UNHCR and UNICEF renew their Letter of Understanding on World Refugee Day

On World Refugee Day, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announce the signature of an updated Joint Action Plan to complement their 2015 Letter of Understanding (LoU). This document aims at further cementing the collaboration between the two agencies at national and local level in Sudan, in response to the increasing needs of both refugees and their host communities in the country.

“We are pleased to continue our partnership with our sister agency UNICEF in Sudan. The LoU has been an important framework in strengthening our collaboration in providing protection and assistance to refugees and other displaced people in Sudan,” said Fatima Mohammed Cole, UNHCR Deputy Representative and OiC in Sudan.

According to the LoU, the cooperation between UNHCR and UNICEF will focus on education, child protection, nutrition, health, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sectors.

“As the number of displaced and refugee children is growing, it is critical to ensure access to lifesaving and life-sustaining services. This agreement provides an effective roadmap and we look forward to continuing our strong partnership with UNHCR to leave no child behind,” said Mandeep O'Brien, UNICEF Representative to Sudan.

Building on the 2015 LoU, focused on assistance to South Sudanese refugees, the updated Joint Action Plan will scale up UNHCR and UNICEF joint support to all refugee populations and covers all refugee hosting States in Sudan. It further clarifies roles and responsibilities, enhance operational effectiveness, and optimize resources of each agency to the benefit of refugees and host communities in the areas of coordination, strategic planning and assessments, contingency planning and preparedness, implementation, monitoring and reporting, resource mobilisation, advocacy and information sharing.

Additionally, both organizations commit to increase the collaboration on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) and plan for joint efforts in advocacy and coordination.

Based on a long history of effective collaboration, this new Joint Action Plan wants to reinforce joint interventions and will help ensuring complementarity and mutually supportive actions to protect and assist the most vulnerable, especially children and women whether refugees or Sudanese.