In Bentiu, Internews’ Humanitarian Information Service (HIS) implements a communicating with communities (CwC) program to increase information sharing. The program operates Kondial 97.2 FM, a humanitarian radio station inside the Bentiu PoC, conducting listening groups to gather community feedback. If you have information to be shared with the PoC or humanitarians, please contact: Humanitarian Project Manager Akiiki Tusiime (atusiime@internews.org) or Team Leader Pout Tuor (ptuor@internews.org).

What We Heard This Week – Feedback from the Community

Blankets to cover the cold requested

With the cold season setting in, a listening group with lactating mothers is requesting for blankets. They said the items distributed about two years ago were only for the disabled and most vulnerable members. They are seeking help from humanitarian agencies.
Women in Sector 4, Block11 in Bentiu PoC

Light Up the Nights, Please!

Bentiu PoC Community leaders are concerned about the lack of street lighting in some blocks which poses protection and security challenges. Many of the community leaders reported that insecurity and SGBV are abetted by the cover of darkness. They are requesting protection partners to install lights in all the dark spots.
Adults and youths in Sector1-5 in Bentiu PoC

Family household in need of solar lamps

Lactating mothers in Sector 4 Block 6 and 2 said that they lack family-size solar lamps to use when breast-feeding and cleaning babies at night. They are requesting health and protection partners to provide them with solar lamps.
Women listening group in Sector 4 Block 6 and 2, PoC

Fire Season Coming!

The rainy season is ending. Residents in all sectors of the Bentiu PoC are concerned about fire incidents that occur during the dry season. They say they lack experience to prevent or control fires. They are asking agencies to help raise their awareness in firefighting and prevention.
Adult & Youths in Sector1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 Bentiu PoC

Support Girl Education!

A listening group with young girls from all Sectors in the Bentiu PoC said that some of their parents don’t allow them to attend classes. They said they are kept busy with domestic chores and are forced into early marriages. They are asking agencies to organize trainings for parents on the importance of the girl-child education.
Children & youths in Sector 1-5, Bentiu PoC

Milk for Vulnerable Children!

Disabled and most vulnerable members of communities in all Bentiu PoC Sectors have decried the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities. Women with disabilities said that their children are susceptible to malnutrition because they can’t afford milk. They are seeking support to set up small businesses.
Adults & youths in Sector1-5 Bentiu PoC

Water shortage

Sector 4 Block 9 residents say they have water shortages.
A woman said that their water flows for only 2 hours a day and it’s not enough for all households. They are requesting WASH partners to increase the hours from 2 to 4 per day.
Adults, youth & children in Sector 4 Block 9 PoC

This month’s update highlights children and armed conflict concerns and provides recommendations for the protection of children in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Yemen. It also provides an update on the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict’s upcoming conclusion negotiations on the Secretary-General’s report on the situation of children and armed conflict in South Sudan, as well as the Secretary-General’s update report on the situation of children and armed conflict in Myanmar.

by Gideon Sackitey

“Someone may give you money; but it is the person who gives you skills that makes you.”

Deng Maker Deng, a 23-year-old student in Bor, goes all philosophical as he ponders his good fortunes. He is well placed to do so, as he has experienced at least two major ones.

In 2001, Deng Maker narrowly escaped death. His older brother, who was with him on the devastating day when a landmine exploded, did not.

“It blew up my brother. I was lucky, as I only had some cuts on my arm and forehead,” he says as he points out his remaining bodily marks of the tragedy.

The scars may be there, but 17 years after the accident Deng Maker has, helped by his own persistence, been handed another significant slice of good luck. He and 33 other young men and women make up the eighth batch of graduates from the Hanbit Vocational Training Centre, run by the South Korean contingent of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. Deng Maker Deng can now call himself an electrical engineer.

Life has not always been as kind to Deng. In 2017, he unceremoniously dropped out of university during his second year of learning everything worth knowing about construction work. He had to, as his family could no longer afford to pay for his academic endeavours. Therefore, the opportunity to benefit from the trainings offered by the vocational centre emerged as a blessing.

“It is like life smiled on me again,” Deng Maker says, recalling the joy he experienced.

Elaborating on the importance of the moment, he explains his family situation and aspirations.

“Coming from a family of six; five boys and a girl, and being the oldest after the passing of my older brother, I had to find something to do that would bring income to enable me to support my ageing parents and my siblings. It [being admitted to the vocational training centre] was very important to me as it was a good way of giving me a skill that would make it possible for me to pursue my dream of providing for my family.”

Deng Maker Deng and his fellow graduates have been enjoying three months’ worth of training in areas including agriculture, carpentry, welding, English and electrical engineering.

“It is a great opportunity for South Sudanese youth to get enrolled in vocational training centres as it will give us the skills needed to support the development of our country. I hope more of my compatriots will get the same opportunity,” he says, casting a look at the crowd of parents, friends and families of students thronging the place to witness and congratulate Deng and his fortunate fellow students.

From Deng Maker’s point of view, capacity building is the ideal way to assist the youth in the country.

“Someone can give you money. You will spend it. But when someone gives you skills, that person helps you for life,” he says, adding that the peacekeeping mission is doing a good job.

His call for institutions to quickly employ the growing group of graduates was welcomed by Dr. Agot Alier, Deputy Governor of Jonglei. During the graduation ceremony, Mr. Alier committed himself to a discussion with the latest batch of successful student on how the public sector can make good use of their newly acquired skills.

This Weekly Bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 55 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key ongoing events, including:
- Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Cholera in Cameroon
- Dengue in Senegal
- Hepatitis E in Central African Republic.

For each of these events, a brief description, followed by public health measures implemented and an interpretation of the situation is provided.

A table is provided at the end of the bulletin with information on all new and ongoing public health events currently being monitored in the region, as well as events that have recently been closed.

Major issues and challenges include:

• The Ebola virus disease situation in North Kivu and Ituri provinces continues to be of serious concern with a persistent increase in the incidence of cases, especially in Beni and Butembo, and the occurrence of cases near security ‘red zones’. Security incidents and community resistance continue to severely impact the work of frontline and health workers, often resulting in the suspension of response activities and increasing the risk that the outbreak spreading to neighbouring provinces and countries.

• The dengue outbreak in Senegal has rapidly evolved, affecting several districts including Touba district in Diourbel region. The situation in Touba district is worsening; there has been a recent upsurge of confirmed cases and a new dengue serotype (DENV-3) has been identified. The occurrence of the Grand Magal celebration in Touba, which gathers over 3 million people, could increase the risk of spread of the DENV-3 serotype to other areas of the country.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Clashes in Addis Ababa, Jijiga town, and Kamashi Zone displace thousands of civilians

• USAID staff assess humanitarian conditions and coordination structures in Gedeo, identifying challenges

• USG provides more than $481.5 million for humanitarian interventions in Ethiopia in FY 2018

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

• Renewed intercommunal violence and clashes throughout Ethiopia in recent months have killed and displaced civilians, damaged public and commercial infrastructure, and disrupted the provision of basic services. While fighting has subsided in some areas, relief agencies continue to report fluid population movements. The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) and humanitarian organizations—including U.S. Government (USG) partners—are providing emergency multi-sector assistance in response to acute needs of newly displaced and other affected populations.

• In FY 2018, the USG contributed more than $481.5 million in funding for humanitarian response activities in Ethiopia. The total funding—comprising nearly $52.9 million from USAID/OFDA, more than $329.5 million from USAID/FFP, and approximately $99.1 million from State/PRM—is supporting emergency food assistance and multi-sector interventions for conflict-and drought-affected populations, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees from neighboring countries, and other vulnerable individuals.

