UNICEF Country Program Support DRC 2022-2025
Contribution ID : SE-0-SE-6-16046This website displays open data about Swedish aid, which shows when, to whom and for what purpose Swedish aid is paid out, as well as what results it has produced. This page contains information about one of the contributions financed with Swedish aid.
Sida has decided to continue supporting UNICEFs country programme in the DRC between 2022-2025. The support is thematic and covers the entire country programme. The intervention corresponds to Sweden's priorities in the current strategy for development cooperation with the DRC (2021-2025), particularly in the areas of improved basic health, human security as...
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Sida has decided to continue supporting UNICEFs country programme in the DRC between 2022-2025. The support is thematic and covers the entire country programme. The intervention corresponds to Sweden's priorities in the current strategy for development cooperation with the DRC (2021-2025), particularly in the areas of improved basic health, human security as well as nexus. The operation is expected to contribute to improved local access to quality health care for children and pregnant women, particularly in areas related to immunisation and treatment of child diarrhoea and cholera, as well as improved access to local water and sanitation systems (WASH) and general health system strengthening. Furthermore, the intervention aims to provide children associated with armed groups and forces access to psychosocial support and opportunities to reintegrate into their original communities, as well as the possibility to resume schooling or to create their own livelihood through economic activities. The intervention also aims to contribute to strengthening and reducing the vulnerability of IDPs and local populations through improved basic health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation, among other things, so that they are better able to cope with future crises (this links to Sida's nexus work). UNICEF's current country programme in DRC is for the period 2020-2024, but Sida aims to support UNICEF until 2025, which means one year into a new UNICEF country programme. This intervention builds on previous support to UNICEF but increases UNICEF's flexibility and efficiency in planning and implementation, through clearer synergies between the relevant focus areas. The flexible thematic support is also expected to lead to a more efficient use of staff resources and more effective cooperation between UNICEF and the Embassy in the DRC.
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Result
Health 1- Administrative data from the national health information system shows that the cumulative number of children vaccinated with Diphtheria Tetanus Pertussis(DTP3) vaccine over the period January- September 2022 reached 3,026,365, an increase of approximately 10 per cent compared to 2021. The number of children vaccinated against measles increased by 15 per cent for over the same period (more than 3.5 million children vaccinated).Of the 3,620,284 expected pregnant women, 95 per cent received at least two doses of tetanus vaccine. With 3,158,698 children expected to receive 3 doses of DTP/Pentacontaining vaccine from January to September 2022, 95 per cent of children were vaccinated based on administrative data. The good performance is linked to the resumption of vaccination services, slowed down during the COVID19 epidemic, and the availability of vaccines thanks to the implementation of the Vaccine Independence Initiative, the Vaccine Independence Initiative, a mechanism set up by UNICEF which devotes to the DRC a credit of 4.5 million dollars for the purchase of vaccines and injection commodities in addition to the domestic funds mobilized by the government. In 2022, the country has not experienced any shortage of routine vaccines at the national level. Authorities at all levels of the country committed to increasing and disbursing an immunization budget line to cover the costs of traditional vaccines, meet the cofinancing needs of new vaccines, and maintain free immunization. This approach enhances country ownership of immunization financing and helps strengthen financially sustainable immunization programmes in preparation for Gavi to phase out its support for these vaccines. Despite this increase, coverage remains below planned targets mainly due to low performance indicators on the demand side. It is worth noting however that in 2022, the DRC maintained its status as a Wild Polio Virus (WPV)free country despite reporting 202 cases. 2- Thematic contributions from Sweden, together with complementary funds, allowed UNICEF to continue supporting maternal, newborn child and adolescent health in 21 provinces. According to the health management and information system DHIS2 routine data, a 10 per cent decrease in the neonatal mortality rate was observed compared to 2021 trends, with an increase of at least 20 per cent in skill score averages, and an improvement in essential medicine availability. In total, from 2020 to 2022, 79 per cent of facilities (449/570) received maternal, neonatal and child health essential medicines, commodities including maternal and childbirth kits and equipment to ensure essential service continuity and ensure primary health care delivery in 21 supported provinces. As for child health, 405,702 diarrhea cases (91 per cent of cases) and 569,448 pneumonia cases (95 per cent) were treated at 2,097 community care sites and health facilities in 128 health zones in 11 provinces. Furthermore, 46 per cent of eligible children aged 014 years received increased coverage for Antiretroviral therapy (ART), an increase of 8 per cent coverage from 2021. UNICEF also supported 70 health zones with provision of supplies as well as the development of normative documents for adolescent health and HIV at national level. As part of its adolescent gender responsive programme, UNICEF maintained its support to 14 provinces by implementing the comprehensive package of interventions aimed at ensuring adolescent health and wellbeing. As of October 2022, 14 out of 26 provinces had implemented the AllIn interventions (HIV prevention among adolescents) and 