Attachments
Highlights
- Armenia currently counts 115,366 refugees, including 36,000 children, who fled into the country in late September 2023, or were escorted through the Lachin corridor between December 2022 and September 2023, joining 26,700 displaced since the 2020 conflict.
- As of 31 October, 33,011 children received mental health and psychosocial support, 24,442 children and caregivers accessed safe spaces and protection support, and 6,512 vulnerable children were supported through child protection case management.
- 17,356 children (0–9 years) from 11,335 households received clothing vouchers. 297 refugee and local vulnerable children impacted by flash floods in May 2024 also received similar assistance. A total of 2,397 pregnant and lactating women received pharmacy cards, and 265 children with disabilities (0–18 years) received both vouchers and cards.
- 19,107 children accessed educational services, including early childhood and remedial education, and 9,825 children received learning and didactic materials. About 200 preschool educators from 47 kindergartens and 37 alternative reschools were trained on Positive Parenting, Inclusive Pedagogy and Psychological First Aid and serve 5,685 children, including children with disabilities. UNICEF expanded learning spaces in five kindergartens accommodating an additional 180 children.
- 9,244 children were assessed by mobile pediatric teams, 2,594 child patients were referred to higher-level health services, including psychosocial support. 5,886 caregivers received health and nutrition childcare counselling. UNICEF capacitated over 1,850 primary health providers on child health management and emergency care principles.
- As of October 2024, UNICEF received US$11.6 million out of US$14.3 million requested (19 per cent funding gap). UNICEF acknowledges the generous contributions from all public and private sector donors to support its response to the refugees and vulnerable host communities in Armenia.
Funding Overview and Partnerships
Under the leadership of the Government of Armenia, a joint inter-agency Refugee Response Plan (RRP) was launched on 7 October 2023 to address humanitarian needs (in place until 31 March 2024). Aligned with this, UNICEF launched the Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal in October 2023. Given the continuous humanitarian needs and the importance of ensuring continuity of services until national systems can fully absorb the additional caseload, UNICEF has revised and extended its response until the end of 2024. The focus of the extended response is on sustaining and expanding service provision in mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), child protection case management, including for children with disabilities, education, health and nutrition outreach and counselling services as well as strengthening the humanitarian development nexus for the long-term through system strengthening interventions. UNICEF will also aim to support children and their families with needs-based humanitarian cash in coordination with the government to facilitate their integration and access to essential services. The revised HAC accounts for the newly implemented protection status that includes those displaced in 2020, thus increasing the people in need to 236,900 and people to be reached to 100,000. The funding requirements were increased accordingly by US$1.7 million, amounting to a total of US$14.3 million. To date, almost US$9.8 million or 69 per cent of 2023– 2024 funding requirement has been raised, and another US$1.8 million was mobilized by reprogramming existing partnerships. These funds enable UNICEF to maintain essential services for refugee children, their caregivers, and local vulnerable communities, promoting social cohesion. This is especially critical as the winter weather intensifies pre-existing vulnerabilities and ongoing humanitarian challenges.
UNICEF expresses gratitude to the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the people and Governments of France and Norway, the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the United States Department of State (BPRM), the German Federal Foreign Office, UNICEF National Committees of Luxemburg, Switzerland, Argentina, Education Cannot Wait, and Afeyan Foundation who have provided critical funding for the ongoing response. In addition, the European Union (EU) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) agreed to reprogramming within existing partnerships to support the emergency response. To expedite scale up of priority actions and sustain critical actions while resource mobilization efforts were ongoing, at the onset of the emergency, UNICEF Armenia is grateful to have received US$1.9 million of flexible funding through two Global Thematic Humanitarian Funds allocations1 and an Emergency Programme Fund (EPF)2 loan of US$1.2 million that enabled timely and effective support. UNICEF continues to require and rely on additional allocations of timely, flexible funding to ensure critical assistance and continuity of services in MHPSS, child protection case management, including for children with disabilities, education, health and nutrition outreach and counselling services, humanitarian cash services for affected children and their caregivers.