By Tessa Coggio

Although the movement of asylum seekers and refugees to the industrialized world captures much attention, the reality is that 85 percent are hosted in developing countries—which are taking on a growing share of the world’s humanitarian burden.

Uganda, with an annual per capita income of U.S. $666, is home to more refugees than any other country in Africa and has the third-largest refugee population of any nation, after Turkey and Pakistan. More than 1 million of its estimated 1.5 million refugees have arrived within the past two years, with hundreds more arriving daily. With few resources to offer to so many displaced people, Uganda represents a case study for generous refugee-hosting policies in otherwise challenging conditions.

The refugee population in Uganda is a product of its tumultuous neighborhood—with civil war in South Sudan and ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) forcing the flight of hundreds of thousands in recent years. But it is also the result of policies that are often touted as some of the most generous in the world. Praised by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, the “Uganda model” permits refugees to work, cultivate land, and move around freely—rights rarely granted to that extent in other countries of first asylum, where the arrivals are typically viewed as competition for jobs and scarce resources. Refugees also have access to government-provided health care and primary education.

Still, Uganda’s refugee response is far from perfect, and many pressure points on the system risk giving way to deep fractures, as this article explores. Though the policy landscape itself is uncommonly generous, conditions for many refugees remain grim, marked by inadequate resources, poor water and sanitation conditions, and a shortage of food amid cuts to humanitarian nutrition programs and shortfalls in international donor support. The international community and other refugee-hosting countries are watching closely to see if Uganda’s unparalleled refugee-hosting model can hold itself together.

A History of Displacement

For many Ugandans, displacement is a painful memory of a recent past. The tyrannical rule of President Idi Amin from 1971 to 1979 left hundreds of thousands of people internally displaced or forced into exile. More recently, warlord Josef Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) wreaked havoc on northern Uganda in the early 2000s. By the peak of the conflict in 2005, an estimated 1.8 million people had been internally displaced. The Refugees Act, passed in 2006, acknowledges that these episodes of internal displacement informed and inspired current welcoming policies towards refugees. “Today, it is them, tomorrow, it could be any one of us,” Ugandan Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said in a message in June 2018 commemorating World Refugee Day.

A Spirit of Openness

Many Ugandans are deeply proud of their country’s unique stance toward refugees. “They are our brothers and sisters” is an oft-cited justification for why a country that has so little can still give so much.

Refugees as Economic Contributors

Beyond exhibiting a strong norm of solidarity towards its displaced neighbors, the Ugandan government argues that empowering refugees with the right to employment, enterprise, and free movement encourages economic interactions between them and their host communities. Settlements in even the most remote parts of northwest Uganda host vibrant markets where refugees can sell what they manage to grow on their small, government-provided plots of land. A 2016 study by the U.S. Agency for International Development found that the marginal benefit of providing land to refugee households results in an additional annual contribution to the local economy of up to $205. With access to sufficient start-up funds and supplies, they can also capitalize on valuable skills in nonagricultural activities. For instance, tailors from the DRC are highly sought after in Uganda thanks to their skilled use of kitenge, a traditional Congolese cloth.

In Kampala, Somalis have garnered a reputation for industriousness; despite lacking the humanitarian support provided in government-designated refugee settlements, these urban refugees have successfully opened and grown businesses in Uganda’s booming capital. The economic freedom Uganda affords refugees has rubbed off on traditionally more restrictive host nations in East Africa as well. The Kenyan government, long known for enforcing strict encampment policies that isolate refugees from local economies, opened Kalobeyei in 2015, an experimental settlement based on the Uganda model of creating self-reliance by fostering economic linkages between refugee and host-community households.

Support from Global Players

Uganda’s unique response to the massive arrivals of refugees has not gone unnoticed by the international community. Due to its already robust humanitarian response, Uganda was chosen as a pilot country to launch the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF). Enshrined in the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, the CRRF’s objectives are four-fold: (1) ease pressure on the host country, (2) enhance refugee self-reliance, (3) expand access to third-country solutions, and (4) support conditions in countries of origin.

To jump start the implementation of this ambitious framework and elicit international support, the Ugandan government and UNHCR hosted a Solidarity Summit on Refugees in June 2017. Though an impressive number of high-profile attendees flew in for the summit, expected funding for the framework did not follow. In total, the Solidarity Summit succeeded in raising $350 million of a requested $2 billion in pledges. Despite Europe’s call for contributions from nontraditional donors, China pledged just $500,000 and the largest private-sector contribution amounted to $1 million from an African telecommunications company. Meanwhile, the European Union and its Member States still accounted for a combined 82 percent of pledges. As of October 2018, this funding gap continues to threaten the sustainability of Uganda’s refugee-hosting model, with 58 percent of UNHCR’s 2018 hoped-for budget for Uganda remaining unfunded.

Pressures on the Uganda Model

Uganda requires more than moral support to sustain its refugee response. Despite GDP growth rates hovering around 6 percent annually in recent years, Uganda remains a strikingly poor nation, ranking 163rd out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index. The 2016 National Household Survey found that 60 percent of Uganda’s labor force is active in the informal sector and reported only a 40.7 percent labor force participation rate for youth. With birth rates around six births per woman, according to the World Bank, Uganda’s economy is struggling to grow and formalize fast enough to accommodate these demographic changes.

Much of Uganda’s chronic poverty is concentrated in its refugee-hosting districts in the north, where substandard infrastructure and low investment isolates these populations from industrial and economic growth elsewhere in the country (see Figure 2). In the north, where subsistence farming is widespread, unpredictable patterns of flooding and drought continuously challenge livelihoods dependent on a successful harvest.

To make matters more difficult, in places where resources are already stretched thin, friction between refugees and host-community nationals has emerged over land usage, access to employment and government services, and environmental degradation. For the time being, conflict levels have remained quite low considering the breadth of possible trigger points. A 2017 study conducted when daily refugee arrivals were at their peak found that 65 percent of host-community members and 64 percent of refugees perceived the host community as having a “generally positive” attitude toward the newcomers. Yet in districts where South Sudanese arrivals more than doubled the population in just two years, the refugees’ long-term presence risks wearing down host communities’ resources and initial support.

The sheer volume of new arrivals also strains government service delivery. In 2016, Uganda total expenditures on the refugee response amounted to the equivalent of 46 percent of the national education budget or 62 percent of government health expenditures. Desperate to accommodate nearly 1 million new refugees in 2016 and 2017, the Ugandan government began diluting its generous land allocation policy. Thanks to permanent government ownership over refugee plots, officials began reclaiming land allocated to long-established refugees. Accustomed to utilizing the land for subsistence farming and limited agricultural sales, these refugees were stripped of their means of securing food sources and generating income, without the reallocation process providing any alternatives.

Crafting a Sustainable Approach

With its resources overstretched, some of Uganda’s trademark welcoming policies are at risk of failing despite a number of initiatives and frameworks tasked with mitigating long-term challenges. A notable example is the government’s Settlement Transformative Agenda (STA), launched in 2016 to foster sustainable livelihoods for refugees and host communities alike. The most unique feature of the STA is its integration into Uganda’s broader development agenda, the second National Development Plan (NDP2). The plan incorporates Uganda’s ambition to become a middle-income country by 2040 and recognizes that refugees, who make up roughly 3 percent of the population, are essential contributors to this goal. Advocates are therefore hard at work to ensure that refugees feature even more prominently in NDP3, which is set to launch in 2020.

The Refugee and Host Population Empowerment framework (ReHoPE), drafted by the United Nations and World Bank, represents the greatest attempt by the international community to craft a more sustainable refugee-hosting strategy for Uganda. The ReHoPE approach seeks to transition from emergency measures to a development-minded refugee response that builds resilient and self-reliant communities by proactively incorporating host populations. Its trademark “30-70 Principle” dictates that 30 percent of all refugee interventions target host-community needs, with many humanitarian organizations, including UNHCR, aiming for a more equitable 50-50 split when resources allow. To ensure harmonization across a broad range of stakeholders, UNHCR and the Ugandan government coordinate the country’s refugee response through several interagency working groups organized into technical sectors such as “Energy and Environment” and “Livelihoods.”

