Angola Appeal
Humanitarian Action for Children
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it
provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition,
education, health and protection services. Return to main appeal page.
Angola snapshot
Appeal highlights
- An estimated 1.6 million people in Angola are facing food and nutrition insecurity due to climate shocks. Projected normal to below normal rainfall in the northwest and increased chances of above normal rainfall in the southeast will negatively impact the population, in terms of their health and nutrition and access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education and child protection services.
- Health emergencies, including polio, cholera and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic will increase humanitarian needs and deepen the complexity of the situation in Angola in 2021.
- UNICEF's humanitarian action in Angola will include the provision of essential drugs, vaccines, nutrition and WASH supplies and infection prevention and control support; as well as education, child protection, gender-based violence and communication for development services, including risk communication and community engagement.
- UNICEF is appealing for US$14.3 million to respond to humanitarian needs in Angola in 2021.
Key planned targets for 2021
700,000 people accessing a sufficient quantity of safe water
60,000 women and children accessing gender-based violence risk mitigation / prevention / response
30,000 children accessing educational services
700,000 people participating in engagement actions
Funding requirements for 2021
Country needs and strategy
Humanitarian needs
An estimated 1.6 million people in Angola are facing food and nutrition insecurity due to climate shocks. Given the poor rainfall projections for 2020/2021 – normal to below normal rainfall in the northwest and increased chances of above normal rainfall in the southeast – Angola is at heightened risk of flooding and resulting population displacement, loss of crops, reduced household income, limited humanitarian access and increased risk of waterborne diseases, including diarrhoea and cholera. As a result, the food and nutrition security situation is likely to deteriorate in parts of the country.
Overall, the 2021 humanitarian outlook is complex. More than 38,000 children under 5 years need treatment for severe acute malnutrition (SAM); over 702,000 people affected by emergencies are expected to need access to water; over 346,000 people will need sanitation; and nearly 187,000 will need hygiene promotion support. Angola is also prone to health emergencies such as measles, malaria, yellow fever, cholera, malaria and polio, with confirmed outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2. As of September 2020, Angola was responding to seven outbreaks, with 142 cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, including 124 circulating cases.
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is severely impacting the country. By the end of September 2020, there were nearly 4,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (nearly 2,400 active), 152 deaths and 715 people in institutional quarantine. Nearly 92 per cent of cases (nearly 3,700) are in Luanda province. The pandemic is undermining service delivery capacities in the health, education, child protection, nutrition, WASH and other socio-economic sectors, and as a result, liming continuous access to these services, including gender-based violence prevention, risk mitigation and response. Due to COVID-19-related school closures, an estimated 30,000 children need education support.
Government-imposed restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have had a significant impact on vulnerable families, undermining livelihoods, leading to loss of family income, increasing risks of violence, including gender-based violence, and heightened child protection concerns, particularly due to school closures. Limited humanitarian access has also slowed the timely provision of humanitarian assistance to communities in need and may challenge the drought response. This, combined with sharp rises in food prices at local markets, school closures and increasing protection risks may also exacerbate the food insecurity and nutrition crises. In addition, the 6,000 refugees in Luanda North continue to require integrated support.
UNICEF’s strategy
UNICEF’s humanitarian strategy in Angola will focus on supporting the implementation of harmonized interventions for children. The response will be delivered through integrated WASH, health, nutrition, education, child protection, social policy and community for development interventions. As co-lead of the nutrition, WASH and education sectors with the Government, UNICEF provides inter-agency coordination, humanitarian leadership and capacity development for the Government and partners at the centralized and decentralized levels, and support for enhanced service delivery.
Key aspects of the UNICEF humanitarian response in Angola include: (1) supporting coordination; (2) facilitating risk communication and community engagement; (3) providing infection prevention and control support in WASH and health; (4) enabling the continuity of health and nutrition care; and (5) facilitating continuous access to services, focusing on education and child protection, including gender-based violence in emergencies. With a reported 22 per cent increase in domestic violence cases since the COVID-19 quarantine began, UNICEF child protection and gender-based violence interventions will focus on supporting the establishment of mechanisms to prevent and reduce vulnerabilities to violence.
UNICEF's COVID-19 interventions will focus on those provinces that have been most impacted by COVID-19. Beyond the COVID-19 response, UNICEF humanitarian action in Angola will target the most disaster-prone provinces in the country, including the northwest and southwest.
At the national and sub-national levels, UNICEF will build on its strategic presence by supporting assessment, response and monitoring for humanitarian interventions, while strengthening humanitarian coordination, capacity development and government services. UNICEF will deliver integrated services targeting vulnerable communities through programmatic and geographic convergence of equitable WASH, health, nutrition, education, child protection and other life-saving and behaviour change services for children in the southern province of Cunene.
UNICEF has active partnership cooperation agreements with non-governmental organizations to support implementation and monitoring. Signed annual work plans between UNICEF and relevant government line ministries and the provincial governments of Huíla and Cunene will facilitate the complementarity of interventions proposed in this appeal. UNICEF is also a member of the United Nations Disaster Management Team, the United Nations Country Team and Government-instituted emergency coordination working groups, including the Drought Emergency Team created in 2015 to support the Government’s coordination of humanitarian partners. UNICEF leads the WASH sector for the Drought Emergency Team. Internally, UNICEF has an established and well-functioning emergency management and resilience team tasked with, among other things, humanitarian coordination.
Programme targets
Find out more about UNICEF's work
Highlights
Humanitarian Action is at the core of UNICEF’s mandate to realize the rights of every child. This edition of Humanitarian Action for Children – UNICEF’s annual humanitarian fundraising appeal – describes the ongoing crises affecting children in Angola; the strategies that we are using to respond to these situations; and the donor support that is essential in this response.
