UNICEF Thematic support - Thematic Support to Unicef Unicef Tematiskt stöd Bangladesh This contribution will contribute to four goals within UNICEFs Country Program Document; 1-2) Increased and equitable access to quality primary health care, nutrition services and support to adopt appropriate nutritional behavior and care practices, with a focus on most vulnerable women, children and adolescents; 3) access to quality, equitable, resilient and sustainable WASH services and adoption of appropriate hygiene behaviors and care practices; and 4) Strengthened child protection systems and institutions to uphold human rights and rule of law for children. Meaningful participation of women and children will be enhanced, among others to eliminate gender-based violence and child marriage. Insatsen bidrar till fyra mål inom UNICEFs landstrategidokumnet (CPD); 1-2) Ökad och jämlik tillgång till hälso- och sjukvård, inklusive tillgång till stöd för nutrition och god kosthållning, med fokus på kvinnor och barn som lever i fattigdom; 3) Ökad resiliens och ökad tillgång till rent vatten och sanitetssystem; samt 4) Stärkta system och institutioner som upprätthåller och garanterar respekt för mänskliga rättigheter, demokrati och rättsstatens principer med nationella skyddssystem för barn samt ökat deltagande och aktörsskap för barn och kvinnor, bland annat för att bekämpa könsrelaterat våld och barnktenskap. The planned contribution is a continuation of an established partnership between UNICEF and Sweden in Bangladesh, shifting from a project support model to a thematic funding modality. Therefore, in addition to programme content, this appraisal is looking at the feasibility as well as capability of UNICEF Bangladesh to maintain programme quality and donor compliance, when given a more flexible, thematically earmarked, funding arrangement. 

Thematic funding is expected to lead the partnership towards a more time/cost efficient and strategic partnership model, by moving away from a multiple agreement set-up to a single agreement programmatic approach. 

This shift is also expected to elevate the ways of engagement of the Embassy to a dialogue at UNICEF Country Strategy level, for advancing the child rights-, wellbeing- and protection agenda in Bangladesh.

The overall Theory of Change for UNICEF´s Country Programme (2022-2026) states;

That, if children and their caregivers benefit from inclusive and child-friendly policies; have access to and utilise quality, equitable and sustainable social services; and adopt appropriate behaviours and care practices, then the rights of all children in Bangladesh will be realised. 

Four thematic area objectives within UNICEFs Country Programme Strategy (2022-2026) are under appraisal  in this contribution. Each thematic area have a Programme Strategy Note (PSN) where the sector´s Theory of Change is described and with a logical framework, see outline below. The PSNs further includes activities and indicators.

Health Outcome: By 2026, all children, adolescents and women with a focus on the most vulnerable have equitable access to and use quality, high-impact health services and adopt healthy life practices

Output 1: By 2026, Government and partners have increased capacity nationally and sub-nationally to provide an improved financed, responsive and resilient health system for Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

Output 2: By 2026, Government and partners at district and sub-district levels have increased capacity to provide improved and equitable access to high-impact, quality maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health and immunisation services with a focus on the most vulnerable, including in emergencies

Output 3: By 2026, children and women have improved access to an essential service package and knowledge about appropriate healthy life practices with a focus on the most vulnerable including in emergencies

This component will ensure all children, adolescents, and women have equitable access to and use quality, high-impact health services and adopt appropriate healthy life practices. It supports the achievement of the 8FYP health targets, guided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The focus is towards Universal Health Coverage through primary health care and continue alo clinic and provide evidence to scale up it in the national program and demonstrate results to expand the model in other areas of the city corporations and municipalities. Beyond that the project will strengthen the ongoing initiative to digitalize the urban primary  health care program for improved decision-making.

Nutrition Outcome: By 2026, children under 5, adolescents and women of reproductive age, including the most vulnerable groups access and utilise quality, equitable nutrition services and adopt appropriate nutritional behaviour and care practices

Output 1: By 2026, the Government at national and sub-national level has increased capacity for planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluating multi-sectoral programmes and partnerships

Output 2: By 2026, the Government at national and sub-national level has an increased capacity to deliver equitable, gender- and age-responsive quality maternal, infant, young child, and adolescent nutrition and early childhood care and development (ECCD) services with a focus on the most vulnerable

Output 3: By 2026, Government and partners at national and sub-national level have increased capacity to deliver equitable and gender-responsive evidence-based programmes for early detection and treatment of child wasting in all settings

This component will ensure that children under 5 years of age, adolescents and women of reproductive age access and equitably utilise quality nutrition services and adopt appropriate nutritional behaviour and care practices. It supports the achievement of the 8FYP nutrition targets, guided by the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council, which coordinates nutrition-related actions by 22 different ministries and is headed by the Prime Minister. Support will be provided to strengthen evidence-based policy development; multi-sectoral planning and coordination; public-private partnerships; advocacy; and tracking systems to monitor nutrition outcomes and investment levels. Maternal, infant, young child and adolescent nutritional well-being will be promoted, including in urban slums, through multi-sectoral platforms to increase community awareness; improved accessibility, coverage, utilisation and quality of antenatal and postnatal care services; the integration of growth monitoring and promotion in regular immunisation activities; enhanced capacity of service providers to achieve universal early childhood care and development; the distribution of iron and folic acid to adolescent girls, and proactive counselling for positive adolescent nutrition practices.