The Humanitarian-Development Nexus

The STA, ReHoPE, and in a broader context the NDP all embody the global paradigm shift outlined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals to move from humanitarian emergency responses to long-term development. With human displacement becoming an increasingly protracted phenomenon, a successful humanitarian response hinges on properly equipping refugees to be self-reliant contributors to the economy on both a local and national level. This change is also motivated by circumstance; as arrivals to Uganda slow compared to the peak of the South Sudan crisis, humanitarian actors are actively shifting their focus from the pressing mandate of saving and protecting lives to fostering sustainable livelihoods.

This shift, however, poses new challenges. Months of in-kind aid provided for new refugees by the humanitarian community in the form of food, water, and health and hygiene supplies have degraded established markets in refugee-hosting districts. In Kyaka II, a refugee settlement founded in 1983, roughly 30,000 long-term inhabitants had grown accustomed to paying for utilities such as water. This changed in early 2018, when the camp began receiving up to 900 Congolese refugees per week. The population quickly ballooned to 55,000 and triggered an emergency response by humanitarian organizations. This included the distribution of free water, which inadvertently collapsed the local water market. The decision injected unpredictability into an already volatile system by raising questions over what will happen to Kyaka II’s market structure when the distribution of free water inevitably ceases.

In Palorinya, one of Uganda’s largest and most underserved settlements, South Sudanese refugees and their host-community neighbors face a significant obstacle to successfully managing their own livelihoods. The settlement’s three sprawling zones are situated more than 20 kilometers away from markets, vocational training centers, and hospitals; poor-quality roads make the journey all the more arduous to complete. The limited transportation options to reach the nearest town are offered at prohibitive prices, leaving countless would-be entrepreneurs, farmers, and students stranded in the settlement, their economic opportunities wasted.

Utilities and infrastructure are not the only structural challenges to humanitarian development in Uganda’s refugee settlements. Across all refugee-hosting districts, the distribution of seeds by the World Food Program (WFP)—intended to promote agricultural livelihoods in refugee settlements—has undercut prices for local distributors. Donated goods, such as sanitary products, are often diverted and sold at a fraction of the market price, thereby disincentivizing private companies from undertaking or continuing commercial engagements in these districts.

The Promise of Cash for Livelihoods

UN agencies and their implementing partners recognize the need to counter such market-based disruptions. As such, cash or voucher-based assistance, which accounts for 10 percent of humanitarian interventions worldwide, is becoming an increasingly attractive alternative to traditional in-kind aid in Uganda. Recognizing this change, a number of UN agencies and humanitarian organizations formed an interagency working group in 2018 dedicated specifically to coordinating cash-based interventions in Uganda’s refugee-hosting districts.

The results of a pilot program recently implemented in Kyaka II demonstrate the importance refugees place on being able to access livelihood inputs such as livestock, farming tools, or credit. As part of the pilot, refugees received a large one-time cash transfer equivalent to an average household’s annual WFP ration. The effects of this distribution were promising; after accounting for immediate needs such as food, clothing, and paying off debts, beneficiaries were able to invest about three-quarters of their grant on average into long-term livelihood inputs. This included purchasing supplies for their business or paying for education and vocational training. Long-established refugees who had lost their farming plots under land reallocation benefited greatly from the cash injection. Equipped with new capital to seek livelihood alternatives, the number of nonagricultural businesses skyrocketed by 128 percent in the settlement. Despite such encouraging results, large cash transfers still face considerable hurdles—not least of which is winning over international donors wary of multipurpose or unconditional cash grants. Furthermore, the sustainability of cash assistance will be limited when opportunities to invest in income-generating activities are lacking. Counteracting this will require the private sector to proactively invest in remote refugee-hosting districts to connect farmers and craftsmen to value chains as well as offer vocational training and employment.

Scandal and Setback

Moving innovative livelihood interventions beyond the pilot stage will require considerable funding, something that has been more difficult to secure since the February 2018 revelations of refugee fund misappropriation and fraud. Allegations that refugee numbers had been inflated and that funds raised during the 2017 Solidarity Summit were unaccounted for implicated both UNHCR and government officials. The scandal compelled some of Uganda’s largest donors, including the United States and the European Union, to threaten withdrawal of support and prompted UNHCR to replace its top country representative.

To combat corruption and settle discrepancies over refugee numbers, UNHCR rolled out a biometric verification program, which has recorded the fingerprints and iris scans of more than 1 million refugees since March 2018. The process leverages WFP’s food distribution system, to make the renewal of ration cards in settlements across Uganda contingent on registering into the biometric system.

Problems still abound, however, as a June 2018 progress report on the verification exercise revealed that one settlement hosting South Sudanese refugees had overestimated its numbers by a staggering 58 percent. While others have posted more modest overestimations of 10 percent or less, misinformation, whether intentional or accidental, could have harmful effects on Uganda’s fundraising capacities and disincentivize private-sector investment in refugee-hosting districts. Additionally, the scandal has practical, negative implications on humanitarian organizations that may be relying on misleading figures to plan future interventions.

The verification exercise remains ongoing; as of October 2018, 75 percent of the estimated refugees in Uganda had been verified. While the investigations of intentional fraud continue, a joint statement by the Ugandan government and UNHCR to donors and partner organizations contend that “the sheer speed and scale of the [South Sudanese] influx” made the situation at the border untenable, exposing natural flaws in the original registration system. Though both parties were “conscious that [refugee] figures might be problematic,” they stressed that “the priority at the time was to save lives.” The statement offers the free movement of refugees within Uganda and a limited number of undocumented returns to countries of origin as benign explanations for the misleading figures.

Europe’s Vested Interest

The Ugandan government and UNHCR are not alone in worrying about fallout from the scandal. The European Union is motivated to ensure that Uganda’s refugee-hosting model succeeds. If the livelihoods-based approach proves sustainable, the model could set a powerful precedent for successful intra-African migration. The EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), which combats root causes of migration such as poor governance and lack of economic opportunity, is making strides on the sustainability front. All 44 million euros earmarked for Uganda under the EUTF for 2016 to 2020 are committed to fostering greater economic and employment opportunities and strengthening refugee livelihoods.

Yet the EU commitment to helping Uganda successfully host its refugees is undermined by European migration-management priorities elsewhere on the continent. Politically strategic funding allocated to migrant-transit countries such as Niger, Mali, and Libya dwarf the contribution to Uganda, and EU leaders now have their eye key Arab League countries to partner with on migration management. A significant portion of the funds to these countries are dedicated to improving border management and governance.

The Road Ahead

The refugee situation in Uganda remains precarious. Political concerns over who will succeed 74-year-old President Yoweri Museveni following his 32-year reign foreshadow the possibility of political turmoil. Meanwhile, a panicked response to the most recent Ebola outbreak amongst displaced populations in eastern DRC could justify the closure of borders currently crossed by an estimated 5,000 individuals per day, including fishermen, traders, and refugees. Citing limited resources, parliamentarians in June pushed for legislation to restrict the number of refugees accepted into Uganda.

Can Uganda’s progressive refugee-hosting model withstand these pressures? The answer will hinge on a number of factors: the availability of robust livelihoods assistance for refugees and host communities, incentives for private-sector investment, long-term donor commitments to close fundraising gaps, and the enduring support of the Ugandan public, who continue to see refugees as an opportunity for growth. The $869 million requested for the 2018 Refugee Response Plan is more than a contribution to refugees; it is an investment in the overall development of Uganda.

