The Issue
The security situation in South Kivu Province continues to deteriorate, causing major population displacement. Walungu Territory in South Kivu Privince is among the areas most affected by armed violence, and the administrative rural municipality, Kaziba Groupement, is particularly affected. Since December 2025, clashes between the Congolese armed forces and their allies and M23 armed groups supported by their allies have forced many families to flee their villages in search of safety elsewhere.
At provincial level, approximately 1.2 million people are estimated to be internally displaced. In Kaziba, many displaced households are also arriving from neighbouring areas such as Nyangezi and Kamanyola. In the absence of formal reception sites, these families are often quietly hosted by already vulnerable host communities, increasing pressure on limited resources. Needs assessments conducted in the field show that displaced and host families face multiple needs. Access to food is the most urgent priority, followed by essential household items, shelter, health, water, hygiene and nutrition. Although local markets remain functional, weak purchasing power prevents many households from meeting their basic needs, exposing them to negative coping strategies.
The Project
The project aims to provide unconditional, multisectoral cash assistance for food security and essential household items to identified displaced households along the Muchingwa-Kabembe-Butuzi-Kashozi axis in Walungu Territory, South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Change
Through multipurpose cash assistance, the project will enable the most vulnerable displaced households in Kaziba to quickly meet their essential needs and regain a measure of dignity in a context of protracted displacement. By receiving unconditional financial support, families will be able to choose their own most urgent household priorities, including the purchase of food and essential household items.
This approach will immediately help improve the food security of beneficiary households, reduce negative coping practices such as reducing meals or selling productive assets, and strengthen their capacity to cope with shocks linked to displacement. Cash assistance will also help ease the pressure on host communities, which are already sharing limited resources. In the medium term, the project will help preserve the livelihoods of displaced households, support the local economy through functioning markets, and strengthen families’ resilience to future crises. The intervention will therefore promote a rapid, flexible humanitarian response centred on the real needs of affected people.
Results
- The targeted households (600) report an improved capacity to meet the needs covered by the Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) after receiving multipurpose cash assistance.
- The targeted households (600) demonstrate their ability to meet all or most of their basic needs according to their own priorities.
- Cash assistance is provided in a safe and transparent manner, with beneficiaries informed of their rights and able to access complaint and feedback mechanisms.
- The targeted households (600) demonstrate a reduction in the reduced Coping Strategy Index (rCSI) score between the start and end of the project, indicating decreased reliance on negative coping strategies.
- In numbers: 600 households reached and assisted with cash, corresponding to 5,739 people, including 2,936 men and 2,803 women. Number of girls under five years of age: 793; number of boys under five years of age: 515.
Partners
As part of this project, DCA DR Congo are working with the national implementing partner AFEMA (Action for Marginalised Women and Children), which has the following project-related responsibilities:
- Targeting community mobilisation
- Proposing a list of enumerators
- Producing beneficiary cards
- To be present during distribution and organisation of the distribution site
- To follow-up on feedback
About the project
- Full title: Emergency Multipurpose Cash Assistance for internally displaced persons hosted by communities in Kaziba Chiefdom, Walungu Territory, South Kivu Province – DRC
- Timeline: February 2026 to May 2026
- Partner(s): AFEMA (Action for Marginalised Women and Children)
- Amount: 1,000,000 DKK
- DCA theme: Save
- Planned number of people reached: 3,600 people
- Donor(s): Humanitarian Crisis Fund (HCF)