Humanitarian Action for Children 2016 - South Sudan

Total affected population: 9.6 million
Total affected children (under 18): 5.1 million
Total people to be reached in 2016: 3.2 million
Total children to be reached in 2016: 2.2 million

Humanitarian Action for Children 2016 programme targets

Nutrition

• 166,222 children aged 6 to 59 months with SAM admitted for treatment
• More than 75 per cent of children aged 6 to 59 months with SAM admitted for treatment recovered

Health

• 1,171,904 children aged 6 months to 15 years in conflict-affected areas vaccinated against measles
• 400,000 children under 5 years, pregnant women and other people received long-lasting insecticide-treated nets

WASH

• 560,000 people provided with access to safe water as per agreed standards (7.5-15 litres per person per day)
• 345,000 people provided with access to appropriate sanitation facilities

Child protection

• 600,000 children reached with critical child protection services
• 80,000 people reached with key information on gender-based violence through community outreach and engagement activities

Education

• 325,000 children aged 3 to 18 years (35 per cent female) enrolled in schools or other learning facilities as part of the Back-to-Learning initiative
• 10,000 teachers/educators/teaching assistants/parent-teacher association and school management committee members (30 per cent female) trained

South Sudan is now at risk of losing a generation of children. Despite the signing of the South Sudan Peace Agreement in August 2015, children are still facing violence, grave rights violations, displacement and hunger. Nearly 2.3 million people have fled their homes, including 645,000 who are now refugees.1 Protection of Civilians sites are sheltering 184,000 people, representing an 80 per cent increase between January and October 2015.2 An estimated 237,000 children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in 2016,3 and food insecurity will affect 7.5 million people.4 Levels of food insecurity and malnutrition are expected to increase significantly in inaccessible areas of Unity State during the lean season. There are epidemic levels of malaria in 31 of 79 counties,5 with demand for malaria drugs outpacing supply. The destruction of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities has exposed vulnerable communities to water-borne diseases; between May and October 2015 more than 1,800 cases of cholera were reported in Juba and Bor. The acute protection crisis continues, with killings and abductions of children and worsening levels of sexual violence, which is perpetrated with impunity. More than 15,000 children, mostly boys, have been recruited by armed forces or groups.7 Violence, insecurity and displacement have spread to previously stable areas. Nearly one in every three schools in Greater Upper Nile is non-functional and 413,000 children have been forced out of school.

Humanitarian strategy Building on lessons learned, UNICEF will deploy Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) teams to access vulnerable populations in most-affected areas. Peacebuilding and sustainability will be further integrated into the response. It is expected that major family tracing, reunification and demobilization efforts will be required. Wherever possible, resilience-based programming will be introduced or expanded to further bridge humanitarian and development interventions.UNICEF will work to improve the routine Expanded Programme on Immunization system, complemented by outreach campaigns. UNICEF will also continue to rehabilitate the cold chain to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases and will increase access to quality primary health care. The UNICEF-WFP Nutrition Scale-Up Plan will increasingly focus on the quality of programming. Safe water and sanitation will be provided in internally displaced person (IDP) sites, urban water systems will be rehabilitated in conflict-affected areas, and efforts to reduce open defecation in return areas will be expanded. The UNICEF Backto-Learning initiative will support the retention of conflict-affected students and their integration into formal schools. Communication for Development will continue to be used as a cross-cutting approach. UNICEF leads the nutrition and WASH clusters, the child protection subcluster and vaccination, communication and social mobilization within the health cluster, and co-leads the education cluster.

Results from 2015

As of 31 October 2015, UNICEF had received 45 per cent (US$82.9 million) of the US$183.3 million 2015 appeal, in addition to US$55.2 million carried forward from 2014 that was used to reach the most vulnerable. UNICEF provided life-saving services to more than 1.4 million children and their families in 2015. Direct implementation was used to respond to the most acute crises.This included the malaria campaign that treated 16,000 children in the Bentiu Protection of Civilians site and RRMs that reached 459,000 people in otherwise inaccessible areas. Some 1,755 children released from an armed group were supported with reintegration. Education-inemergencies support was provided to 245,000 children as a part of the broader UNICEF Back-to-Learning initiative. With complementary support from the education sector, the initiative also reached 342,000 children (39 per cent girls) across the country with learning opportunities. The UNICEF-WFP joint Nutrition Scale-Up Plan enabled SAM treatment for 115,000 children, 44 per cent more than during the same period in 2014 despite ongoing fighting and the destruction of nutrition treatment sites. Although mobile campaigns allowed UNICEF to vaccinate more than 1 million children against polio in affected states, several counties or parts of counties remain unreached due to insecurity. Safe water was provided for 504,000 people, while 285,000 were provided with safe sanitation.