Crafting a Sustainable Approach

With its resources overstretched, some of Uganda’s trademark welcoming policies are at risk of failing despite a number of initiatives and frameworks tasked with mitigating long-term challenges. A notable example is the government’s Settlement Transformative Agenda (STA), launched in 2016 to foster sustainable livelihoods for refugees and host communities alike. The most unique feature of the STA is its integration into Uganda’s broader development agenda, the second National Development Plan (NDP2). The plan incorporates Uganda’s ambition to become a middle-income country by 2040 and recognizes that refugees, who make up roughly 3 percent of the population, are essential contributors to this goal. Advocates are therefore hard at work to ensure that refugees feature even more prominently in NDP3, which is set to launch in 2020.

The Refugee and Host Population Empowerment framework (ReHoPE), drafted by the United Nations and World Bank, represents the greatest attempt by the international community to craft a more sustainable refugee-hosting strategy for Uganda. The ReHoPE approach seeks to transition from emergency measures to a development-minded refugee response that builds resilient and self-reliant communities by proactively incorporating host populations. Its trademark “30-70 Principle” dictates that 30 percent of all refugee interventions target host-community needs, with many humanitarian organizations, including UNHCR, aiming for a more equitable 50-50 split when resources allow. To ensure harmonization across a broad range of stakeholders, UNHCR and the Ugandan government coordinate the country’s refugee response through several interagency working groups organized into technical sectors such as “Energy and Environment” and “Livelihoods.”

The Humanitarian-Development Nexus

The STA, ReHoPE, and in a broader context the NDP all embody the global paradigm shift outlined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals to move from humanitarian emergency responses to long-term development. With human displacement becoming an increasingly protracted phenomenon, a successful humanitarian response hinges on properly equipping refugees to be self-reliant contributors to the economy on both a local and national level. This change is also motivated by circumstance; as arrivals to Uganda slow compared to the peak of the South Sudan crisis, humanitarian actors are actively shifting their focus from the pressing mandate of saving and protecting lives to fostering sustainable livelihoods.

This shift, however, poses new challenges. Months of in-kind aid provided for new refugees by the humanitarian community in the form of food, water, and health and hygiene supplies have degraded established markets in refugee-hosting districts. In Kyaka II, a refugee settlement founded in 1983, roughly 30,000 long-term inhabitants had grown accustomed to paying for utilities such as water. This changed in early 2018, when the camp began receiving up to 900 Congolese refugees per week. The population quickly ballooned to 55,000 and triggered an emergency response by humanitarian organizations. This included the distribution of free water, which inadvertently collapsed the local water market. The decision injected unpredictability into an already volatile system by raising questions over what will happen to Kyaka II’s market structure when the distribution of free water inevitably ceases.

In Palorinya, one of Uganda’s largest and most underserved settlements, South Sudanese refugees and their host-community neighbors face a significant obstacle to successfully managing their own livelihoods. The settlement’s three sprawling zones are situated more than 20 kilometers away from markets, vocational training centers, and hospitals; poor-quality roads make the journey all the more arduous to complete. The limited transportation options to reach the nearest town are offered at prohibitive prices, leaving countless would-be entrepreneurs, farmers, and students stranded in the settlement, their economic opportunities wasted.

Utilities and infrastructure are not the only structural challenges to humanitarian development in Uganda’s refugee settlements. Across all refugee-hosting districts, the distribution of seeds by the World Food Program (WFP)—intended to promote agricultural livelihoods in refugee settlements—has undercut prices for local distributors. Donated goods, such as sanitary products, are often diverted and sold at a fraction of the market price, thereby disincentivizing private companies from undertaking or continuing commercial engagements in these districts.

The Promise of Cash for Livelihoods

UN agencies and their implementing partners recognize the need to counter such market-based disruptions. As such, cash or voucher-based assistance, which accounts for 10 percent of humanitarian interventions worldwide, is becoming an increasingly attractive alternative to traditional in-kind aid in Uganda. Recognizing this change, a number of UN agencies and humanitarian organizations formed an interagency working group in 2018 dedicated specifically to coordinating cash-based interventions in Uganda’s refugee-hosting districts.

The results of a pilot program recently implemented in Kyaka II demonstrate the importance refugees place on being able to access livelihood inputs such as livestock, farming tools, or credit. As part of the pilot, refugees received a large one-time cash transfer equivalent to an average household’s annual WFP ration. The effects of this distribution were promising; after accounting for immediate needs such as food, clothing, and paying off debts, beneficiaries were able to invest about three-quarters of their grant on average into long-term livelihood inputs. This included purchasing supplies for their business or paying for education and vocational training. Long-established refugees who had lost their farming plots under land reallocation benefited greatly from the cash injection. Equipped with new capital to seek livelihood alternatives, the number of nonagricultural businesses skyrocketed by 128 percent in the settlement. Despite such encouraging results, large cash transfers still face considerable hurdles—not least of which is winning over international donors wary of multipurpose or unconditional cash grants. Furthermore, the sustainability of cash assistance will be limited when opportunities to invest in income-generating activities are lacking. Counteracting this will require the private sector to proactively invest in remote refugee-hosting districts to connect farmers and craftsmen to value chains as well as offer vocational training and employment.

Scandal and Setback

Moving innovative livelihood interventions beyond the pilot stage will require considerable funding, something that has been more difficult to secure since the February 2018 revelations of refugee fund misappropriation and fraud. Allegations that refugee numbers had been inflated and that funds raised during the 2017 Solidarity Summit were unaccounted for implicated both UNHCR and government officials. The scandal compelled some of Uganda’s largest donors, including the United States and the European Union, to threaten withdrawal of support and prompted UNHCR to replace its top country representative.

To combat corruption and settle discrepancies over refugee numbers, UNHCR rolled out a biometric verification program, which has recorded the fingerprints and iris scans of more than 1 million refugees since March 2018. The process leverages WFP’s food distribution system, to make the renewal of ration cards in settlements across Uganda contingent on registering into the biometric system.

Problems still abound, however, as a June 2018 progress report on the verification exercise revealed that one settlement hosting South Sudanese refugees had overestimated its numbers by a staggering 58 percent. While others have posted more modest overestimations of 10 percent or less, misinformation, whether intentional or accidental, could have harmful effects on Uganda’s fundraising capacities and disincentivize private-sector investment in refugee-hosting districts. Additionally, the scandal has practical, negative implications on humanitarian organizations that may be relying on misleading figures to plan future interventions.

The verification exercise remains ongoing; as of October 2018, 75 percent of the estimated refugees in Uganda had been verified. While the investigations of intentional fraud continue, a joint statement by the Ugandan government and UNHCR to donors and partner organizations contend that “the sheer speed and scale of the [South Sudanese] influx” made the situation at the border untenable, exposing natural flaws in the original registration system. Though both parties were “conscious that [refugee] figures might be problematic,” they stressed that “the priority at the time was to save lives.” The statement offers the free movement of refugees within Uganda and a limited number of undocumented returns to countries of origin as benign explanations for the misleading figures.

Europe’s Vested Interest

The Ugandan government and UNHCR are not alone in worrying about fallout from the scandal. The European Union is motivated to ensure that Uganda’s refugee-hosting model succeeds. If the livelihoods-based approach proves sustainable, the model could set a powerful precedent for successful intra-African migration. The EU Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), which combats root causes of migration such as poor governance and lack of economic opportunity, is making strides on the sustainability front. All 44 million euros earmarked for Uganda under the EUTF for 2016 to 2020 are committed to fostering greater economic and employment opportunities and strengthening refugee livelihoods.

