Tchad Tribune

Executive Summary.

Africa’s East, Horn and Great Lakes (EHAGL) Region is experiencing increased frequency, severity and duration of crises, with new conflicts swelling displaced and

refugee caseloads. Increasingly protracted displacement is compounded by growing climatic shocks and inadequate humanitarian resources to meet the needs that these scenarios are generating. However, despite this challenging context progress is being made in the establishment, strengthening and reach of social protection’ policies, systems and programmes across the region alongside increased investment in these systems. This is often heavily resourced by development partners, as a more sustainable approach to humanitarian crises, but in some countries, there is an increase in tax-based domestic financing. COVID-19 has further accelerated efforts to scale up social protection systems, building on strong evidence of the efficacy of social protection systems in reaching the most vulnerable.

Within both humanitarian and development sectors there is growing recognition of the role that social protection can play in reducing poverty and addressing lifecycle risks and vulnerabilities. In many countries pilot interventions are proving effective and are influencing the approaches of governments and development partners and are being scaled up into government social safety net programmes. Delivery systems are improving and there is an increased focus on developing systems that are shock-responsive with the ability to scale up and respond to drought, floods or conflict. Despite resource, capacity, fragmentation and coordination challenges the number of vulnerable people supported by social protection systems is steadily growing. This is in line with the wider shift towards the use of cash transfers for humanitarian response. There is a growing body of robust evidence of the efficacy of social protection and social transfers in both development and crisis contexts.

The growth of inclusive social protection systems aiming to deliver more effective, efficient and sustainable solutions for vulnerable populations presents an opportunity for UNHCR. This entails re-examining ways of responding to the basic and protection needs of forcibly displaced communities and exploring the role that government social protection systems can play in meeting the needs of persons of concern (PoC), accelerating the agenda of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), and promoting inclusion, efficiency, sustainability and area-based solutions.

It is in this context that UNHCR has developed a global roadmap for inclusion of PoC in government social protection systems. This study aims to inform the implementation of this roadmap in the EHAGL region. It provides an overview of the social protection landscape in the region and categorises countries according to the level of development of their social protection systems. Nascent systems primarily invest in the expansion of social safety nets and access to social health protection and school feeding programmes, with parallel humanitarian programming. Some countries are also developing contributory schemes such as social insurance and contributory pensions, but to date these only reach a small proportion of the formal sector. Most of the population across the region, including refugees who are working, have livelihoods in the informal sector. There is growing recognition of the need to expand the reach of social insurance mechanisms and provide more flexible products tailored to informal sector workers and accompany the development of these schemes with outreach programmes to ensure uptake.

The study then maps existing levels of inclusion of PoC in social protection systems for each country. In most countries we see partial inclusion through, for example, refugee (largely urban) participation in national health insurance schemes, social registries or social safety nets (incorporating IDP populations or refugee and vulnerable host communities). In some countries, inclusion may be established at the policy level but not yet operationalized. In other countries, policy discussions are just beginning or have not yet begun. Opportunities for inclusion vary greatly across the region, determined by the context in each country, categories of

PoC, as well as the level of development of social protection systems.

The study identifies nine enablers of inclusion. These include the protection policy environment, financing, capacity, the level of development of the social protection system, inclusion of PoC in national data sets, ability of PoC to meet eligibility criteria, access to identity documents and financial systems and levels of UNHCR engagement in the sector (coordination, accompanying and monitoring inclusion). The study elaborates several recommendations for UNHCR to advance social protection inclusion at a country level. While these are aimed primarily at UNHCR country operations, they are equally relevant to other stakeholders including host governments, donors, and other development partners, who are interested to further PoC inclusion.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Ahmad Hassan Yarrow stands in front of his makeshift home in a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in southern Somalia’s Luuq district. He is one of hundreds of thousands of Somalis displaced by the country’s most recent and worsening drought and leaving their homes in search of food, water, pasture for their animals and shelter.

“Of all the droughts I have experienced in my 70 years, I have not seen anything as severe as this,” he said. “This drought has wiped out everything we had.”

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the past year has seen “significant breakthroughs in malaria prevention and control”, a senior official of the UN health agency said on Monday, World Malaria Day.

“Landmark recommendations on the use of the first vaccine against malaria – WHO Regional Director for Africa, RTS,S – were released by the World Health Organization (WHO) late last year”, said WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti, referring to a protein-based malaria inoculation.

“This vaccine will be used to prevent malaria among children aged six months to five years, who live in moderate- to high-transmission settings”, she added.

Use measures wisely

Noting that the day is marked annually on 25 April to focus global attention on the mosquito-borne infectious disease, and its devastating impact, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa Dr. Moeti said that this year aligns with her call to urgently scale up innovation and deploy new tools to battle malaria, while also advocating for equitable access to prevention and treatment – within the context of building health system resilience.

“While this is a ground-breaking advance in the development of new tools to fight this disease, with the potential to save millions of lives, supplies are currently limited”, she said.

As such, it is important to ensure that available doses are being used for maximum impact, while continuing to be accessible to those most at risk.

Considerable threat

Malaria remains a significant public health and development challenge, according to WHO.

In the last year, about 95 per cent of the estimated 228 million cases occurred in the WHO/AFRO Region, along with 602,020 reported deaths.

Six of those worst-impacted countries reportedly account for up to 55 per cent of cases globally, and for 50 per cent of these deaths.

“Despite some slowing of progress to reduce malaria cases and deaths, and the disruptions to health services caused by COVID-19, we are still much further ahead than we were in 2000. We need to reignite that momentum, and build on the recent advances”, the WHO official attested.

Strategizing

Meanwhile, the UN agency UNITAID said that more than two-thirds of all deaths from malaria occur in African children under age five.

With pilots co-funded by UNITAID, the Global Fund and GAVI, the world’s first malaria vaccine is being delivered to children as part of a comprehensive package of preventive care.

Vector control, which targets disease-spreading mosquitoes, is a highly effective and vital component of malaria elimination strategies.

With investments into next-generation bed nets that combat growing mosquito resistance, new spatial repellents, and by treating humans and livestock with medicine that kills mosquitoes who bite them, UNITAID is driving progress to advance new and effective tools.

Goals ahead

And with work to improve screening and treatment for relapsing P. vivax malaria – the most common type of malaria outside of sub-Saharan Africa – UNITAID is helping improve care for people in Asia-Pacific and Latin American countries.

The WHO global malaria strategy calls for a 90 per cent worldwide reduction of cases and death by 2030 – a goal that requires urgent investment to develop and deploy crucial innovations to protect people everywhere from malaria. 

This requires a focus on research; leveraging evidence for the efficient use of resources while producing measurable results; working on drug and insecticide resistance; and attention on new strains arising in the region that are more difficult to detect and treat.

Commitment to fight

World Malaria Day is an occasion to “renew political commitment and encourage continued investment in malaria prevention and control”, said Dr. Moeti, calling on countries and communities affected by malaria to work closely with development partners to eliminate the disease while also contributing to achieving the other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“I personally, and the WHO Regional Office in Africa, remain fully committed to the fight against malaria,” she spelled out, assuring that “we can overcome the challenge if we collaborate closely with governments, partners and communities… to achieve a malaria-free Africa”. Source: United Nations