers and short spacing between births,

Overworking mothers accentuates their precarious condition.

Please refer to l’Essentiel to find out more about the information obtained from this study and the recommendations that have been made.