The two UN agencies renewed an agreement to extend support to Palestine refugee children, adolescents, and women in the State of Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. UNICEF and UNRWA will primarily cooperate in the fields of child and social protection, education, health, advocacy, and emergency preparedness.
“Joining efforts this way will greatly improve and increase the kind of support and advocacy that Palestine refugees get,” said Leni Stenseth, UNRWA Deputy Commissioner-General. “As an Agency that knows first-hand the trauma that refugee children can face, UNRWA strongly believes that a combination of protection, health, education, and advocacy can mitigate the impact of conflicts and violence on children and contribute to their wellbeing.”
Building on the long-standing cooperation on evidence generation for children, the agencies will conduct studies, situation analysis of women and children, research, and promote social change through addressing harmful social and gender norms and practices. The cooperation enhances humanitarian coordination including in times of crisis, increasing capacity to analyze risks and increasing preparedness to mitigate crises.
“We are delighted to renew our commitment to helping Palestine refugees through this agreement. UNICEF and UNRWA have been cooperating for decades. With this agreement we will continue advancing child-sensitive programs, providing technical assistance, increasing support for digital learning, delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, and raising awareness on vaccines safety and joint advocacy on children’s rights” said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
The four-year agreement (from 2022 to 2025) will cover the following areas:
- Child protection: provision of technical assistance, policy advice, and joint advocacy and programming.
- Education: focusing on continuity of learning including in times of crisis, digital learning, addressing violence in schools, and life-skills development for young people including for preparation to join the labor market.
- Social Protection to mitigate the impact of poverty including through financial cash assistance to families
- Health: maternal and child health, childhood illness management, malnutrition, immunization, response to the COVID-19 pandemic including the delivery of vaccines.
- Evidence generation to support programming for children
- Advocacy and Communications
- Social Norms & Behavioural Change
- Emergency Preparedness and Response.
