Child Protection and Psychosocial Immediate Response and Contingency/Capacity Building Plan

Egypt response to Libya crisis.

Child Protection and Psychosocial Immediate response and contingency/capacity building plan

DRAFT

The following plan was developed in consultation with UNICEF staff and partners from the Egypt Country office working both at the Egypt/Libya border and in Cairo, with the support of a global child protection in emergency specialist on mission in Egypt from 10-15th April. The plan aims to both:

-  Describe the immediate actions required to strengthen UNICEF child protection response to the current crisis at the Egypt/Libya border

-  Outline actions required to be taken by UNICEF and other child protection partners to be prepared for a possible escalation of crisis and numbers of children and families displaced across the border

Initial assessment of the child protection situation of children and families at the border

At the time of assessment to the border (11th-12th April), the number of family members, including women, children and fathers staying at the border each night was approximately 200, including about 100 children of which 50 of them were estimated to be 2 or under. All of these families are third country nationals (that is, neither Libyan or Tunisian), and although the nationalities of those families staying at the border is changing rapidly as travel documents and transport are arranged, nationalities of families during the previous week have included: Nigerian, Pakistani, Sudanese, Chadian, Cote d’Ivorie, Mali etc. These families are unable to leave the border as they are waiting for travel documents and transport, and are staying at the border from between 1 to up 10 nights (average appears to be 2-4 nights). An unknown number of Egyptian and Libyan families are crossing the border daily but do not have to wait longer than a few hours for transport. At the same time there is estimated to be approximately 4000-5000 single men staying at the border each night.

Over the week preceding the above mission, families’ access to basic needs were increasingly met. Families had access to food, blankets, water, and were not required to queue for these items and most were able to find a place to sleep inside. Additional portable toilets were arriving, and the area, which was very dirty and unhygienic, started to be cleaned. Families, including women and children, were safe with police and army providing security at the site. No cases of harassment or violence against women and children had been reported at the site.

For child protection and psychosocial support the following were the main concerns:

a.  Situation at the border

·  Families, including women, had no privacy, little opportunity to bath and were living in crowded areas with many people passing through. No appropriate, dedicated space was available for families.

·  Families reported feeling resigned but bored and impatient to simply leave back to their home

·  There was a sense of confusion and lack of clarity about who is in charge, and families reported insufficient information about some key issues

·  There were very few structured activities for children and no space dedicated for children’s activities. Efforts to mobilize the Egyptian Red Crescent to organize activities for children did not work effectively due to a number of factors (lack of time and experience of the volunteers in working with small children, lack of dedicated space for activities etc.)

b. Experiences in Libya

·  UNICEF and partners staff on the border reported that families and children were increasingly sharing either their own experiences of violence and harassment following the uprising in Libya, or fears following stories they had heard of other migrants having experienced such violence or harassment.

·  More systematic collection is needed to verify the available information, but the following child protection issues/concerns have been raised by migrants and are broadly consistent with information available from other sources: harassment and violence against migrant families by unidentified Libyan men; widespread prevalence of arms among Libyans, and the risk this poses to migrants safety and to the involvement of children in this violence; fears about being mistaken taken for mercenaries (especially for African migrants); preexisting sexual exploitation of migrant women and reports of a very small number of cases of sexual violence following the uprising; psychosocial distress among children and families as a result of the violence, fears and displacement. Very few cases (less than 5) of separated children have been reported.

·  As Libyan and Egyptians were not being held at the border, virtually no information is available from them about their experiences in Libya or their current situation.

IMMEDIATE RESPONSE TO CHILD PROTECTION ON THE BORDER

As noted above, the numbers and situation of families and children at the border was limited and their situation, although quite unique, was not grave. However, it is important that UNICEF develop a modest, well structured child protection response that is adapted to the unique situation of children and women at the border for the following reasons:

·  A modest, well structured child protection response can make significant improvements to the lives of the families staying at the border who are likely to be among the most vulnerable

·  For some migrants this may be the only opportunity to receive support and information before returning home. This is particularly important for the small number of migrants who appear to have been direct victims of violence in recent weeks.

