UNHCR-UNICEF Blueprint for Joint Action for Refugee Children
The COVID-19 pandemic has put refugee and vulnerable host community children and their families at even greater risk and introduced new threats to their survival and wellbeing. Securing equitable access to essential services like water, sanitation, protection and education has taken on a new urgency in the current crisis and its economic aftermath.
In January 2020, UNHCR and UNICEF launched an ambitious Blueprint for Joint Action. This is a commitment to accelerate joint efforts under a transformational agenda in line with the Global Compact on Refugees, focused on three key areas: education, WASH and child protection. By supporting host countries to include refugee children in national development plans and budgets, and to strengthen national service delivery systems, we are improving access for both refugee and host community children to education, child protection services, clean water, and safe sanitation and hygiene facilities.
Building on our strong and established global partnership, the initial phase of the Blueprint spans 10 countries (Bangladesh, Cameroon, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, and Rwanda). These countries are home to over 2 million refugee children, 20% of the world’s total.
Five accelerators for refugee inclusion
One year into the partnership, the initiative has increased access to education, clean water and child protection services for over two million refugee children in ten focus countries. The 'Five Accelerator for Refugee Inclusion' paper, published in September 2021, summarizes the results achieved in 2020, highlights valuable key learnings and provides an outlook on next steps.
For more information, please visit the Blueprint for Joint Action website.