Virtual Launch | Still Unprotected – Humanitarian Funding for Child Protection

You are invited! To join the discussion at the virtual launch, register here. 

Why is protection of children in humanitarian contexts so neglected, and what can we do to better protect these children from harm?

In 2019, the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Save the Children and the Child Protection Area of Responsibility published “Unprotected”, a report exposing shortfalls in humanitarian funding for child protection. With the global COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating risks to children’s protection it has become imperative to get an updated picture of state of child protection funding in humanitarian contexts, based on the latest data, including initial funding within COVID-responses. We are pleased to launch this month “Still Unprotected”.

Key Findings:

• Child protection is chronically underfunded. The 19 Humanitarian Response Plans (2019) we have studied were funded at 67% overall across sectors, while child protection was only covered at 47%. 
• Funding is unpredictable with significant disparities between years for a same response, which makes planning difficult, for example, within the Syria 3RP, Iraq had a funding level of 40% in 2017 which increased to 63% in 2018, then dropped to 37% in 2019.
• Humanitarian funding requests for child protection interventions do not match the actual needs as it often aims at assisting just a small fraction of the population in need of child protection services, for example, in CAR only 4% of the children in need are targeted, in DRC it is 8%. Also, funding requested does not always reflect the real cost of quality interventions meeting the Child Protection Minimum Standards, for example in Yemen on average only US13$ was requested per beneficiary for 2019.
• Funding available per child falls far short of what is needed to meet the Child Protection Minimum Standards for example, in Mali, Sudan, Yemen and Nigeria, less than US$6 was available per beneficiary targeted for the year 2019. 

We look forwards to seeing you all on 27 October!