ESS Paper Series

Social protection and crises in the Congo: from humanitarian aid to sustainable development

The two Congos have been through a number of crises,which have given rise to a whole host of humanitarian problems. Using the experiences of the two countries as a basis, the report considers to what extent and under what conditions the distribution of humanitarian aid contributes to the development of sustainable social protection. In reality the impact of the crises on the statutory social security system has been extremely adverse, because the latter is at a loss how to cope with thw new challenges and the present state of the manegement of the system does not facilitate the establishement of appropriate solutions. The humanitarian agencies take action in isolated cases, with no overall strategy or vision for overcoming the crisis, and thus there is no interlinking of humanitarian aid and development. What will be the future role of NGOs and social security agencies in the development of sustainable systems of social protection? In view of the widespread poverty that exists, the development of sustainable social protection systems depends not only on interlinking micro credit, micro enterprise and micro healht insurance, but also on new social protection systems, in particular humanitarian social protection, which organizes allocations in kind to healthcare coverage, and temporary mutual health insurance, which covers individuals who do not yet have their own socio-occupational mutual health insurance.