59 out of 258 health zones in these provinces (23 per cent) had integrated the all In initiative within their Adolescent and Youth interventions package. Child protection 1- Thanks to flexible funding, including from Sweden, and complementary funds mobilized throughout the year, UNICEF supported the government to scaleup the provision of birth registration services through a systematic interoperability between the civil registration and the health sectors. As a result, the total number of children registered significantly increased in comparison to 2021 reaching 1,418,184 children. UNICEF supported the operationalization of 392 Civil Registration Offices across the country and 3,530 health facilities were connected to civil registration authorities. UNICEF also successfully advocated for the integration of birth registration into the DHIS2. Birth registration data is used as a key target for immunization inclusiveness and planning. In addition to promoting the interoperability between the civil registration and the health sector, UNICEF developed a new birth registration national scaleup strategy that led to significant advancement towards greater integration between the sectors of civil registration, education, and social protection to identify unregistered children and provide them with birth certificates. 2- With regards to promoting access to justice for children, the use of punitive and overly custodial approaches by magistrates is a major challenge for juvenile justice in the DRC. As a response, UNICEF has been supporting the government to establish children's courts operating in conformity with the national legislation. In 2022, 10 out of 24 courts were operational (50 per cent compared to 2021). As a result, close to 41,000 children were provided with quality child sensitive justice services (46 per cent compared to 2021). 3- Seizing on the political commitment expressed by the President of the DRC concerning the issue of child marriage in 2022, UNICEF supported the revision of the national action plan to eliminate child marriage and the participation of the DRC government through the Ministry of Gender, Family and Children at the child marriage side-event held during the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 77) leading to the signature of the United Nations joint declaration on the commitment to end child marriage. In 2022, thanks to the UNICEF support, 5,000 girls and young women received child marriage prevention and care services, as opposed to a dozen in 2021. 4- In conflict affected areas, UNICEF supported 4,790 children released from armed groups with Identification, Documentation, Family Tracking and Reunification (IDTR), Temporary Care and assistance as needed (medical care, psychosocial support), recreational activities, remedial classes to prepare for school reintegration and vocational training facilitating their socioeconomic reintegration. UNICEF also supported the revision of the DRCs Operational Framework for child Disarmament), Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) to reinforce the centrality of the principle of the best interest of the child as a guiding principle in child DDR processes. The impact of conflict and displacement on family separation continued to be alarming. In 2022, UNICEF assisted 5,102 unaccompanied and separated children, with a visible increase in comparison to 2021 (2,906). Unaccompanied minors benefitted from alternative care until they were reunified with their families, individualized psychosocial support and family tracing activities. 5- UNICEF also scaled up its Gender based Violence in Emergencies prevention and response programme through the provision of assistance to 8,657 survivors of sexual violence. This represented a 130 per cent increase in the number of women and girls supported by UNICEF with access to comprehensive multisectoral care (medical, psychosocial, legal counseling, socio economic reintegration) compared to 2021. Furthermore, more than 179,134 vulnerable children (49 per cent girls) were supported to improve their emotional psychophysical development and resilience, through the provision of mental health and psychosocial interventions in Child Friendly Spaces. Social Inclusion and Resilience 1- In 2022, UNICEF supported the DRC government in the design of a child and shock responsive social protection system. The support included several studies and social assistance tools, including the finalization of the first social registry in the DRC as well as of the Management Information System which will ensure the management of the social register and the cash programmes. Thanks to the support to the DRC Public Finance 4 Children agenda, the national budget lines allocated to social sectors, mainly education and health, were increased. Notably, in 2022, the social sectors represented 29.8 per cent of the total budget (including 16.7 per cent for education, 10.3 per cent for health and 2.7 per cent for social protection). 2- At the programmatic level, UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) jointly implemented a cash project to mitigate the impact of COVID19?in the convergence zone of Nsele (Kinshasa), initially benefitting to 25,000 households who received cash for three months, then reduced to?16,000 vulnerable households for an additional?six months. Positive results were reported by beneficiaries, including an improved food security, increased income and living conditions and improved access to public services. In the same zone of Nsele communities, and especially mothers and children, benefitted from an improved availability and accessibility to quality essential services (women empowerment, promotion of optimal nutrition practices for children, birth registration and care for gender based violence survivors), with a strengthened engagement of community based platforms. 