Efforts will be made to scale up the prevention of wasting through early detection and treatment, especially among children (02 years). This will include strengthening community-based outreach and facility-based screening; developing a standardised community-based nutrition model for scale-up; establishing and referring to Integrated Management of Childhood Illness and Nutrition (IMCI-Nutrition) Corners; and making the existing nutrition-related services disaster-resilient.

Child protection Outcome: All children including adolescents and children with special needs and abilities, in Bangladesh, by 2026, are increasingly protected from all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation, and neglect through strengthened preventive and responsive child protection systems.

Output 1: By 2026, all children have increased equitable access to strengthened laws and policies and improved child-friendly, gender-responsive services across the justice system including in climate-affected locations and other humanitarian settings

Output 2: By 2026, all children have increased equitable access to a strengthened and responsive social service system including in climate-affected locations and other humanitarian settings

Output 3: By 2026, all children including adolescents, families, and their communities have increased knowledge and understanding of violence against children, and women are empowered to prevent violence and other harmful practices including in climate-affected locations and other humanitarian settings.

This component is aimed at ensuring that all children, including adolescents, are better protected from all forms of violence, abuse, exploitation, neglect, and harmful practices. It supports the 8FYP focus on costing and implementing the Children Act 2013 and promotes establishing a child protection partners group, maintaining minimum standards for child protection under the leadership of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and the Ministry of Social Welfare.

A child-friendly justice system will be promoted by strengthening the diversion system and restorative justice; the availability and quality of administrative data; the capacity of judiciary and childrens court judges, police, probation officers and social workers; and adopting a systemic approach to prevention, including decriminalisation of minor offences. A child-friendly social service system will focus on expanding a professional-level social service workforce with a clear mandate to protect children, including adolescents, through identifying, preventing and managing risks; responding to vulnerability and harm; integrating child protection responsive frameworks in education and health systems; promoting a shift from harmful practices through engagement with children, families and communities; and providing support in areas affected by emergencies and vulnerable to climate change.

Approaches to prevent child marriage will rely on the latest global evidence and best practices. Social and Behaviour Change and partnerships with adolescents and families are expected to shift negative social and gender norms and harmful practices while increasing girls access to health, education and social protection.

In addition, an authentic Civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) mechanism in a country provides information for policy reform and service delivery for the population in that country. CRVS, the foundation of rights, protections, entitlements, and services, is one of the key priorities of the Bangladesh government to achieve SDGs by 2030. The Government, with the leadership of the Cabinet Division, is approaching to develop the core of Digital Government by establishing CRVS in Bangladesh. UNICEF Bangladesh has been working with the Cabinet Division, the Office of Registrar General for Birth and Death Registration, and other key stakeholders to improve the country's birth and death registration mechanisms. More than 10 million children below 5 years are still not registered at birth. More than 22 million children are married before 18 years as revealed by the 2019 MICS study, 1.8 million children are engaged in hazardous child labour, and these children are mostly deprived of birth registration or married with false birth registration certificates. Improving birth registration will save the lives of millions of children in the country.

WASH Outcome: By 2026, all children and women have access to and utilise quality, equitable, resilient, and sustainable WASH services and adopt appropriate hygiene behaviours and care practices

Output 1: The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives (MoLGRDC) and line departments have strengthened capacity for evidence-based policy development, planning, coordination and budgeting for improved, equitable, sustainable and climate-resilient WASH services including in emergencies

Output 2: Relevant government agencies and the private sector have strengthened capacity to provide environmentally sustainable, affordable and safely managed water and sanitation services to communities, households and institutions in urban and rural areas

Output 3: Communities and children in all settings, with a focus on the most vulnerable, have appropriate knowledge of hygiene practices and expanded access to hygiene-related services and supplies including menstrual health and hygiene management.

This component will ensure all children and women have access to and utilise quality, equitable, resilient and sustainable WASH services and adopt appropriate hygiene behaviours and care practices. It supports achieving the 8FYP WASH targets, guided by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives. Evidence generation will support defining geographic adequacy and performance patterns; predicting budgetary needs through an equity lens; advocating for policies and regulations to respond to climate change and gender barriers; and advocating for increased human and financial assets. Enhanced access to sustainable and safely managed climate-resilient water services in households and facilities will be supported (particularly in urban slums and poor rural areas) through systems strengthening and private-sector partnerships. The successful arsenic- and climate-safe village model will be scaled-up. Enhanced and inclusive access to affordable and climate change-resilient sanitation services will be supported through pro-poor and market-based solutions and the school sanitation programme. A 2019 sanitation industry study, the success of sanitation marketing and the willingness-to-pay review will guide the development of improved facilities, payment plans and toilet options and menstrual hygiene management awareness.