including Pakistan
Regional Office 2016 Requirements: US$5,700,000
In 2015, South Asia experienced a series of devastating earthquakes. On 25 April and 12 May, two major earthquakes measuring 7.8 and 7.5 on the Richter scale, respectively, struck northern Nepal. The earthquakes caused massive destruction in 14 of Nepal’s 75 districts and seriously affected 2.8 million people, including 1.1 million children. Nearly 9,000 people lost their lives and 22,400 were injured. 1 On 26 October 2015, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake centred in the Hindu Kush mountains left 103,093 people in need of humanitarian assistance2 in Afghanistan and 195,798 people displaced3 in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Ongoing conflict in Afghanistan has further complicated the humanitarian response to the earthquake. In Nepal, since September 2015, vital imports of essential commodities have been severely restricted at the southern border due to unrest over the country's new constitution. As winter approaches, this is further exacerbating the humanitarian needs of children and women in earthquake-affected areas. In Pakistan, the protracted crisis in KP and FATA has affected 1,618,638 people, including 809,219 children. Recurring flooding caused by seasonal monsoons, the most frequent disaster in the region, affected Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2015, prompting UNICEF to provide support.
Regional humanitarian strategy
As a part of its four-year regional plan for the period 2014–2017, the Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA) will continue to provide technical assistance to eight country offices in South Asia. This assistance will support national capacity development for risk and conflict analysis, disaster risk reduction and resilience-building strategies, with particular attention on most vulnerable groups. ROSA will provide technical support in line with the Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action, especially in the areas of nutrition, health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education and child protection. The Regional Office will also provide leadership and technical capacity for any emergency in the region designated as Level 2 by the Executive Director. ROSA will support country office skills development in the areas of partnership management in emergencies, emergency preparedness capacity-building and staff security, with a specific emphasis on strengthening the sub-national capacity of partners. ROSA will also promote peer-exchanges and cross-country learning with staff and partners. Key lessons on emergency preparedness in South Asia will be documented and findings will be shared. The Regional Office will expand its recent partnership with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Environment and Disaster Management Centre on child-centred disaster risk reduction, including child-centred risk assessment methodologies and comprehensive school safety. Given that South Asia is one of the most dangerous regions in the world for aid workers, 5 ROSA will also maintain technical capacity to support the mitigation and management of risks to UNICEF staff and assets. This expertise will also be available to the East Asia and the Pacific region, as needed. The overall approach is to create synergies across regional office functions, notably emergency, planning, programme sectors, operations, communication and evaluation, so as to maximize a comprehensive package of technical guidance and support to UNICEF country offices and partners.
Results in 2015
By the end of 2015, ROSA had mobilized US$1.8 million for its humanitarian support activities. This included US$920,000 of new funding received under the appeal’s global support umbrella, US$700,000 in funds carried forward from 2014, and US$154,000 in core budget allocation. Only US$16,000 was received specifically against the US$2.7 million appeal. In response to the severe humanitarian impact of the earthquake that struck Nepal in April, ROSA provided coordination and technical support to the Nepal Country Office, including for staff surge, resource mobilization, humanitarian planning, reporting and evaluation. The Regional Office also strengthened its work on disaster risk reduction, notably through its strategic partnership with SAARC, which in 2015 involved three capacity building workshops for government officials in India and Nepal. This effort culminated in the SAARC-ROSA High Level Policy Dialogue on Children and Disaster Risk Reduction in Kathmandu in September and the subsequent adoption by SAARC Member States of the South Asia Regional Policy Framework for Child-Centred Disaster Risk Reduction. The Framework provides the eight Member States with guidance on a coherent approach to anticipating and addressing disaster risk concerns (rapid and slow onset). The Framework also led to the signing of a joint country-level work plan between the Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority and UNICEF to scale up child-centred disaster risk reduction. Technical support and training on emergency preparedness and response were provided to UNICEF country offices in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Finally, ROSA supported the development of a Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey postemergency module to generate data on the impact of conflict and natural hazards on households and to demonstrate the correlation between the effects of emergencies and the well-being of women and children. Cognitive testing was carried out in Nepal and field-testing was initiated in Pakistan.