Unicef Country Programme 2012-2015 Unicef Country Programme 2012-2015 The overall goal of the country program 2012-2015, in line with ZUNDAF, is to enable the equitable and sustained realization of the rights of every women and child in Zimbabwe to survival, development and protection. 

The programme areas in the country programme are; education, health, water and sanitation, child & social protection and strategic planning and social policy. 

The original assessment to support UNICEF Zimbabwe Country Programme 2012-2015 with thematic funding was carried out by the Embassy in May 2012. A decision was made to support the country programme with 200 MSEK for four years, during the entire country programme period. 

Since then three amendments have been made to the original agreement. In December 2012, additional funding of 9 MSEK was contributed to the focus area child protection. The second amendment had the purpose to extend the agreement for another two years with 100 million MSEK (since the Embassy could only enter into agreement for two years of 100 MSEK to start with even if a decision on support of 200 MSEK was signed for the four years). The third amendment was made in order for UNICEF to receive their entitled 50 million SEK in December 2014 (instead of January 2015). In total UNICEF has so far received 209 MSEK of Swedish thematic funding. 

In this appraisal it is proposed to add another 49 MSEK to the existing agreement with UNICEF to support the current country programme for UNICEF 2012-2015 (and in particular contribute to the funding gap during 2015). In total that would be 258 MSEK for the country programme implementation 2012-2015. 

UNICEF has submitted a request for more thematic funding to support the final year of the current UNICEF country programme in Zimbabwe. The total budget required to support the consolidated annual workplans for each focus area is USD 173,882,602. What is currently available is USD 151,709,567, hence a shortfall of USD 22,173.035. The financial gap has been calculated by taking into account 2015 annual work plans amounts for each focus area and subtracting funds already available in the UNICEF system for 2015. The funding gaps are mainly critical in the following areas; water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), HIV/AIDS and Children, Nutrition and Health (Health Transition Fund). There are different reasons behind the funding gap; AusAid is cutting down their support to Zimbabwe which has an impact on the water, sanitation and hygiene programs, the government has increased its commitments to double the number of children on ART by 2018 as part of the national accelarating plan to have 90 per cent of eligible children on ART by 2018, and reducing inequities to ART. The high figure of stunting in Zimbabwe has put further attention on nutritional programmes. In terms of Health there needs to be an uninterrupted focus on health system strengthening under the HTF. What is further known is that previous committed funding from DFID to Health Transition Fund (HTF) and Child Protection Fund (CPF) is delayed due to election in UK. UNICEFs landprogram 2012-2015 har som övergripande mål, i linje med gällande ZUNDAF, att möjliggöra förverkligandet av samtliga kvinnors och barns tillgång till sina rättighter med avseende på överlevnad, utveckling och skydd. Detta skall genomföras med hänsyn tagen till jämlikhet och hållbarhet. 
Landprogrammet inkluderar följande huvudsakliga verksamhetsområden; rätten till grundläggande utbildning, rätten till hälsovård med fokus på mödrar och barn under fem år (inklusive HIV/AIDS), rätten till vatten och sanitet, rätten till skydd samt ett område som syftar till policy utveckling och datainsamling. 

Inom ramen för UNICEFs förfrågan om ytterligare medel framgår att framförallt följande områden behöver påfyllnad av medel: Vatten och sanitet, HIV/AIDS arbete relaterat till barn, Nutritionsarbetet samt arbetet med förstärkning av Hälsosystemet v g mödrar och barn (Hälsotransitionsfonden). 

Anledning är framförallt givare som dragit sig ur vissa områden (framförallt vatten och sanitet), försenade beslut av vissa givare (Hälsotransitionsfonden) samt en ökad ambition av UNICEF och regeringen i vissa fall för att uppnå resultat (framförallt relaterat till Nutrition och HIV/AIDS arbetet).