Aninver awarded World Bank contract to promote nutrition and climate-smart agriculture in the Central African Republic

Aninver Development Partners has been awarded a new contract in the Central African Republic (CAR), financed by the World Bank through the International Development Association (IDA), to implement integrated community activities in nutrition and climate-smart agriculture. Over the next 12 months, Aninver will support the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in promoting sustainable agricultural practices, improving community nutrition and strengthening the resilience of rural households, with a particular focus on women and young people.

The assignment corresponds to Lot 1 of the Food Crisis Emergency Response Project (PRUCAC), implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development through its National Technical Coordination Unit (UNCT/PRUCAC). We will deliver it alongside our partners TEPRO and ForAfrika, combining agricultural, nutrition and community health expertise to achieve concrete results on the ground.

Food insecurity and malnutrition: a persistent challenge

Food security remains a major concern in the Central African Republic. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), around 2.25 million people – 35% of the population analysed – were projected to face crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity between April and August 2025. Malnutrition affected some 735,000 people in 2025, including about 470,000 girls and boys under five.

Agriculture is the backbone of the Central African economy, employing around 75% of the working population and providing the main source of food and income for more than 4.5 million people. Women play a central role: they make up the majority of the agricultural workforce, are mainly responsible for food crops such as cassava, maize, groundnuts and beans, and are very active in processing and marketing. This makes them the guardians of household food security – and the natural focus of this intervention.

Building on the Safe Spaces of the MAINGO project

The assignment brings together two IDA-financed operations. PRUCAC will build on the Safe Spaces created by the MAINGO Human Capital and Women and Girls' Empowerment Project, where young women already receive life-skills and health education, and use them as places to train women in improved agricultural practices for dietary diversification and nutrition.

The intervention will cover the prefectures of Lobaye, Sangha-Mbaéré, Bangui, Mambéré-Kadéï and Mambéré, reaching 781 groups of women and young producers – around 25,000 women – and strengthening the capacity of at least 150 community health workers. Our work will include:

• Setting up or improving vegetable and market gardens following climate-smart agriculture (CSA) principles, and promoting diversified, climate-resilient vegetable seeds;
• Supporting small-scale poultry farming to improve access to animal protein, and providing inputs and support for income-generating agricultural activities;
• Organising community nutrition and hygiene education sessions in the Safe Spaces and women's associations;
• Training community health workers to detect and follow up children suffering from acute malnutrition, especially those aged 0 to 2, and supporting awareness campaigns with the Ministry of Health and the Directorate of Food Security and Nutrition (DSAN), in line with the National Community Health Strategy;
• Building a sex-disaggregated beneficiary database and producing CSA and nutrition training materials, progress reports and a final report with lessons learned and a sustainability plan.

A strong partnership

We are especially pleased to work alongside our good friends at TEPRO, an agricultural management, engineering and consulting firm founded in Seville in 1975, and ForAfrika, a leading African NGO. Together with Aninver's experience in more than 100 projects across over 40 countries for clients such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank, the consortium brings the technical, community and institutional expertise needed to deliver meaningful impact for women and young people in the Central African Republic.

A big thank you to our partners, to the UNCT/PRUCAC and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for their trust, and to the Aninver team for making this possible!