3- While contributing to strengthen child and shock responsive social protection systems, UNICEF scaled up its Nexus programming to support and strengthen people's resilience to crises. In North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, UNICEF continued to jointly implement with the WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) a project aimed at strengthening socioeconomic resilience of smallholder farmers and vulnerable populations to support peace and stabilization. While working on a longer term than emergency projects, the project links humanitarian and development assistance by ensuring that beneficiaries can meet their immediate needs as well as strengthening their capacities and assets to build resilient livelihoods. As part of this project, UNICEF contributed to improve family health promoting an increased access to basic social services for households and communities. To improve the nutritional status of children under 5, prevent malnutrition in all its forms and contribute to reducing child mortality linked to undernutrition, UNICEF and WFP started the implementation of a nutrition project in Tanganyika province, putting communitybased platforms at the center in the fight against malnutrition. In the same province, UNICEF supported the establishment of a Nexus Provincial Coordination Committee, of its technical secretariat, and of four nexus outcome groups. UNICEF is the vicechair of the Coordination Committee, a member of the technical secretariat and coleads the group on access to basic social services. In addition, since 2021, UNICEF, WFP and FAO have been working together in Kabalo and Nyunzu to boost community resilience through programmes aimed at improving access to basic social services, such as education, nutrition, health, water, sanitation and hygiene. These programmes complement those implemented by WFP and FAO on food security and agriculture. To contribute to rebuild trust between Twa and Bantu communities in Nyunzu, in 2022 a dialogue was supported between the two communities and relevant stakeholders to achieve coherent leadership and commitment to social cohesion.
The objectives of this intervention are to support the UNICEF 2020-2024 Country Program Document (CPD) and ultimately the delivery of the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-2025. The goal of the CPD is for children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially in the most deprived provinces and humanitarian settings, to have equitable, quality and sustainable access to basic social services. The Unicef Strategic Plan 2022-2025 highlights 5 result areas of which the CPD aligns to: - Every child, including adolescents, survives and thrives, with access to nutritious diets, quality primary health care, nurturing practices and essential supplies - Every child, including adolescents, learns and acquires skills for the future - Every child, including adolescents, is protected from violence, exploitation, abuse, neglect and harmful practices - Every child, including adolescents, has access to safe and equitable water, sanitation and hygiene services, and lives in a safe and sustainable climate and environment - Every child has an equitable chance in life At the end of the Country Programme, Unicef is expected to have contributed to addressing some of the system-wide bottlenecks to social services in the DRC by investing in the following areas: Health The overall objective is to support government on health system strengthening in areas of maternal, adolescent and child health. This includes working on routine immunization, RMNCAH (including HIV prevention and treatment), integrated management of childhood illnesses, epidemic surveillance, preparedness and response, as well as to support positive health policy development centrally and provincial level. Child Protection This intervention will contribute to promote governance for child protection and strengthening protective environment from all forms of violence in the country. The child protection work is based on promoting access to basic social services but with fair judicial protection from birth. Unicef has since 2013 worked on the reintegration of children associated with armed forces and groups, but also on the issue of civil/birth registration of children. Other areas include advocating and working towards scaling up childrens courts and alternatives to detention, working on SGBV and child marriage. Nutrition UNICEF nutrition program supports the new national nutrition program and focuses on capacity building of community and health systems to scale up multisectoral nutrition interventions such as SAM treatment, community surveillance for early detection of SAM cases, working on social norms on food and feeding practices, provide joint WASH and nutrition interventions, among others. WASH UNICEF has a well established WASH programme that works with government to improve water safety and sanitation in rural and urban areas. The program aims to increase knowledge, increase uptake of WASH services, build on their preparedness and capacity to respond to waterborne diseases, provide WASH in health facilities, while continuing to advocate for political commitment and multi-sectoral coordination of WASH. Lastly the Program will undertake an energy and climate analysis, with pilot interventions selected areas affected by climate change. Education UNICEF education program is building institutional capacity to improve the Education Management Information System. At policy level they are supporting Government on the implementation of the pre-primary education policy and advocating for school fee abolishment. Several social issues are also included in their education program such as interventions focusing on early child marriage (linked to their child protection work), reaching out of school children with education, addressing GBV and promote good hygiene practices. Social inclusion and Resilience This intervention primarily focuses on enabling access to child-sensitive and shock responsive social protection for the most deprived children and adolescents. The social inclusion and resilience program works in collaboration with several actors such as UNDP, WFP and IOM to address socio-economic vulnerabilities. The program is also well aligned with the Humanitarian Response Plan. Besides the result areas of WASH and Education, the CPD is very much in line with the priorities outlined in the Swedish Development Cooperation Strategy for DRC 2021-2025, particularly related to result areas 2 - Health equity and 3 Peaceful and inclusive societies.
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