Demographic data from conflict affected regions in the Congo Basin: potential from the Afripop and Cedat database"

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a country where demographic and health information is scarce, particularly in areas with chronic insecurity. These are however the areas where population needs are highest. Here, two freely available databases were combined in order to estimate the number of children under 5 affected by acute malnutrition in DRC. Geostatistical methods were used to produce a predicted malnutrition map based on small-scale surveys conducted by humanitarian agencies and estimates of children at risk were derived from high resolution population maps. Results showed that 41% of children are in serious or critical nutrition situation in DRC. This paper showed that combined analyses of different sources of data can provide key insights on populations on whom information is scarce