Armenian National Institute
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December 14, 2023
UNICEF had invested in preparedness to respond to a humanitarian crisis. UNICEF had pre-positioned supplies4 to reach 5,000 children and established contingency agreements with partners that have been activated to provide psychological first aid (PFA), MHPSS, child protection case management, clothing vouchers, mobile paediatric units and temporary learning spaces. UNICEF also invested in establishing a field presence in Goris, Syunik region, the main registration and transit point for arriving populations. UNICEF was able to leverage these investments to quickly mobilize emergency capacity within the first hours of the crisis. Furthermore, UNICEF’s earlier investments in establishing child friendly spaces, learning spaces and youth centres and to ensure they are sustained through local authorities’ resources has paid off. These structures are gradually expending their scope of services to include refugee children and adolescents. At the same time, UNICEF’s efforts within the Armenia-UNICEF Country Programme to strengthen national systems, including their shock-responsiveness is also yielding results. Following the rapid needs assessment conducted by the UN, the in-depth multi-sectoral needs assessment will be conducted as a joint effort with the Government and is led by MLSA and UNICEF based on the tools and capacities built as part of the long-standing partnership between the two organizations in strengthening the shock-responsiveness of the social protection system.
Health and Nutrition: UNICEF reached 4,500 young refugee children with food packages. Each package contains 14 food items assembled for one child for one month. In coordination with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and regional health authorities UNICEF deployed 20 mobile paediatric units in five regions. So far, 4,602 children have been reached by teams that include two paediatricians, one nurse and one psychologist. As a result of the consolidated partnership with the MoH and regional health authorities, these teams have been connected from the beginning to the national health system, which has allowed smooth referrals. Over 500 child patients have been referred to secondary or tertiary health services as per needs, including psycho-social support. The teams also provide parents with age-specific counselling on health and nutrition-related childcare practices. UNICEF supported the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for mobile teams and frontline health specialists to provide quality primary health care services, including outreach. UNICEF is partnering with the MoH in monitoring the immunization status of refugee children and their rapid inclusion into the national Expanded Programme on Immunization programme. UNICEF delivered critical medicines and medical supplies to the MoH for distribution to health facilities.
Child Protection: The network of child friendly spaces (CFS) continues to expand its scope of services to increasingly include refugee children and adolescents newly arrived in the country. To date, 4,128 children and caregivers accessed safe spaces, support and protection hubs. 7,025 children, adolescents and caregivers received mental health and psychosocial support and 1,951 children received individual case management in and outside the CFSs. UNICEF continues to organize and provide training and capacity development for social workforce and other professionals, expanding the overstretched capacity of the system. The capacities of 301 frontline social service workforce professionals were enhanced on PFA, psychosocial support in emergencies, child sensitive communication and “do no harm” approaches. To date 30 unaccompanied/separated children have been identified. Over 50% of the UASC who fled to Armenia and were previously placed in residential care have been placed in family-type care within the first weeks of emergency as a result of Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs' (MLSA) efforts with continuous UNICEF support on strengthening the foster care system and community-based child protection services. Other children were placed in the state-run child and family support/crises centers. UNICEF in coordination with the MLSA and Organizations of People with Disabilities (OPD) is also working on identification of children with disabilities among refugees, to conduct a comprehensive assessment for identification of children’s needs and support with individualized services, assistive technology, as well as living space adjustments. UNICEF and partners enabled access of refugee children with disabilities to special equipment and assistive devices to contribute to their home adaptation and smooth inclusion in host communities. To date around 150 refugee children with disability and 35 parents received consultations. Out of them the needs of 100 refugee children were comprehensively assessed. 65 children continuously received need-based support and specialised services. Another 30 children with disabilities were provided with assistive devices. Around 30 specialists have been capacitated on effective means of providing specialised services to refugee children with disabilities and their families. 15 parents continuously received psycho-social support services and vocational training.
