Highlights
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Since TC Pam, a total of 219,597 people have been registered in the mobile birth registration campaign led by the Civil Registry Office. This includes 67,090 children and 152,507 adults
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UN Pacific Strategy Vanuatu National Consultation report is with the government for endorsement 50 stakeholders were trained on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Emergencies training to prepare for future crises and clarify roles
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556 teachers trained on Comprehensive School Safety Plans across the Northern Provinces. The training session aimed at equipping the primary and kindergarten teachers with knowledge, tools, and skills to respond and plan for emergencies including implementation of school drills
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25 Tanna primary schools awaiting rebuilding of TC Pam damaged classrooms have received new UNICEF tented learning spaces to ensure uninterrupted schooling, a collaboration between UNICEF, Ministry of Education & Training and World Vision
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Vanuatu joined countries around the world to celebrate Global Handwashing Day on 15 October
Overview
Continual support is being provided by UNICEF to both the Vanuatu National Recovery TC Pam plan and longer term development plans within Ministries. Work plans jointly developed by UNICEF and Government are being implemented in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Health, Nutrition, Education and Child Protection. UNICEF’s contributions are based on national priorities and support implementation of sector-specific plans and policies, whilst encouraging inter-sector collaboration and coordination. Each work plan is gender-sensitive, targets reducing inequity and incorporates activities that build resilience to disasters and climate change. Increasingly UNICEF is seeking to embed commitments into respective Ministry Business Plans and avoid parallel agency specific processes.
The Prime Minister’s Office circulated the Vanuatu National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP) to development partners to seek inputs. UNICEF coordinated the UN input and other development partners provided feedback. A request was made for the NSDP logical framework to be shared once ready for input. A transition document is expected to bridge the gap between the previous and future plans with a national validation summit planned for October/November.
Within the structure of the emerging UN Pacific Strategy, UNICEF Pacific has embarked on clarifying a matching 5-year (2018-2022) Multi-Country Programme Document for approval by the Executive Board in 2017. This will align with national NSDPs and guide programming priorities and commitments across the 14 Pacific Island Countries over the 5 year period. Multiple layers of consultations with key stakeholders including government, nongovernmental organisations, civil society organisations, and private sector, other UN Agencies, bilateral and multilaterals as well as children and youth will be undertaken. UNICEF Vanuatu staff participated in the UNICEF Pacific ‘Strategic Moments of Reflection’ to provide initial inputs into programme strategic notes and respective sectoral theories of change in Fiji in early October.