Introduction: economic, social and political context
At the end of the period of social and political unrest and civil war (1993-1999), the
Government has had to face emergencies:
- Return of nearly 800 internally displaced persons in a deplorable state of health, many of
them victims of property losses and relatives, with serious or severe malnutrition affecting
nearly 50% of them;
- Destruction of public and private property including schools and health centres up to the
country side; - Resurgence of diseases including malaria and vaccine-preventable ones
(measles, respiratory diseases);
- Drop in school attendance from 126% in 1990 to 78.5% in 1998;
- Multiplication of social breakdown situations in families causing the emergence of several
categories of vulnerable children, abandoned children, street children, child beggars, child
workers, victims of economic and sexual exploitation;
- Exposure of girls and parents to scenes of extreme violence causing deep trauma for
thousands of children:
National and international communities mobilised to alleviate the suffering of any kind, calm
the social and political tensions and create both physical reconstruction condition, as well as
economic and psychological, to the extent that 2013 was recognised as "the year of the
normalisation of people's lives and repositioning of the country on the international stage ".
The country has access to poverty reduction facilities; economic growth has stabilised around
4% in 2000 and in 2004, emergency programs of international assistance were replaced with
annual and multi annual programmes development.
However, the demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 2005 revealed even more alarming
situations: child mortality rates reaching 117%, maternal deaths was 781 per 100 000 live
births; a rate of non-registration of births of around 19% for children under 5 years. The
economic household survey fixed poverty rate to 50.7% of the population: Indicators on
education, nutrition and child protection remain a concern.
Taking advantage of the oil boom in 2004 (increase of oil prices) which helped boost growth
and allow better management of the debt, the Government was able to embark on the process
of the HIPC initiative and in a extensive programme of public works, through the
municipalisation and increased investment in the National Petroleum Company of Congo and
greater attention to social sectors: Health, Education, Social Affairs: the total health budget
went from 6.4% in 2006 to 6.9 % in 2007; Education increased from 3.5% to 3.9% of total
budget; Social Affairs increased to 0.35% of the total budget. The allocations are very low
especially for the latter. This attention has continued in 2008 and 2009 with the presidential
decisions of free screening and biological monitoring for AIDS, as well as malaria treatment
for children aged 0 to 15 years and pregnant women, all in December 2008. The measures
were extended to free caesarean, surgery for ectopic pregnancy and other major procedures
related to pregnancy and childbirth, and eventually to the release of civil servants’ salaries
and the financial effects related to promotions.
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