Yet the EU commitment to helping Uganda successfully host its refugees is undermined by European migration-management priorities elsewhere on the continent. Politically strategic funding allocated to migrant-transit countries such as Niger, Mali, and Libya dwarf the contribution to Uganda, and EU leaders now have their eye key Arab League countries to partner with on migration management. A significant portion of the funds to these countries are dedicated to improving border management and governance.

The Road Ahead

The refugee situation in Uganda remains precarious. Political concerns over who will succeed 74-year-old President Yoweri Museveni following his 32-year reign foreshadow the possibility of political turmoil. Meanwhile, a panicked response to the most recent Ebola outbreak amongst displaced populations in eastern DRC could justify the closure of borders currently crossed by an estimated 5,000 individuals per day, including fishermen, traders, and refugees. Citing limited resources, parliamentarians in June pushed for legislation to restrict the number of refugees accepted into Uganda.

Can Uganda’s progressive refugee-hosting model withstand these pressures? The answer will hinge on a number of factors: the availability of robust livelihoods assistance for refugees and host communities, incentives for private-sector investment, long-term donor commitments to close fundraising gaps, and the enduring support of the Ugandan public, who continue to see refugees as an opportunity for growth. The $869 million requested for the 2018 Refugee Response Plan is more than a contribution to refugees; it is an investment in the overall development of Uganda.

Juba 1 November 2018 – The World Health Organization is supporting the Ministry of Health of South Sudan, to train a total of 214 members of the Rapid Response Teams at the national level and in all the Ebola virus disease (EVD) high-risk states.

These trainings are part of the ongoing efforts to strengthen the country’s preparedness capacities and mitigate the risk of EVD importation from the raging outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The recent WHO EVD risk assessment raised the risk of regional spread from “high” to “very high” thus justifying all efforts aimed at enhancing national EVD readiness capacities.

In line with the South Sudan EVD contingency plan that has prioritised strengthening of rapid response capacities, WHO and UNICEF spearheaded this process by training a total of 40 National Rapid Response Team members in Juba. This series of trainings is being rolled out to all the high-risk states with the aim of strengthening the capacity of multidisciplinary Rapid Response Teams (RRT) to provide them with the necessary skills in promptly investigating and supporting the initial response to suspected EVD outbreak alerts. RRT composition includes but not limited to clinicians, social mobilizer/anthropologist, logistician, psychosocial support, data manager, Infection Prevention and Control expert, and surveillance expert.

The World Health Organization Country Representative for South Sudan, Dr. Olushayo Olu reiterated the importance of national capacity building, stating, “The training of the national and subnational Rapid Response Teams is one of the strategic priorities to enhance the country’s capacity to respond effectively to a potential importation of EVD cases into South Sudan”. Dr Olu recognised the contribution of all stakeholders and the donor community who have enabled strengthening of preparedness activities and capacity building against EVD as well as providing tailored and effective response to any other future outbreaks.

The training is “hands-on” where participants are exposed through practical sessions structured around simulated scenarios on all key thematic areas of EVD outbreak response. Within this exercise, participants explored the various steps of an outbreak investigation and were also trained on the proper use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Other priority risk mitigation measures that are ongoing include enhanced surveillance through routine screening of all travelers entering the South Sudan from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or Uganda by land or air, Risk communication and community engagement, Infection Prevention and control, case management, Laboratory, safe and dignified burial, and vaccination.

A total of 39 points of entry in the high-risk states have been earmarked to serve as screening sites and 14 of which are now fully functional. WHO is fully supporting 2 of the major screening sites including Juba International Airport and Nimule. Work is ongoing to establish isolation facilities and make them functional by different partners.

The Port Health facility in Juba International Airport was prioritised for EVD screening due to the high volume of international travelers using it to enter South Sudan. Consequently, the port health facility was upgraded to improve the quality of the EVD entry screening. The refurbishment has now transformed the initially temporary facility into a semi-permanent state-of-the-art facility that can effectively handle more passengers. The new block is more spacious and complies with the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) point of entry recommendations. WHO acknowledges support from several donors including USAID, DFID, Canada, and Germany that are supporting the current EVD preparedness activities.

For Additional Information or to Request Interviews, Please contact: Mr Liyosi Evans
Tel: +211 956 776 467
Email: liyosie@who.int

Dr Wamala Joseph Francis
Tel : +211 955 036 445
Email: wamalaj@who.int

Ms Luwaga Liliane Christine
Communication Officer (Health Promotion/Risk Communication focal person)
Mobile: +211 (0) 921647860
Email: luwagal@who.int

Uganda has received wide praise for opening its borders and allowing a high level of freedom of movement and access to work for its large population of refugees. However, an investigation into allegedly fraudulent registrations and mismanaged funds demonstrate that transparency is crucial to ensure Uganda’s refugee policy is appropriately translated into practise.

As increasingly restrictive migration policies and border closures have become a global trend, Uganda has received international praise for its progressive refugee regime. Earlier this year the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi thanked “the Ugandan government, local government and its people” recognising that “despite recent influxes Uganda has the most progressive refugee policies in Africa, if not the world”. Uganda has the largest refugee population in Africa, with most arrivals fleeing conflict in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

Uganda has been recognised for offering refugees land to grow crops, permission to work and access to education, health and justice services. However, there has also been criticism suggesting that the promotion of progressive refugee policies has in some cases clouded meaningful discussion, at the risk of neglecting durable solutions, local integration, access to citizenship, and then needs of host communities and local authorities.

On Monday, it was announced in a joint statement that an official biometric refugee verification exercise, conducted since March by the office of the prime minister and the UN refugee agency, (UNHCR), found that Uganda hosts 1.1 million refugees rather than the asserted 1.4 million. Three government staff members were suspended over allegations of collusion with staff from the UNHCR and the World Food Programme to inflate refugee figures, allegedly falsifying names and duplicating registrations in refugee settlements, and in doing so misappropriating millions of dollars in aid.

The International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) welcomed the conclusion of the verification exercise; “We hope that this can be the basis of a more honest discussion about the number of refugees in Uganda and about what should be done to ensure accountable and sufficient funding.” They hope that “Now that there is more clarity, donors should step up their funding, to ensure that Uganda’s progressive refugee policy is fully translated into practice… In the end, it is refugees who suffer the negative consequences of any allegations of corruption and funding cuts.”

An inquiry chaired by UN education envoy Gordon Brown said action is needed to tackle the impact of war on children.

A major inquiry into the protection of children trapped in conflict zones has called for far-reaching and urgent reforms of international law.

There is a "culture of impunity" surrounding attacks on children in many countries including Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and Myanmar, said inquiry chairman and UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown.

“It is unconscionable that the world stands by when children are being attacked in their schools and denied access to vital humanitarian aid," he added.

The legal report of the inquiry - supported by Theirworld and Save the Children - urges immediate action to tackle attacks on schools, denial of humanitarian aid, sexual violence against children and other atrocities.

It said there is growing concern over the impact of war on children. Recent attacks include:

• The bombing of a school bus in Yemen in August which killed at least 40 children

• The suicide bombing in a school in Afghanistan, also in August, which killed around 37 students

• Starvation being used as a weapon of war in a host of conflicts including Yemen, where five million children are on the brink of famine

• The abduction and gang rape of women and girls as young as eight by government forces and militias in South Sudan between April and July

The inquiry has been headed by leading British barrister Shaheed Fatima QC. Its 500-page report will be launched at an event in London today by Fatima and Brown, alongside former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein.

One major proposal is to give schools the same protection as hospitals under international law. Another is for countries to take positive measures to prevent sexual violence against children.

The report also calls for a clear warning that denying humanitarian access will always be illegal if it might lead to the starvation of civilians.

In the longer term, it recommends the international community consider adopting a comprehensive legal instrument and civil accountability mechanism to govern the protection of children in armed conflict.

