UNICEF structure in Sudan

UNICEF structure in Sudan

Effective partnerships for children

Effective partnerships for children

Integrated Community Recovery and Development

Integrated Community Recovery and Development

Investing in the children of Sudan

Investing in the children of Sudan

The role of development partners

The role of development partners

 

Bringing improved health care to the people of Darfur, in partnership with ECHO

© UNICEF Sudan/2006/Georgina Cranston

500,000 women and children in Darfur - like this mother and child in El Geneina - are benefiting from improved health services, thanks to support from ECHO

October 2007: UNICEF has a long-standing relationship with ECHO, enabling vital funds to be targeted to some of Sudan’s most vulnerable communities. In 2007, ECHO provided nearly US$3.5 million to UNICEF programmes in Sudan.

In October 2007, ECHO provided €512,000 to support emergency health activities in Darfur; a partnership that benefited some 500,000 people affected by the conflict in the three states.

Funds were allocated to procure and distribute essential medical supplies for use in primary health care centres, reaching both internally displaced persons and members of ‘host’ communities.

Amongst the supplies purchased with ECHO’s contribution were:

• 1,000 primary health centre kits, each containing vital medicines and related supplies sufficient to treat 10,000 people for two months
• 400 midwifery kits for use by village midwives to improve the quality of ante-natal and post-natal care for up to 90,000 women
• Malaria treatment drugs

Since the height of the conflict in 2004, child mortality rates in Darfur have fallen and are currently below emergency levels. One factor in this reduction has been the efforts of humanitarian agencies to maintain health care programmes, even in the face of continued insecurity and constraints on access. UNICEF estimates that its own supported programmes helped ensure access to health care for some 3 million people in Darfur in 2007 alone.

Contributions such as those from ECHO – which also supports UNICEF programmes in other sectors including water and sanitation – are critical to ensuring that these life-saving programmes can be maintained.