Humanitarian Action for Children 2021
In addition, there is a risk of annual measles outbreaks due to low immunization coverage. Only 69 per cent of
children aged 12-23 months received measles vaccine before their first birthday 28. In 2021, South Sudan
recorded measles outbreaks in eight counties-Tonj East, Magwi, Bor, Kapoeta East, Tonj South, Wau and
Pibor. This was against the background of flooding and insecurity, which limited access to basic health care
including vaccination services, increasing the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks.
UNICEF continued its efforts to deliver high-quality and community child health services through the scaling-up
of Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness (IMNCI) and the roll out of the Boma Health
Initiative (BHI) in 170 bomas (the lowest level of administration each with several villages), through a network
of 1,743 Boma Health Workers.
The BHI contributed to the reduction in morbidity and mortality through increased access to quality health care
interventions and community-based surveillance and allowed UNICEF to reach pregnant women and
populations affected by floods or internal displacement with LLINs to protect against malaria. In total, 1,001,507
pregnant women and children received LLINs, more than threefold the target of 300,000.
UNICEF supported a measles mass vaccination campaign reaching 483,550 high risk children (246,562 girls)
aged between 6 months and 15 years in the affected eight counties, exceeding the 450,000 target. Fixed and
outreach-based case detection for malaria and increased support for measles vaccination programmes
including stockpiling measles vaccines through dry stock prepositioning supported exceeding the planned
targets.
The worsening of the humanitarian situation in 2021 due to multiple shocks led to intense mobilization of health
funding, and integration of responses with nutrition in humanitarian settlements. Huge investments in capacity
development and the use of integrated health service delivery channels such as community health structures
were key to improving the reach of emergency response interventions. This provided continued access to hard-
to-reach settlements and mitigated the effects of the limited access occasioned by flooding and insecurity.
Table 3: Key indicators table for health
Indicators
Cluster/sector
2021 Target
Cluster/sector
total results
UNICEF
2021
Target
UNICEF
Total
results
N/A
450,000
483,550
N/A
N/A
300,000
1,001,507
Children aged 6 months to 15 years
N/A
vaccinated against measles
Children and pregnant women
provided with insecticide-treated
nets in malaria endemic areas
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
UNICEF continued to lead WASH emergency coordination as the WASH Cluster lead agency and co-manager
of WASH core pipeline supplies for emergency humanitarian preparedness and response. SOPs for the WASH
core pipeline were developed to support non-governmental organization (NGO) partners in clarifying processes.
Pre-positioning of supplies remains a critical activity due to continued access constraints, particularly during the
rainy season. There were no breakages in the pipeline during 2021. In 2021, UNICEF prepositioned and
distributed life-saving hygiene, sanitation, water treatment, and water point repair materials reaching 750,633
emergency-affected people.
UNICEF reached 77,199 individuals with access to safe sanitation (25% of the target) through provision of
temporary emergency latrines for displaced populations and through continued desludging and maintenance
services for communal latrines in the former Protection of Civilians (POC) sites, which have been re-designated
into conventional internally displaced persons (IDP) camps under Government administration.
28 2021 Routine immunization administrative data from the Ministry of Health
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