SUSPECTED MEASLES CASES CONTINUE TO BE REPORTED – As of 16 February, over 100 cases among both refugee and host communities have been reported in White Nile State camp clinics. Measles outbreaks have been reported across most States in Sudan, affecting Sudanese nationals as well as refugees. The State Ministry of Health and WHO are leading on surveillance, laboratory support and case management. A measles vaccination campaign will launch in April.

United Nations aid agencies and NGO partners launched the 2019 Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. The appeal seeks to raise US$920 million to meet the massive needs of more than 900,000 refugees from Myanmar and over 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis in host communities. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called for timely, predictable and flexible contributions in order to meet the goals of this year’s appeal.

PAKISTAN: ISLAMABAD, 04 January 2019: The Federal Minister for Health Aamer Mehmood Kiani has pledged to support the inclusion of all residents of Pakistan, including Afghan refugees, into the government’s health plans and programmes that will allow them to have access to better healthcare services.

PAKISTAN: QUETTA, 14 January 2019: It was an uphill task for a 27-year-old Afghan refugee girl to live in a traditional society having no source of income, skills and exposure – but thanks to UNHCR’s Safe from the Start programme which skilled her and empowered her, she is becoming self-reliant.

PAKISTAN: PESHAWAR, 22 January 2019: Pakistani and Afghan youth portrayed their imagination through their colours at a painting competition on Tuesday. Link: https://unhcrpk.org/unhcr-organises-painting-competition-in-peshawar/

Shelter: by end of January a total of 285 Shelters were upgraded and repaired in Azraq and Zaatari camps.

WASH: UNICEF launched a new in-house developed system dedicated for managing all complaints received related to the networks on the hotline. The system is able to categorize and prioritize the complaints and refer the competent authority to take action. The average response time to receive complained is 48-72 hours.

Education: In January 2019, UNICEF followed up on the Learning for All initiative for the current school year and succeeded in reducing the registration rejected caseload. A total of 492 of 1,042 (47 percent) cases were resolved, with children returning to school. For out-of-school children, 2,944 of 6,702 (44 percent) have been enrolled in schools.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is seeing a surge in refugee arrivals from South Sudan in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Over the past few days thousands of desperate people have been crossing the border to escape fighting and violence against civilians.

The SGBV WG met regularly in January 2019, focus of the meeting was presenting best practices on violence against older people and discussing sexual harassment in the workplace. The SGBV WG finalized report on 16 days of activism against gender based violence campaign. First meeting of the year was held for the GBV IMS taskforce, whereas data gathering organizations conducted an analysis of compiled data of 2018 on GBV trends that will inform the yearly report. Moreover the SGBV WG participated to the global consultation on GBV minimum standards for the prevention and response to GBV in emergencies. The goal of these minimum standards is to enhance accountability among GBV specialists, improve quality, and provide clarity on what constitutes effective GBV prevention and response. Collecting feedback from field level GBV practitioners is critical in the revision process to ensure the Minimum Standards are truly an inclusive field-tested and validated. To this end the SGBV WG organized a consultation on 22nd of January 2019, attended by 25 participants (6M, 19F) with expertise in the multisectorial response to GBV in Jordan.