2024 Severity of Needs, People in Need and Targeted
SUMMARY OF NEEDS
Escalating conflict, insecurity, pre-existing crises and deep-rooted child protection concerns have severely impacted children and their families, with potentially long-lasting harmful effects. Protracted displacement, loss of assets, physical and psychological trauma, fractured societal structures and chronic issues negatively impact children, families as well as child protection organizations and their ability to deliver assistance.
Joint assessments in multiple regions highlight pressing child protection needs, family separation, GBV, child exploitation and abuse, including child recruitment, which are among the many risks identified. Boys and girls face long-term, damaging consequences from conflict-related risks, including emotional trauma, nightmares, and psychological distress due to loss and upheaval. Many children are separated or unaccompanied, due to various factors like parental deaths, disappearances, and abductions. The destruction of essential infrastructure, including schools and health facilities, attacks on service points, such as child-friendly spaces and schools, and limited child protection resources further hinder children's access to critical services.
Over 3,150 child rights violations and at least 64 child protection concerns have been reported by credible sources since mid-April. Sexual violence against women and girls is on the rise, with 165 reported cases. Casualties among children have markedly increased during the past six months, with nearly 75 per cent of verified reports of violations involving killing and maiming of children, followed by child recruitment and sexual violence against children. Explosive ordnance (EO) presents an imminent threat to children, resulting in numerous reported fatalities and grave injuries.
RESPONSE STRATEGY
The Child Protection Area of Responsibility targets 3.0 million people (59 percent girls) out of an estimated 6.2 million people in need of assistance (51 per cent girls), with a funding requirement of $81.8 million. The CP AoR will be guided by the following objectives:
- Acutely vulnerable children and their caregivers’ needs are addressed through specialized child protection interventions, including multi-cluster case management services.
- Child protection risk factors are addressed, and protective factors that bolster the well-being of children, families, and communities are promoted through primary and secondary prevention approaches.
- Improved well-being and protective environment of girls and boys through the provision of psychosocial support, life skills, parenting skills, and advocacy, in addition to mobilization of communities and duty-bearers.
The priorities for improving child protection services are threefold. First, enhancing community-based child protection through community structures and psychosocial first aid. Second, expanding and enhancing specialized services for the most vulnerable children who have experienced violence, exploitation, or abuse. Third, reinforcing preventive programs for vulnerable children at risk of significant harm. Cluster members will invest in these priorities in a protective and inclusive environment to achieve cluster goals. Strengthening the child protection workforce, generating evidence on child protection issues to inform programming and advocacy, and promoting the use of global standards are some of the key strategies to support these three priorities.
Capacity-building strategies delivered through face-to-face training in accessible areas and remote approaches to reach local partners in hard-to-reach locations while local government and civil society engagement in child protection coordination will enhance localization and access to funding.
TARGETING & PRIORITIZATION
Based on the 2023 response monitoring data and through careful consultation with sub-national coordinators, the CP AoR considered access constraints and partners’ capacity when developing its targeting and prioritization. Priorities were given to localities with cluster severity three and above as well as hard-to-reach areas with severity five and overlapping inter-cluster severity levels four and five. The CP AoR will require an additional $20 million to target people with critical needs in hard-to-reach areas with high severity where IHL violations, including grave child rights violations, are reported, should access to such areas improve.
PROMOTING QUALITY & INCLUSIVE PROGRAMMING
The CP AoR will engage organizations representing persons with disabilities to establish systematic and mutuallyreinforcing collaboration to reach other marginalized groups. It will also enhance child-friendly spaces and multi-purpose centres for children with disabilities to ensure accessibility through assessments and design solutions aligned with national standards.
A community-based approach will be maintained and adapted to emerging needs through various strategies, including coherent information management, sub-national coordination, localization strategy and inter-agency collaboration .The CP AoR will strengthen local partnerships with organizations, structures (e.g., youth/adolescent groups, women-led organisations, etc), government entities (including the State Council of Child Welfare and law enforcement actors), and social workers to expand the reach of child protection services. Collaboration with the GBV AoR will prioritize specialized services for child and adolescent survivors of GBV. Community-based child protection networks (CBCPNs) across states will be supported, including in hard-to-reach areas, to raise awareness, identify high-risk cases, and facilitate referrals to needed services, while information on referral pathways will be updated. Coordination will be enhanced to promote predictability, accountability, and collaboration among different actors (including PSEA and AAP Task Forces). The CP AoR will support partners in gathering evidence data with detailed disaggregation (by sex, age and disability) for informed decision-making.
COST OF THE RESPONSE
The CP AoR requires US$81 million to reach the 3.0 million people targeted. The AoR will prioritize improving the quality of community-based child protection through support to community structures and the quality of child protection specialised services for children most at-risk and survivors of violence, exploitation and abuse.
References
- The joint and interagency assessments were carried out in different parts of the country, such as central Darfur, including Zalingei city; East Darfur (over 13 locations); North Darfur (in 7 areas of IDP camps); and Nyala town in South Darfur. Hot spot areas like Northern State (in Wadi Halfa locality and its surroundings); Khartoum South and East; and West Darfur including Geneina, Kulbus, Jebel Moon, and other localities.
- Around 50 per cent of reported grave child rights violations were verified in 2023 (Jan to Sep) as per MRM verification standards.
- 102 women and 63 girls aged 11 to 17 years old.