“This report sets out an agenda which every government and every organisation working on children affected by conflict should act on, to end the culture of impunity,” said Brown.

Fiona Duggan, Head of Projects at Theirworld, said: "In war zones across the globe today, society’s most vulnerable members are being subjected to unthinkable suffering and too often the world looks the other way.

"The inquiry’s report underscores the urgent need for the international community to build consensus around strengthening the protections for children in conflict, to ensure that every boy and girl has the opportunity to unleash their potential.”

An estimated 350 million children – one child in every six – live amid conflict - an increase of 75% from the 200 million of the early 1990s.

More than 21,000 students and teachers in 41 countries were harmed in attacks on schools and universities around the world over a five-year period, according to the Education Under Attack 2018 report.

Fatima said: “Even where the law provides protection, there is a fundamental lack of compliance and lack of accountability. As a result, and with the increase of intense urban warfare, children are being attacked and killed, in ever greater numbers, and with impunity.”

Kevin Watkins, CEO of Save the Children UK, said: “This is a call to action for governments, international agencies, the UN and non-government organisations. It should be mandatory reading for anyone concerned to see the rule of international law applied to the benefit of the millions of children living in war zones.”

Population Movements

As of 29 October, the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) rescued/intercepted 14,249 refugees and migrants (9,893 men, 2,126 women and 1,374 children) at sea during 109 operations. On 26 October, 93 refugees and migrants were disembarked at the Tripoli Naval Base, the majority of whom were from Sudan, Bangladesh, South Sudan, Somalia and Mali. Overall in October, 351 refugees and migrants were disembarked in Libya, which marks a 45 per cent decrease in comparison with previous months (713 individuals in September and 552 individuals in August). UNHCR and its partner International Medical Corps (IMC) continue to provide core-relief items (CRIs) and medical assistance both at the disembarkation points and in the detention centres to which individuals are subsequently transferred by the authorities.

UNHCR Response

So far in 2018, UNHCR has implemented 86 quick impact projects (QIPs) in Libya. During the reporting period, UNHCR delivered a generator to the Zawiat Al Dahmani health centre in Tripoli that provides medical assistance to some 1,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and to the host communities. This QIP will ensure that the health centre has a reliable power source during the winter season. QIPs are small, rapidly implemented projects intended to help create conditions for peaceful coexistence between displaced persons and their hosting communities. QIPs also strengthen the resilience of these communities.

Since 1 September 2017, 930 individuals were submitted for resettlement to eight States (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland). A total of 70 individuals have departed on resettlement directly from Libya to Canada, France, Sweden and the Netherlands. As of October, twelve states have committed a total of 3,886 resettlement places for the Libya-Niger situation, namely, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Since November 2017, 2,082 persons were evacuated to UNHCR’s Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) in Niger (1,675 individuals), Italy (312 individuals) and the ETM in Romania (95 individuals).

As of 30 October, UNHCR has registered 56,444 refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya. The majority of registered refugees comprise Syrians (23,687 individuals), Sudanese (10,300 individuals) and Somalis (3,160 individuals). So far in 2018, 11,878 refugees and asylum-seekers have been registered by UNHCR. Last week alone, UNHCR registered 988 individuals, mainly from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia.

An estimated 5,243 refugees and migrants are presently detained in Libya, of whom 3,951 are persons of concern to UNHCR. So far in 2018, UNHCR has conducted 1,030 protection visits to detention centres where it has distributed 18,400 CRIs. As of 30 October, UNHCR’s partners IMC and (in the East) Première Urgence International provided 21,893 primary healthcare consultations and 231 medical referrals to public hospitals. UNHCR continues to advocate for the release of all of its persons of concern from detention and for alternatives to detention.

Les conflits continuent à perturber les moyens d’existence des ménages dans les zones affectées

Messages clés

• La saison agricole A de 2018-2019 a démarré dans les parties nord-est et centre-est du pays dans un contexte de crise sécuritaire persistante, avec le semis des principaux vivriers notamment le maïs, l’arachide et le haricot. Bien que les précipitations soient annoncées normales, l’accès aux intrants agricoles et l’insécurité constituent une contrainte à la reprise d’une saison normale notamment pour les milliers de ménages retournés.

• Jusqu’en août 2018, environ 514,251 personnes sont nouvellement déplacées dans les provinces de Maniema, l’Ituri, le Nord-Kivu et le Sud-Kivu, selon OCHA. Ces nouveaux déplacements se sont produits en début de la campagne pourront priver l’accès à la terre à près de 100 000 ménages agricoles et impacterait sur le niveau de la production agricole dans ces zones excédentaires et partant sur la consommation alimentaire des ménages.

• Dans la région des Kasaï, on assiste depuis début octobre 2018, à un afflux important des congolais expulsés de l’Angola. On compte près de 329 000 déjà enregistrés jusqu’au au 26 octobre 2018, qui sont disséminées dans les territoires frontaliers de Kamonia et Luiza, et exerçant ainsi une forte pression sur les faibles ressources locales. Cette situation requiert de l’assistance humanitaire d’urgence pour sauver des vies et relancer le processus de leur réinsertion sociale.

• La situation épidémiologique de la maladie a virus Ebola dans les provinces du Nord-Kivu et de l’Ituri signale à 29 octobre, 276 victimes dont 175 cas de décès. Cette épidémie peut commencer à avoir des répercussions sur les moyens d’existence des populations des zones affectées déjà fragilisées par les conflits armés prolongés.

CONTEXTE NATIONAL

Situation actuelle

L’insécurité et déplacement : La République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), dans sa particularité de crise complexe et prolongée, continue à faire face à une situation humanitaire préoccupante et sans précédent. La reprise des hostilités des groupes armés sur plusieurs fronts et des violences intercommunautaires observés dans la partie est du pays, présagent d’un lendemain incertain pour ces zones en proie aux perpétuels déplacements des populations. C’est le cas de l’Ituri, du Maniema et de la région du Kasaï principalement. Cette situation a causé une limitation d’accès des ménages aux ressources et une accessibilité limite des humanitaires.

La RDC a connu le plus grand volume de nouveaux déplacements à l'échelle mondiale au cours de l'année écoulée, avec 1,4 million de personnes fuyant leurs maisons dans les seuls Kassaï. On estime actuellement à 4,49 millions le nombre total de PDI en RDC, ce qui représente la plus grande population de personnes déplacées en Afrique. Selon le HCR, près d'un million des Congolais (811 000) ont trouvé refuge dans les pays voisins. Par ailleurs, l’instabilité politique dans les pays voisins continue également de produire des nouveaux réfugiés en RDC en provenance du Sud Soudan, du Burundi et de la République Centrafricaine. Le HCR estime à plus de 541,702 réfugiés sur le sol Congolais qui partagent par moments, les mêmes ressources et moyens d’existence avec les populations autochtones.

L’expulsion des congolais d’Angola : Depuis le début du mois d’octobre 2018, la RDC assiste à l’expulsion des congolais accusés d’immigration illégale en Angola. Selon l’évaluation multisectorielle conduite dans la région des Kasaï, 329 000 personnes sont expulsées à partir du Nord de l’Angola et entrent en RDC à partir des points frontaliers de Kamako dans le Kasaï et Kalamamuji dans le Kasaï central. Avec la porosité des frontières, d’autres congolais volontaires au retour ont été reçus dans ces zones, ce peut augmenter le nombre de personnes expulsées de l’Angola. A leur arrivée, ces expulsés sont disséminés dans les villages environnants les points d’entrée.

L’épidémie de la Maladie à Virus Ebola : Dans les provinces du Nord Kivu et de l’Ituri depuis le début aout 2018 et qui peut commencer à perturber les moyens d’existence des populations en cette période difficile de soudure.

