Vera Schaffer
Program Manager DR Congo
â–º E-mail
DR Congo, Cooperation Program
Cooperation Program Democratic Republic of the Congo
Project Number: 197.1001
Mission 21 has been involved in projects in the Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo for more than 20 years. The focus of the project work is on the Kwango region, a "region almost forgotten by the state", as the local population describes it. This region south of Kinshasa is characterized by extreme poverty and almost non-existent infrastructure. There is a lack of the most important basic necessities of life, food, clean drinking water, hygiene products and, in particular, medical supplies and medicines. In recent years, the living situation of the local population has developed into a humanitarian emergency: The population is struggling with massive malnutrition, poor health and high levels of poverty.
Background information
Due to its history as a missionary organization, Mission 21 is closely linked to the Kwango region in the southwest of the DR Congo. From 1952, missionaries from Switzerland and Germany worked in Kwango. This is how the Evangelical Mission in Kwango (EMIK) came into being. In 1958, the church was recognized by the authorities in the then Belgian Congo. The major internal political unrest in the Congo after independence also shook the Kwango region, but the work of the church continued. Today, the Evangelical Mission in Kwango (EMIK) is one of the three supporting associations of Mission 21.
The region's population lives almost exclusively from agriculture. They mainly grow manioc, soy and peanuts, but also vegetables and fruit. The province of Kwango is one of the poorest parts of the country and the world. It is not of great economic importance and is therefore neglected by the government. The villages are cut off from the world for months on end because the rain makes the poor, single-lane sandy roads impassable.
 Poor care and malnutrition
As a result of climate change, the rainy and dry seasons have become more extreme. As a result, there is either no rain or the downpours are so heavy that erosion and flooding have become commonplace. Agriculture as well as transportation and market opportunities in the Kwango have become so challenging that it is impossible to provide for the population of around 2.6 million people.
A conflict in the north of Kwango, which has escalated since 2022, has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and the security situation is increasingly precarious. As a result of this conflict, the transportation of goods from Kinshasa to the region has become more difficult and the farms that used to produce in this part of Kwango have had to close, which is now having an additional impact on the massive malnutrition of the local population.
Commitment to the local population
Mission 21 is committed to helping the local population and fighting extreme poverty in Kwango. The aim is to achieve a nexus approach between humanitarian aid and development cooperation. Both emergency aid and the distribution of food and medicine as well as longer-term work such as education and awareness-raising are urgently needed. Local experts and the civilian population are working together in a highly networked way to respond to the humanitarian emergency.
DR Congo
- around 99 million inhabitants
- Land area of 2,345,410 km2
- 74.6% of the population live below the poverty line. DR Congo is one of the five poorest countries in the world.