·  Given the lack of access to Libya at this time, the response at the border provides UNICEF and other child protection partners with an important opportunity to gather information about the child protection issues within Libya

·  Finally, as part of preparedness for a possible escalation in the number of families crossing the border, it is important to establish basic child protection responses and partnerships that can be scaled up quickly.

The following recommendations build on the activities already initiated at the border. Most crucially UNICEF needs quickly to identify local organization with a small number of deployable staff with whom we should sign agreements to implement activities for children and families (as described below). There is currently no need for mobilization of additional international child protection partners to respond to the situation at the border, provided UNICEF can make partnerships with local partners to deploy the small number of staff with appropriate profile (described in Annex 1) required to respond.

A.  Coordination and monitoring and advocacy

·  Child protection coordination. Recommend separate combined meeting on protection including child protection and PSS, 2 twice/week with IOM, UNICEF, UNHCR, ICRC and any other local partners on the border.

·  CP team at the border to collect and report systematically on child protection information they receive from migrants. RO/HQ to send form to be used as template for collecting testimonies. Team to compile report every 3-4 days on child protection issues identified and circulate to ECO and RO (summary to be included in sitreps). This will allow us to collect information on the migrant families and children at border.

·  Need to conduct rapid assessment of child protection issues of Egyptian and Libyan families crossing the border as we have no information on this. See contingency plan for details.

·  Advocate for IOM and UNHCR to set information location. If this occurs, community workers working with families can link with this information booth (sending families to the community workers).

B.  Child protection services for children and families

·  Establish family space. Involve families in keeping this space clean, organized. Solve issue of cooking (probably communal kitchen). Put toilets next to this space, military or police to ensure it is safe and only families enter.

·  Work with families. Identify and deploy 4 community workers to work with families, and to greet them when they arrive, provide information, accompany them (see job description below for more details). Include 1 specialist (counselor/social worker) to working with victims of sexual violence/sexual exploitation in the team (see job description below for more details). Need agreement with partner for this activity.

·  Information provision and messaging to families/children. Develop information sheet for families about available services on site. Develop second set of information materials about caring for self and children in this situation (adapt global tools) (CP and C4D colleagues)

·  Psychosocial activities with children. Develop agreement with partner for structured psychosocial activities. Inside space for young children, and possibly outside space with older children (include space with plastic sheeting for quiet activities). Need about 4 people, with skills to work with young children (should include some women). Identify people from displaced population to do activities with children wherever possible (e.g. singers).

·  GBV services. Ensure minimum sexual and reproductive health services available in the gynecological unit including ability to treat sexual violence. Link this with the counselor able to deal with violence in the family team (as above).

C.  Supplies and Human Resources

·  Send 5 ECD kits and 3-4 recreation kits immediately to border. Develop supply list for local procurement for items for activities with children.

·  NFI – need to assess if there is need for additional NFI such as hygiene kits or other locally procured NFI for children/women

·  Recommend to try to identify national child protection specialist to be recruited to work on the border for few months (Arabic speaker, woman ideal) and one person within the Egyptian CO team to be the focal point on the Libya crisis.

2. PREPAREDNESS AND CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR POTENTIAL ESCALATION

Preparedness and contingency plan is based on following scenario: rapid influx of approximately 600,000 people, of which up to 100,000 would be women and children. Plan is based on being able to respond in the following two ways:

1.  Scaling up current child protection response at the border using the same strategies but at larger scale. This will rely on increasing the number of staff working with families and children. Note that the major problem presented by this is that the current facilities will not be able to adequately house significantly larger numbers of families. This issue needs to be discussed as part of the contingency planning by UNHCT.

2.  Providing child protection response in at least one town (e.g. Matrouh or Alexandria). This response will need to be significantly different from the one on the border and would need to be developed after rapid assessment of the needs and capacities.

In addition, the contingency plan builds upon the ongoing response in the following ways:

1. Partnerships for the current response should form the basis of an expanded response at the border if required
2. All training conducted as part of the preparedness actions described below should also involve staff involved in the current response.