Marches et prix : Dans l’ex province du Katanga, on assiste depuis septembre dernier, à une hausse importante de prix de la farine de maïs. Pour rappel, cette région dépend à près de 70 pourcent du maïs en provenance de la Zambie. Cette situation s’explique par les mesures de restriction des importations de ce produit prises par le gouvernement Zambien en préservation de ses réserves nationales. A Lubumbashi par exemple, un sac de 25Kg de mais vendu à 14,500Fc le mois précédant est passé à 30 000 franc soit une variation de 107 pourcent en 1 mois.

Situation agricole : Sur le plan des contraintes liées à l’agriculture, la chenille légionnaire signalée dans plus de 22 provinces du pays est toujours active sans moyens de lutte efficace à ce jour. Il est de même de la situation des criquets puants dans l’extrême nord-est de la RDC, (territoire de Aru et Buta), qui continuent à décimer les cultures.

Selon les estimations de la dernière évaluation des récoltes de Juin 2018, la RDC accuse un déficit céréalier de l’ordre de 11 millions de tonnes pour une production qui ne représente que le tiers de ce déficit. Cette situation préoccupante est essentiellement causée par des multiples conflits et tensions communautaires occasionnant les déplacements des populations et auxquels s’ajoutent les différentes pestes que connait le monde végétal. La persistance d’une telle situation pourrait maintenir les populations affectées dans un cercle vicieux d’insécurité alimentaire.

THEMATIC PAPER

Executive summary Background and purpose

Trafficking in persons is a serious crime that affects every country in the world. Conflicts that arise in countries or other geographical areas can exacerbate vulnerability to trafficking, as well as its prevalence and severity. As State and non-State structures weaken, and as people turn to negative coping strategies in order to survive, not only does the risk of falling victim to trafficking increase, but so too does the risk of perpetrating it against others. At the same time, conflict also increases the demand for goods and services provided by exploited persons and creates new demands for exploitative combat and support roles. For these reasons, United Nations entities and other international actors active in settings affected by conflict have a crucial role to play in preventing and countering trafficking in persons.

Definition and elements of trafficking in persons

Trafficking in persons is addressed in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Trafficking in Persons Protocol). The Protocol provides a comprehensive framework for cooperation between States parties and sets out minimum standards for victim protection to complement the wider framework of international law, including international human rights law. The Protocol requires States parties to criminalize the offence of trafficking as defined in its article 3 (a). That definition comprises three elements:

(a) An “act” (recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons); (b) A “means” by which that action is achieved (threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or a position of vulnerability, or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve consent of a person having control over another person); (c) A “purpose” of exploitation, regardless of what type.

The “means” element is not a requisite for the definition of trafficking in persons when the victim is a child; any act committed for an exploitative purpose is sufficient to establish the trafficking of a child as an offence.

Even though the forms of exploitation that occur in settings affected by conflict may also occur in other contexts, conditions of conflict are often more likely to engender such exploitation or to exacerbate its prevalence and severity. Some forms of exploitation, identi- fied through research on exploitative practices in conflict settings, have emerged as specific to the context of conflict, including but not limited to the following:

• Sexual exploitation of women and girls by members of armed and terrorist groups
• Use of trafficked children as soldiers
• Removal of organs to treat wounded fighters or finance war
• Enslavement as a tactic of terrorism, including its use to suppress ethnic minorities

Consent of the victim to exploitation is irrelevant in cases where any of the means have been used in relation to an adult victim, and is always irrelevant where the victim is a child.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Over 19,000 cases of chikungunya have been reported in Sudan - WHO.

• About 58,000 people from the South Sudanese refugee and host communities in ‘open areas’ in Khartoum State will receive assistance.

• Prices of grains in September 2018 are higher compared to prices in September 2017, FPMA reports.

• FEWS NET projections through January 2019 anticipate an improvement in food security during the harvest period.

• The Government of Sudan agrees to allow humanitarian aid to vulnerable people in SPLM-N controlled areas of South Kordofan and Blue Nile from within Sudan

FIGURES

# people in need in Sudan (2018 HNO)

5.5 million # people in need in Darfur (2018 HNO)

3.1 million GAM caseload (2018 HNO)

2.3 million South Sudanese refugees – total Pre-2013 Post-2013 763,270 352,212 411,058 (UNHCR 30 Sept 2018)

Other refugees and asylum seekers UNHCR (31 Aug 2018) 158,959

FUNDING

346.2 million US$ received in 2018 34.4% funded FTS (7 Oct 2018)

Over 19,000 cases of chikungunya reported across the country

In a recent update from the World Health Organization (WHO), seven states in Sudan, including Kassala, Red Sea, Al Gedaref, River Nile, Northern State, South Darfur, and Khartoum, have reported cases of chikungunya between 31 May and 2 October 2018.
A total of 19,224 cases of chikungunya have been reported, 95 per cent of which are from Kassala State. Approximately 7 per cent of the reported cases are children less than 5 years of age and 60 per cent are females. No hospital admissions or deaths have been officially reported.

On 31 May 2018, the State Ministry of Health (SMoH) of Red Sea State reported four suspected cases of chikungunya fever from Swakin locality. On 8 August, the first suspected case of chikungunya was reported in neighbouring Kassala State, in a male travelling to the state from Red Sea. Since then cases have been reported in the three localities of Kassala, West Kassala and Rural Kassala.

On 10 August, blood samples were collected and were tested at the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) in Khartoum. Of the 24 samples collected, 22 tested positive for chikungunya. On 9 September, an additional 100 samples were collected; results showed that 50 per cent tested positive for mixed chikungunya and dengue viruses, and all pools tested positive for chikungunya.
Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. It causes fever and severe joint pain. Other symptoms include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash. There is no cure for chikungunya and treatment focuses on relieving symptoms. Most patients recover fully, but in some cases joint pain may persist for several months, or even years. Prevention and control relies heavily on eliminating mosquito breeding sites.

Operational updates

• According to the recently released 2018 Humanitarian and Disaster Resilience Plan (HDRP) Mid-Year Review, 8 million people require targeted relief food/cash assistance until the end of the year.

• There are 2.9 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Ethiopia, of whom over 1.6 million were displaced because of conflict and insecurity.

• Emergency relief, nutrition and Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) operations in the Somali Region resumed on 3 September after being suspended in early August because of insecurity.

• In September, WFP is providing emergency relief assistance to 1.6 million food-insecure people identified under the 2018 HDRP and 300,000 conflict–induced IDPs in Somali Region.

• The insecurity in the Somali Region brought a new wave of IDPs into the Oromia Region, where WFP is providing emergency food relief to people displaced by earlier conflicts. In September, WFP assisted 378,000 IDPs in the East and West Hararghe zones.

• Based on health screenings, WFP is assisting 651,000 moderately acutely malnourished children under 5 years, and acutely malnourished pregnant and nursing women, including conflict-induced IDPs in the Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ regions.

• An estimated 10,000 asylum seekers/refugees from Eritrea have been arriving in Ethiopia. WFP is providing high-energy biscuits and food rations to 10,000 new arrivals.

• In September, WFP distributed food assistance to 689,000 refugees, of whom 149,000 (in 13 refugee camps) received a combination of food and cash transfers.

• Due to funding constraints, refugees received food rations that were 80 percent of the planned entitlement.

Faits saillants

• Près de 20 000 déplacés internes occupent des écoles dans le Territoire de Djugu.

• Distribution de cash multisectoriel du PAM à plus de 50 000 bénéficiaires dans le Territoire de Djugu.

