Humanitarian Action for Children 2021
UNICEF was also able to train 2,092 PTA members (837 women) on school governance and management
skills, including implementation of school development plans. Using the thematic funds, UNICEF provided 585
teachers with education kits, and also provided children with 176 ECD kits, 350 recreational kits, 4,396 dignity
kits, and 917 student kits.
Assessment, monitoring and evaluation
Evidence generation
UNICEF South Sudan led global knowledge management efforts on scaling nutrition in complex emergencies
through publication of a UNICEF field note and two peer reviewed articles to share experience and lessons
learned on scaling up care for children with SAM through integrated community-based management of severe
wasting programmes. In addition, in 2021, the Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring system (FSMNS)
expanded for the first time to include other sectors such as education, child protection and shelter modules.
South Sudan was one of the pilot countries for a new global inter-agency WASH Severity Classification exercise,
to help define priority emergency needs and target areas for sustainable development services. Considering
the continued declines in humanitarian funding against the considerable needs in the country, evidence-based
prioritization of resources will be critical in future years.
To support social service workforce strengthening to prevent and address violence against children a Social
Service Workforce mapping and assessment was initiated to inform the strategy to enhance Government
capacity to provide more sustainable child protection preventive and responsive services with more and better
skilled social workers.
UNICEF provided leadership in the education cluster and supported the nationwide education needs
assessment (ENA) across 442 schools to provide an in-depth understanding of the current education situation
in South Sudan. The ENA offered a situational analysis of the functioning of South Sudan's education system,
particularly given the impact of over seven years of conflict and displacement, as well as the COVID-19
pandemic and subsequent interruption of education in South Sudan. The findings from the 2021 ENA
underscored that most of the education challenges that have been highlighted in previous assessments persist
and have been exacerbated by COVID-19 school closures. Many of the challenges noted by county education
officials, headteachers, learners, and community members revolve around lack of finances for both the supply
and demand side of education (such as families not being able to afford fees for their children to attend schools,
or teachers not receiving regular and sufficient salaries).
Economic barriers to education may make alternative options (such as cattle rearing for boys and
marriage/pregnancy for girls) more attractive to families who are looking to mitigate their economic challenges,
which keep children from returning to schooling. Other issues highlighted by various stakeholder groups, include
poor infrastructure in schools, including lack of washrooms for girls, lack of food, inaccessibility for children with
disabilities, and the ever-growing need for trained teachers. It is worth noting that the advocacy for school grants
attests to the increased capacity of PTAs to plan, prioritize and allocate resources for improvements in education
service delivery.
In 2021 UNICEF co-chaired the UN Country Team (UNCT) M&E Working Group and contributed to the
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Data Landscaping Exercise which was completed in May 2021. The
exercise aimed to map the country's data landscape to identify what is available, gaps, weaknesses and
opportunities; and identify priority areas for potential investment to improve the availability of data for planning
and monitoring the SDGs.
A new Situation Analysis of Children and Women in South Sudan 2018-2021 was launched in July 2021 to
support development of the new country programme. The report highlights the patterns of deprivation that
children face in South Sudan, particularly those children most at risk of being left behind. Multiple stakeholders
were engaged in development of the Situation Analysis including children, Government, UN partners, civil
society and media.
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