Education: UNICEF distributed school bags with stationary and other school supplies to 3,657 children. In coordination with the MESCS and local authorities, a joint mapping exercise of preschool facilities in areas of high concentration of refugees is ongoing, to identify priority communities where facilities and services need to be expanded to accommodate additional young children. UNICEF initiated a partnership to expand the overall capacity of early learning services. 20 preschool classrooms will be established and fully equipped in communities with high concentration of refugees. The new spaces will be able to serve 600 young children. Large-scale capacity building is being initiated for 320 educators of 60 kindergartens and alternative preschools in five regions. It will cover topics on Inclusive Pedagogy, Basic PFA and Psychosocial Support, Methodological Guidance on Using of Early Childhood Development (ECD) kits and Thematic Materials, Positive Parenting and disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness. Meanwhile around 80 young children are already attending UNICEF-supported early learning centres and kindergartens. For school-age children, the establishment/operation of 11 learning spaces is in process in collaboration with an NGO partner and will allow the expansion of capacity of schools to include around 800 refugee children. UNICEF prepositioned School-in-a-box kits to cater for the needs of at least 1,400 children and ECD kits sufficient for 1,800 young children, which will be distributed to additional locations where it is most needed
Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH): UNICEF delivered family hygiene kits to 410 refugee families and diapers for 1,670 babies in five regions. At the onset of the emergency, UNICEF in collaboration with an NGO partner installed 15 mobile bio-toilets in proximity of registration centres in Goris and Vayk communities, to address the immediate needs for sanitation in those areas and in response to a public health hazard alarm raised by the MoH. These bio-toilets have now been removed given the completion of the acute phase of displacement. It is estimated that they served over 10,000 people.
Cash Assistance and Social Protection: UNICEF provided ad hoc in-kind support to complement the efforts of local authorities, including 1,029 blankets and bedding items for children and families, 20 folding beds, 1,052 large and small carrier bags for mothers in three regions. UNICEF is in the final stages of preparation to provide voucher support for clothing for children and multipurpose pharmacy cards for pregnant and lactating women with plans to initially target at least 14,000 children (0-8 years old, including children with disabilities) and 2,500 pregnant and lactating women. 95% of refugee children who fled to Armenia in September received cash-support from the Government within the first 5 weeks of emergency, as a result of efforts of MLSA with continuous UNICEF’s advocacy and support over the last few years on strengthening the shock-responsiveness of the social protection system, including through inter-agency cash coordination efforts. Other cash support schemes are underway. Within this consolidated partnership, UNICEF continues to support MLSA in facilitating the process of an in-depth emergency needs assessment of refugee children and families to inform mid and long-term planning to meet their social needs. The Terms of Reference and assessment tools, as well as contracting arrangements for an implementing partner have been finalized, the tool is in final stages of digitalization, fieldwork will commence next week. UNICEF, in coordination with MLSA, simplified and revised the package of templates for providing cash and voucher assistance, including through Government-led programmes. The revised package includes a generic Agreement between the Ministry and partners, a more detailed contract between the implementing partner, Unified Social Service and the Bank of choice and the data sharing protocol, agreed by UNICEF and UNHCR with relevant authorities.
Accountability to affected populations: UNICEF’s approach to accountability to affected populations for this emergency response focuses on three areas: (i) Complaints and Feedback Mechanisms (CFMs), (ii) Information sharing and (iii) Participation. Several CFMs have been established in collaboration with partners to regularly collect feedback and inform adjustments to the response. Particularly, feedback and complaint forms were developed leading to the InForm platform and are being used to collect feedback on supply distribution, cash assistance and service provision in all types of UNICEF-supported spaces. To date over 34,000 people were reached through messaging on prevention and access to services and about 4,500 people shared their concerns and asked questions through established feedback mechanisms.
The Government of Armenia has taken the lead in providing humanitarian assistance to the affected population and remains in charge of the overall coordination of the response as well as technical coordination with the relevant Government institutions related to key sectors of intervention. A joint rapid needs assessment of the UN and MLSA was conducted and the findings were disseminated. The UN agencies under the leadership of UNHCR and the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s office (UNRCO) developed and launched the Armenia Emergency Refugee Response Plan (RRP), based on the existing joint interagency contingency plan, covering the period October 2023 to March 2024. UNICEF launched its corresponding humanitarian action for children (HAC) appeal, requiring US$ 12,630,000 for the response to the needs of refugee children and their families for the next six months (October 2023 – March 2024).
On 17 October, the Government under the auspices of the Deputy Prime Minister and the UN, adopted a joint coordination structure that draws upon the respective mandates and capacity of Government agencies and UN agencies. UNICEF co-leads the work of the Education Working Group (WG) together with the MESCS, the sub-working group on Child Protection, including MHPSS together with the MLSA, and the crosscutting Cash WG together with the MLSA. UNICEF is actively participating in the Protection WG and Health and Nutrition WG, which are also dealing with MHPSS, and Shelter and NFIs WG, which at present also includes coordination of WASH activities.
Given the limited humanitarian funding inflow to support Armenia, joint efforts of the Government and the UN are ongoing to mobilize donors and the international community at large. Two RRP donor coordination meetings were held on 16 and 21 November.
For more information: www.unicef.org/media/150271/file/Armenia-Humanitarian-SitRep-14-December-2023.pdf