Aperçu de la situation

Les acteurs du secteur de la protection de l’enfance ont enregistré une centaine d’enfants non accompagnés à travers la ville de Bunia depuis plus d’un mois. Ces enfants vivant dans les sites de déplacés de Bunia se livrent à la mendicité et autres pratiques de délinquance pour survivre. Les acteurs humanitaires rapportent un gap important dans la prise en charge de la scolarisation des enfants dans les deux sites de Bunia. Par ailleurs, le Fonds des Nations Unies pour l’enfance (UNICEF) a renouvelé son accord pour la poursuite des activités dans les Espaces Amis de l’Enfant (qui étaient déjà en cours de fermeture).

La Division provinciale de l’Enseignement a recensé, depuis le mois de septembre, 1 873 enfants déplacés hors système scolaire dans les sites des personnes déplacées à Bunia, Nizi et Kasenyi. Ces enfants non scolarisés ont été affectés par la crise de Djugu entre décembre 2017 et mars 2018. L’année scolaire 2017, à la faveur d’une assistance en éducation, l’ONG NRC à travers le programme RRMP, avait pu réintégrer plus de 4 000 enfants dans 17 établissements scolaires de Bunia. Le Comité Local Inter Organisation (CLIO) a recommandé à l’ONG AVSI de faire une évaluation rapide dans ces sites pouvant déboucher sur un plaidoyer pour couvrir le gap, notamment en termes de réintégration des enfants dans les écoles des milieux de déplacement ; d’organisation des cours de rattrapage ; de distribution des kits scolaires, éducatifs, etc. Par ailleurs, plus de 15 écoles sont toujours occupées par des personnes déplacées internes dans certaines localités de Djugu. Environ 20 000 personnes vivent dans ces établissements scolaires, perturbant ainsi la scolarité de près de 5 000 enfants de différents villages de Djugu. Au-delà de la question de l’occupation des écoles, d’autres besoins importants restent non couverts dans divers sites de déplacés.

Le 29 octobre, plus de 40 cases ont été incendiées dans la localité de Golo (plus de 100 km au nord de Bunia). Par ailleurs, aux environs de Lopa (plus de 40 km au nord de Bunia), 107 abris avaient pris feu dans le site de Godo 2. C’est la troisième fois au cours de cette année que des cas d’incendie ont été enregistrés dans ce site ; l’origine de ces incendies demeure difficile à déterminer. Par conséquent, ces incendies à répétition installent un contexte d’insécurité qui entraine un ralentissement du mouvement de retour dans les nombreux villages et provoque des déplacements préventifs.

FACTS & FIGURES

6 million people are at crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity

2 million internally displaced people need humanitarian assistance

930 000 refugees, including 760 000 from South Sudan

2.3 million acutely malnourished children (source: UNICEF/MoH, OCHA, Aug. 2018)

EU humanitarian funding: €23 million in 2018

Introduction

The European Union responds to a wide range of emergencies in Sudan, from conflict and population displacements to severe food insecurity and malnutrition. As the economic crisis – which has caused price inflation – continues, many vulnerable families are struggling to access food and essential services. Since 2011, the EU has provided €445 million for humanitarian partners working in Sudan.

What are the needs?

Sudan is the scene of both protracted and new humanitarian crises.

Fifteen years since the start of the Darfur crisis, 1.6 million people continue to live in camps in the region, while conflict also affects South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. At least 20 000 Sudanese were newly displaced in 2018. More than 195 000 refugees, 65% of them children, arrived from war-torn South Sudan in 2017. This brings the total number of refugees in the country to over 900 000, one of the highest in Africa. The majority of uprooted people and refugees rely on humanitarian aid for their survival and hundreds of thousands of children, especially in conflict-affected areas, continue to be out of school.

Drought and floods regularly affect large areas of the country, displacing thousands and destroying crops. Malnutrition rates in Sudan are among the highest in Africa. One in six children suffers from malnutrition, one in 20 children suffers from the most severe form of malnutrition, which is life-threatening and requires urgent treatment.

How are we helping?

Since 2011, the EU has provided €445 million for life-saving assistance to people affected by conflict, natural disasters, food insecurity and malnutrition, this sum includes €23 million committed in 2018. The EU acts on all fronts, assisting thousands of forcibly displaced people and refugees while also supporting the fight against malnutrition and addressing the impact of natural disasters such as floods and droughts.

In close collaboration with its humanitarian partners, the EU supports a principled and needs-based approach in Sudan which aims to reach the most-affected and vulnerable populations. The EU supports the provision of healthcare and nutrition treatment, water and sanitation, shelter, protection, emergency education, and food security.

EU humanitarian aid addresses the needs of conflict-affected people, with a focus on new emergencies. Among them is the mass refugee influx from South Sudan, and the high malnutrition levels in Jebel Marra, an area in the Darfur region where renewed conflict has occurred since early 2018 and accessible to humanitarian workers only recently.

With thousands of new arrivals from South Sudan each month, EU humanitarian funds help to organise the reception of the new refugees, ensure that they receive shelter and essential household goods, and are able to access basic services such as healthcare, safe water and sanitation facilities. In 2017, €1 million in humanitarian aid enabled 15 000 children to go to school. Half of the pupils were girls affected by conflict in Darfur and Kordofan,

Food assistance and nutrition account for the bulk of EU humanitarian aid in Sudan. In 2017, humanitarian partners succeeded in helping more than 220 000 children with severe malnutrition through specialised treatment and care. This included children in previously inaccessible communities of Jebel Marra. The EU contributes to the countrywide expansion of nutrition treatment and care.

The European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations are run from offices in the capital Khartoum and in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. EU humanitarian experts travel regularly to the field to assess the multitude of needs. They also identify the gaps in the response and monitor projects carried out by their partners (international non-governmental organisations, UN agencies, and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement).

Animal health emergencies continue to erupt around the world at an ever-increasing pace. Increased global travel, human migration and informal trade of animals and animal products continue to intensify the risk of disease spread. Infectious diseases and other animal health threats have the potential to move rapidly within a country or around the world leading to severe socio-economic and public health consequences. For zoonoses that develop the ability for human to human transmission, an early response to an animal health emergency could prevent the next pandemic. As the demands continue to evolve for effective and efficient management of animal diseases, including emerging diseases and zoonoses, the Emergency Management Centre for Animal Health (EMC-AH) continues to evolve and keep pace with the global demands, adding value to Member States of FAO.

Building on the first eleven years of success, the Centre rebranded its platform in 2018 as EMC-AH, with the full support of the Crisis Management Centre for Animal Health Steering Committee in November 2017. The new name reflects the modernization of the platform and new way of working to better address the needs of the future. Further, the inaugural EMC-AH strategic action plan 2018 2022 released in June 2018 clearly states the vision, mission, and core functions of EMC AH for the coming five years with the aim of reducing the impact of animal health emergencies.

EMC AH’s annual report reflects EMC AH’s new way of working under its strategic action plan and addresses EMC AH performance and actions for the twelve-month period of November 2017-October 2018. During the reporting period, EMC AH contributed to strengthening resilience of livelihoods to animal health-related emergencies and zoonoses through the core pillars of its strategic action plan: preparedness, response, incident coordination, collaboration and resource mobilization. The annual report illustrates EMC-AH’s commitment to transparency and accountability.

FAO’s Member States have an ongoing need for a holistic and sustainable international platform that provides the necessary tools and interventions inclusive of animal health emergency management. EMC-AH strategic action plan requires a substantial commitment of resources to implement the full range of proposed activities, and EMC-AH must maintain key personnel essential to carry out its objectives and components of the 2016-2019 FAO Strategic Framework that addresses increased resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises (Strategic Programme five [SP5]).

As a joint platform of FAO’s Animal Health Service and Emergency Response and Resilience Team, and in close collaboration with related partners and networks, EMC-AH is appropriately positioned to provide renewed leadership, coordination and action for global animal health emergencies.