The European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian aidOperations (ECHO) has allocated approximately USD 1,672,874.91 towards strengthening humanitarian response in the education and child protection sectors, and COVID-19 vaccination-related medical waste management.

UNICEF has scaled up its emergency preparedness and response in Libya since 2012, focusing on support to basic service provision, in health, nutrition, education and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Additional focus has been on building a protective environment for children and contributing to and building national capacity in evidence generation and evidence-based policy-making. In collaboration with national and international NGO partners, UNICEF provided direct humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable in line with the Humanitarian Response Plan.

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Libya in March 2020, UNICEF has been implementing a multi-sectoral response, with interventions in Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE), Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and WASH, among other areas.

In line with this commitment, UNICEF Libya in partnership with UNICEF US came up with a non-emergency action project aimed at strengthening capacities and coordination mechanisms for education and child protection in emergencies, and COVID-19 vaccination-related medical waste management in Libya. The project began on 01 May 2021 and will run for 12 months.

The outcomes of the action are expected to be four fold: the action will strengthen the humanitarian response in the education and child protection sectors in Libya through reinforcing and strengthening sector coordination and investing in sectoral capacity through dedicated resources; Secondly, the action will support sector capacity building through joint assessments, advocacy, resource mobilization, and trainings; Thirdly, the action will contribute to advancing the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) through mainstreaming PSEA in both sectors, including through training of fellow United Nations agencies, INGOs and local CSOs; and last but not least, the action will support the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Libya, focusing specifically on medical waste management in remote areas to minimize the risk of health care-associated infections (HAIs) linked to COVID-19 vaccination and medical and biohazardous waste.

Nearly 1,343,192 people, of whom 122,000 are children between the ages of five to nine, will benefit from the USD 1,672,874.91 contribution toward this project.

UNICEF Libya would like to express its sincere gratitude to the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian aidOperations(ECHO) for their generous support, without which this project would not have been possible.