ECHO Child Protection and Education in Emergency for vulnerable children in South Sudanees Refugee C SUMMARY
The project started in June 2020 and is implemented by Plan International Ethiopia. It will deliver live-saving child protection services and safe access to education for South Sudanese refugee girls and boys in the Gambella and Benishanguel Gumuz regions. The action will provide live-saving preventative, responsive, age and gender appropriate protection services and psychosocial support. Mainly through capacity building, community-based child protection mechanisms as well as psychosocial support services. The action will also improve and provide access to safe, quality and inclusive primary education for refugee children. This will be achieved through the construction and rehabilitation of learning spaces, teacher training and mainstreaming protection, PSS and MHM in the education sector. The project is gender, disability and age responsive and has focuses on adolescent girls, children with a disability, unaccompanied and separated children and other vulnerable children. Ethiopia is dealing with large numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons and in addition recurring climate induced disasters (droughts and floods). UNHCR (Nov ‘19) reported that there are 720,914 refugees (63% children) including 320,957 from South Sudan; the majority of them being hosted in Gambella. Although the agreement on conflict resolution in South Sudan stipulates that the new government should have already been formed, in reality this was delayed. Consequently, the camp situation continues t o deteriorate and starting from 12/12/2019 there has been an increase in arrivals at Pamdong reception centre. To release the pressure on Gambella, more and more refugees have now transferred to Benishanguel-Gumuz.

Services in the refugee camps are generally much better than in host communities and community assets and resources are also overstretched in the returnee situation. Besides, the recent conflict history between the IDP returnees and the community that stayed behind continues to play a role. Hence, the need to seriously involve the host community is apparent in both settings to prevent tensions. The principal objective is that boys and girls in displacement situations in Ethiopia live in safety and can continue their educational and personal development without disruption by providing high quality child protection and primary education for children in South Sudanese refugee camps and communities where IDPs are returning too; ensuring increased safety and quality learning opportunities.
Quality implies: 1) a safe learning environment 2) competent and well-trained teachers who are knowledgeable in the subject matter 3) adequate materials for teaching and learning 4) participatory methods of instruction and 5) reasonable class sizes. Especially in complex emergencies, the quality of education is closely interlinked with learners’ psycho-social wellbeing.
Protective/safe implies: people’s physical and personal wellbeing and integrity as well as to their freedom from physical, environmental, social, spiritual, political, emotional and psychological harm. Learning opportunities relevant to the emergency: specific content and teaching/learning strategies relevant to the emergency context must be introduced. This can be defined by the sector, the MoE, the cluster or the agency but must be based in documented and defined needs. The Action benefits from existing cooperation modalities, built during the 5 previous ECHO projects. Plan contributes to the UNHCR led Best Interest Determination (BID) panel. Plan facilitates the process across the camps through its Child Protection Information Management System (CPIMS), which links with UNICEF and Save the Children. Plan cooperates with ICRC for cross-border tracing and feeds information into the East Africa Regional database. Plan has a role in the facilitation of in-country tracing. Plan conducts adult and/or child verification upon request from the UNHCR regional office and the Protection working group in Gambella. The Action benefits from the cooperation with UNICEF with regard to guidance on the quality provision of psychosocial support to girls and boys in Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) and schools. The main target groups for CP activities are separated children and children at risk of separation. The EiE component targets children/adolescents between 7-20 years, who are enrolled in primary education or (at risk of dropping) out of school, with a focus on girls. Other direct beneficiaries: (foster) parents/caregivers, community groups, teachers, mothers in school. Plan will provide safe access to primary education in an inclusive environment to out-of-school children and children at risk of dropping out. Schools will be supported to maintain conducive learning environments especially for female students. To improve attendance and retention, the action will address barriers to access education and ensure that children are safe in and on the way to school.

CPiE will be provided through interventions that complement each other, tailored to each child's best interest. Quality will be assured through specific SoPs and guidelines adhere to the revised Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Actions. Case management will follow inter-agency SOPs and categorize children into low, medium and high priority, based on BIA (Best Interest Assessment (BIA) and Best Interest Determination (BID). After case planning, children will be referred to service providers and linked to alternative care arrangements. Regular monitoring and case review /closure as well as information management are planned. Trained male and female case workers are ensuring quality, gender and age sensitive as well as confidential and dignified case management. Monitoring of foster families and other care arrangements takes place to prevent new protection risks. Social and case workers will be trained on referral pathways along with training on the identification tool of interim care either with (foster) families or other long-term care arrangements.

Plan will stimulate the refugee, IDP and host communities to become active agents of change, which will also allow them to play a pivotal role that can be sustained after the exit. Capacity improvement and enhanced coordination of CPC/CCC, School organizations, government actors, care givers and other community structures is foreseen. Structures will be responsible for identifying, reporting and monitoring child right violations (including CEFM, labor exploitation, SGBV) and feedback. CPC/CCC will monitor low priority cases and are part of the awareness raising activities. Structures will also monitor school attendance of children at risk of dropping out which can be an indication of protection issues. Relevant training, including CPiE, psychosocial first aid, disability inclusiveness, gender, SGBV and referral pathways will be provided.
 
Disability-friendly CFSs and YFS, established in previous ECHO Actions, will be fully utilized and where needed new CFS/YFS will be set-up. CFS/YFS are fenced to ensure safety and indoor and outdoor playing areas will be available. Gender segregated WASH facilities, accessible for People/Children with Disabilities, are present. Activities like life skills sessions and community conversations will be organized by trained facilitators and  together with trained refugee adolescents and youth , who will cascade skills and knowledge through peer education, life skills sessions and community conversation. Activities (games, drama, sport etc.) will be inclusive, age-gender and culturally sensitive for 3 to 18 year old (CFS) and 16-24 (YFS). During activities sensitization on hygiene and sanitation, MHM (menstrual hygiene management), SGBV and SRHR (sexual and reproductive health and rights) will take place. Sessions to promote resilience, self-esteem,
self-awareness, decision making, peaceful coexistence and social cohesion are provided based on Plan’s Life Skills curriculum.

CFS/YFS are crucial locations where UASC, OVC, SGBV survivors and children/adults with psychosocial needs can be identified. Gender, age and culturally appropriate psychosocial support interventions remain a high priority. Non-specialized psychosocial first aid based on the IASC Guidelines will be provided. Cases that need professional counselling will be referred to specialists. Experienced social workers will be recruited employed to ensure quality of assistance.
Plan will provide primary education in an inclusive and safe environment, focusing on out-of-school children and children at risk of dropping out. One full academic year succeeding the current academic year will be covered. Mechanisms will be established to ensure that children are not at risk on the way to school and at school. School grounds, including sex-segregated latrines with water points, are fully fenced and are disability friendly. Schools will adhere to INEE Minimum Standards and use the ARRA curriculum. Plan will continue analyzing the barriers to access and retention in school and offer solutions; provision of school supplies will reduce economic barriers; mini-libraries will help out of school children to enroll. The focus will remain on providing conducive learning environments, through increasing the number of women in schools, raising awareness on the importance of girls’ education, support for MHM and mentoring better attendance of girls is ensure. This approach resulted in an increased girl’s enrolment in Nguenyyiel from 32% last year to 38% now.