UNOPS in the DRC helps clients achieve their project goals in the following key sectors:

Physical infrastructure

As the United Nations lead organization for physical infrastructure in peacebuilding settings, UNOPS has unique field expertise and a network of national and international civil engineers, water sanitation experts, and architects available on short notice.

In DRC, UNOPS is a principal organization for repairing feeder roads using labour-intensive techniques that generate local employment. Since early 2004 UNOPS in the DRC has rebuilt 2,000 km with funding from the World Bank, the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) and the European Union.

Social infrastructure

UNOPS in the DRC supports United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) efforts to fight poverty in the Democratic Republic of the Congo  by promoting community development, local good governance, sustainable basic living conditions, improved accessibility to and quality of local social infrastructure and services, and inter-community reconciliation and peace-building.

At Gemena in Equateur Province of northwest DRC a major inter-agency partnership with UNDP and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is facilitating the return of displaced populations and providing them with sustainable living solutions. These projects and programmes reached an estimated 915,000 beneficiaries between 2004 and 2006.

Elections

With funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) through UNDP, and with the support of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), UNOPS deployed 2,250 international observers for the first and second rounds of the 2006 nationwide elections.

UNOPS dispatched experts to all eleven provinces, collected baseline election data, issued information kits, secured accreditation of observers and journalists, produced 1,263 observers' handbooks, and trained 575 international observers from 43 nations. These efforts helped increase the confidence of voters and candidates in the electoral process.

Environment

The international community supports preservation of DRC's exceptional biodiversity. With UNDP and Global Environment Facility (GEF) funding UNOPS is helping to update existing conservation legislation, reforming the Institut Congolais de Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) and fostering the rehabilitation and participatory community management of protected areas (PAs). Since 2005 the project has surveyed principal PAs and reinforced ICCN operational capacities with specialized communications and transportation equipment for 16 national parks.

Following the 2002 eruption of Nyragongo Volcano in North Kivu in the country’s northeast, the international community mobilized emergency relief for affected populations in Goma City and its surroundings. Since 2003 UNOPS has supported the Volcanic Observatory of Goma by implementing a communications system to alert the most vulnerable populations of another eruption.