Nigeria 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.
Nigeria snapshot
Appeal highlights
- An estimated 9.3 million people, including 5.7 million children, are affected by conflict in northeast, northwest and north central Nigeria. Of these, more than 2.9 million people are displaced, while 1 million live in inaccessible areas. Humanitarian crises due to protracted armed conflict, armed violence and community clashes between farmers and herders have resulted in alarming food insecurity and malnutrition, compounded by epidemics and childhood illnesses within a context of deteriorating water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions.
- UNICEF will provide an integrated multisectoral response, focusing on programmatic convergence for conflict-affected populations. The Rapid Response Mechanism will providetimely and coordinated support to areas with increased needs. A systematic gender lens will be applied to all programme designs while strengthening programme quality.
- UNICEF requires US$270.3 million to deliver an integrated package of assistance focusing on nutrition, education, WASH, health and child protection services to address the needs of vulnerable and crisis-affected children.
Key planned results for 2023
712,800 children with severe wasting admitted for treatment
340,000 children/caregivers accessing community-based mental health and psychosocial support
828,600 children accessing formal or non-formal education, including early learning
1.2 million people accessing a sufficient quantity and quality of water
Funding requirements for 2023
Country needs and strategy
Humanitarian needs
About 9.3 million people are affected by humanitarian crises in 7 of Nigeria's 36 states (Borno, Adamawa, Yobe in the northeast; Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina in the northwest; and Benue in north central Nigeria). An estimated 2.9 million people, 55 per cent of whom are children and 25 per cent of whom are women, are displaced, while 1.1 million people in the northeast live in areas inaccessible to humanitarian workers. Displacement is largely due to a protracted armed conflict in its thirteenth year in the northeast; armed violence - including banditry and abductions - in the northwest; and community clashes between farmers and herders in the north central region.
High levels of food insecurity have aggravated malnutrition in northern Nigeria. Nearly 600,000 people in the northeast and 400,000 in the northwest were experiencing emergency levels of food insecurity as of August 2022. According to the most recent SMART survey in northwestern Nigeria, more than 354,000 children are expected to suffer from severe wasting in 2023 (130,000 more than in 2022). In the northeast, 358,000 children (40,000 more than in 2022) are expected to need treatment for severe wasting because hostilities have cut off their access to farmland. More than 40 per cent of critically food insecure people are residing in areas inaccessible to humanitarian actors.
Nationwide, Nigeria has experienced the worst levels of flooding in a decade, with 31 out of 36 states affected, according to government sources. This has contributed to cholera outbreaks, particularly in the northeast. Vaccine-preventable diseases remain endemic. In addition to battling other diseases, Nigeria experienced the world’s largest measles outbreak in 2022, as well as a cholera outbreak that has claimed more than 400 lives, in particular in Borno and Yobe States in the northeast.
UNICEF’s strategy
UNICEF will provide humanitarian assistance to people in need, prioritizing children and women in Nigeria’s northeast, northwest and north central regions. Working in partnership with authorities, United Nations agencies and national and international non-governmental organizations, UNICEF will reach those affected by conflict and other crises. The response will be multisectoral, integrating nutrition, health, WASH, child protection and education, with social and behavioural change as a cross-cutting component. In the northeast, UNICEF will serve as the provider of last resort and ensure sector leadership in nutrition, WASH, education and child protection.
UNICEF and partners will strengthen the Rapid Response Mechanism to provide immediate assistance to scale up services in areas of high need. UNICEF will use humanitarian cash transfers and shock-responsive social protection as a cross-cutting response strategy with UNICEF sectors while ensuring linkages to the Government for system strengthening and sustainability.
UNICEF will enhance its risk-informed and rights- and results-based programming all along the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. Particularly in the northwest, the humanitarian component of nexus programming will focus on supporting government-led preparedness and response via evidence-based analysis and response planning, shock-responsive social protection and establishment of standby partnerships. UNICEF will ensure the response is child-focused and gender-sensitive. Mitigating risks and preventing and responding to sexual exploitation, abuse and gender-based violence will be an integral part of the interventions. UNICEF will strengthen localization and further integrate accountability throughout its response.
UNICEF will provide access to quality treatment for children suffering from severe wasting. To reduce malnutrition in the long term, UNICEF’s response aims to increase the proportion of infants aged 0-5 months who are exclusively breastfed to 65 per cent and the proportion of children aged 6-23 months who are receiving the minimum dietary diversity to 28 per cent (by 2025).
Health interventions will ensure a timely and effective response to disease outbreaks, provide routine immunization to children under 5 years of age and improve the primary health care system. UNICEF’s WASH response will be integrated with health and nutrition services to maximize impact, while innovative approaches will focus on sufficient and sustainable access to WASH services.
UNICEF’s education interventions will focus on increasing children’s access to formal and informal vocational skill opportunities required to address the multifaceted learning needs of children. This will occur via catch-up classes, accelerated learning programmes, vocational skills training and pathways back to inclusive age-appropriate levels of formal education. UNICEF’s child protection response will focus on reintegrating children formerly associated with armed groups while investing in child protection services, including mental health and psychosocial support, in communities, camps and schools.
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 Nigeria; the strategies that we are using to respond to these situations; and the donor support that is essential in this response.