ACTIONS / PRIORITY / WHO (lead first, partners after) / WHEN
Inter-agency contingency/capacity building CPiE plan
-  Draft plan based on training on CCCs in consultation with partners based on identified risk , capacities and resources.
-  Review with relevant partners and finalize / high / UNICEF - ERC – UNHCR – UNFPA – Govt partners , Save the Children / Immediately
Agree on coordination of CP, GBV and MHPSS in case of escalation
-  Clarify structure (one protection group, or subgroup on CP?)
-  Agree on leadership, participation and TOR / Medium / UNICEF, UNHCR (consultation with other partners) / Within 1 month
Rapid Assessment on child protection
Phase 1: Immediate assessment of child protection issues for Egyptian/Libyans crossing the border.
-  Desk review to collate existing information
-  Adapt the global assessment tool and analysis tool
-  Orientate data collectors on tools, interview techniques and response to urgent protection issues. Collect data
-  Analysis and report writing
Phase 2: Preparedness for rapid assessment on CP if situation deteriorates
-  Agree with partners on roles and responsibilities
-  Revise tool (based on experience from Phase I)
-  Train data collectors / High / Save the Children/UNICEF
UNICEF/Save + University social researchers, ERC? / As soon as possible
After 1 month
Monitoring of child rights violations
Phase 1: UNICEF staff and partners in the field will use form to be provided by RO/HQ as checklist to compile information 2/week.
Phase 2: Preparedness to scale up CR monitoring
-  Desk review to identify existing forms of violations
-  Adapt form based on experience from phase 1
-  Train field staff and standby partners on use / medium / UNICEF + partners on the ground in Sallom.
UNICEF + implementing partners. Save the Children and/or other Human rights monitoring NGOs (tbc). / NOW
3 Weeks
Train staff and partners on CP in emergency. As necessary, train partners in regions at risk for emergencies
-  Identify trainers, participants to be trained, funding, location
-  Prepare modified/adapted version of training and implement / High / UNICEF – SCF (tbc) / ASAP
Information for families and messages on PSS/CP
-  Share tools and messages developed in immediate response (see above) with all partners / Medium / UNICEF (C4D and CP) / As soon as tools are available
Response to separated children including FTR
-  Agree on roles and responsibilities in case of need for FTR
-  Adapt standard forms
-  Identify staff to conduct FTR and if necessary, train on FTR / Medium / SCF - ICRC / Next week (month?)
Supplies
-  Share with partners ECD, recreational kits and other local supplies for PSS/CFS (developed in immediate response)
-  Preposition supplies for PSS/CFS (ECD kits, recreational kits and locally procured supplies)
-  Preposition supplies for FTR (adapt global list) / UNICEF
Save
Response to Sexual violence
-  Identify partners, assess capacity
-  Agree on roles and responsibilities. Develop standby arrangements as required.
-  Train health and social workers in partners on response to sexual violence (adapting “Caring for Survivors” training) / High / Lead tbd (UNICEF, UNPFA, IRC or WHO). Partners to be selected from: IRC, UNFPA, TDH/GPSI, WHO, UNICEF, MOH / After rapid assessment on violence situation
Psychosocial support to children and families
-  Map potential partners and their capacities for the following: activities with young children; activities with school age and adolescent children; working with families
-  Conduct training for animators on PSS for children and CFS. Topics to include: Experience and situation of children and families crossing the border: Basics of CP and PSS; Activities for young children (including use of ECD kit); activities for school age and adolescent children.
-  Conduct training for partners who can work with families on: Experience and situation of children and families crossing the border; Basics of CP and PSS: Psychological First Aid for families
Note: Should include team working at the border in the immediate response in the above trainings. / High-Medium / UNICEF
UNICEF
Network of Kindergarden teachers (Matrouh) , ERC, Scouts, Artists, ECD NGOs, YAPD, Resala (tbc), GSPI
Caratas (Alexandria), MOSS (Matrouh), ERC, Scouts, UNV (tbc) / Initiate mapping asap. Training after 1 month

Staffing: