Ensure That All Children in Niger Can
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Ensure that all children in Niger can “survive, learn and be protected” www.niger.savethechildren.net Save the Children is the world‘s leading independent organisation for children. OUR VISION is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development, and participation OUR MISSION is to inspire breakthrough in the way the world treats children and achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives Crédit : Nyani Quarmyne / Save the Children STRATEGY GET TO KNOW OUR APPROACH Our theory of change to build a better world for and with children By 2030, Save the Children’s global strategy wants to garantee to all children the three following breakthrough: SURVIVE LEARN BE PROTECTED NO CHILD DIES FROM PRE- ALL CHILD LEARN FROM VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN VENTABLE CAUSES BEFORE A QUALITY BASIC EDU- IS NO LONGER TOLERATED THEIR FIFTH BIRTHDAY CATION OUR MISSION, MORE URGENT THAN EVER 2015 has been marked by three major steps for Save the Children in Niger, making it a decisive year for us. First of all, it has been 10 years now that our organisation is working in Niger. Secondly, this year has been marked by the first attacks that occurred in Diffa, testing our ability to adapt our humanitarian response to this crisis. Finally, this year we developed our 2016-2018 strategic plan, which will allow us to build a Crédit : Awa Ngom Diop / Save the Children solid foundation to achieve our brearyrkthroughs by 2030. But 2015 has also been a good year to celebrate growth and perseverance. Since the opening of the country office in 2005, we have capitalised, year after year, on our major actions, marked by our passion for excellence. Ely Keïta, holding Save the Children’s logo made of clay by the children of Aguie, Niger The new management and operational era in which we entered since March 2013, and the results achieved since then, make us proud to say that the children of Our operating platform has also evolved to intensify our impact on children, Niger are benefitting from our mission in the country. thanks to the launch of the Sponsorship programme, the modernization of our information systems and human resources management, the establishment of We have established strong and strategic partnerships with the government through internal and external communication processes and the strengthening of our a close collaboration with local authorities and the communities, promoting our monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning department. acceptance within the local communities. The 2016-18 period also promises many challenges. For example, the campaign Save the Children portfolio in Niger recorded this year a budget increase of 5%, “Every Last Child” will be the opportunity for us to advocate for every child to which places us undoubtedly among the most important programmes of Save the “survive, learn and be protected”, particularly through our fight against malnutrition Children in the region. In the same way, we enjoy the support and trust of our and early marriage. organisation’s members, as they are aware that the region in which we operate carries major issues for the wellbeing of children. Half way through, our mission is more urgent than ever to ensure that Niger reaches these goals by 2030. Ely Keïta Country Director OUR WORK IN NIGER Save the Children has been working in Niger since Regarding children’s rights, national laws are still not fully harmonised with the 2005, first supporting children and their family international instruments that Niger has ratified – like the International Convention during the food crisis. We have been working in on Child Rights and the African Charter on the Children Rights and Wellbeing – close collaboration with the government to ensure and their implementation is hindered by local customs. For instance, Niger is the the wellbeing of children, through activities in health country with the highest rate of early marriage in the world. and nutrition, water, hygiene and sanitation, child Save the Children is committed to defend the rights and wellbeing of Nigerien protection, education, food security and livelihoods, children. Switching an increasing proportion of our work to longer-term child rights governance and advocacy. We are development funding has facilitated more integrated programming. We also sustain implementing our programmes in four regions: long-lasting cooperation with key partners: the government, our donors, and Niamey, Maradi, Zinder and Diffa. local and international NGOs, with whom we work in coalition on the issues of However, the country’s general context remains a nutrition and food security. challenge for all stakeholders: Niger once more came bottom of the 2015 UN Human To respond to the crisis in Diffa, we have scaled up the programmes we were Development Index, and is marked by malnutrition and chronic food insecurity. implementing in the region since 2009 and extended our action to new sectors, The country is also prone to disease outbreaks and natural chocks like droughts shifting from a development approach to a humanitarian response. and floods, and the flow of displaced people fleeing violence in Mali and Nigeria is aggravating the situation and increasing needs for urgent humanitarian assistance. 76% of girls marry before they turn 18 2015 Female youth literacy rate (15.1%) is more than half that of male (34.5%) In 2015, we have reached: 47% of Nigeriens don’t have access to safe drinking water versus 54% in 2012 directly : 1,344,824 people, including 874,157 children 14% have access to sanitation facilities in rural areas indirectly : 2,941,932 people An estimated 2.5 million people are chronically food insecure and 2 million are estimated to need assistance in 2016 2015 was also marked by the scaling up of our emergency response in Diffa, to respond to the upsurge of violence and the resulting increase in number of Almost 1 child out of 2 is chronically malnourished in Niger Over 400,000 children are expected to suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition displaced persons. in 2016 NUTRITION Nutrition remained our largest programme and continues to play a major part in the 2016-2018 Country Strategy, where reduction of stunted growth is one of our key objectives.To achieve this, we support the Ministry of Health in improving prevention, access to services and quality of management of acute malnutrition. We actively advocate for an appropriation of nutrition activities by the communities and the health and administrative authorities, as evidenced by our key partner position in collective initiatives like the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) international grouping in Niger, the 3N (“Nigeriens feed Nigeriens”) initiative, the Technical Group on Nutrition (GTN) and the technical Committee for the elaboration of National Strategy on Nutritional Security. However, a lot remains to be done as the degree of integration of nutrition in primary and secondary health care systems remains worryingly small. A study conducted by Save the Children in 2015 shows 84% of nutrition activity at local level is paid for by international NGOs. As part of the “Nutrition Coalition”, made up of 14 NGOs, we advocate to ensure that enough human resources are dedicated to nutrition and that the costs of treatment and prevention of malnutrition are included in budgets at all levels. 2015 OUR KEY ACTIVITIES Support treatment of malnourished children and pregnant 89,330 children treated in the 128 nutritional recovery centers supported by Save the Children and lactating women Train and support volunteers in awareness-rising activities, More than 95% of children treated in these centers recovered from acute malnutrition prevention and identification of malnutrition Advocate in favour of the integration of malnutrition 4,582 community volunteers trained on acute malnutrition screening technics - Mid-Upper management as a public health priority and in the national Arm Circumference (MUAC) measure budget 1,267,584 people reached by awareness campaigns on key family practices 261 people recruited and deployed to seven health districts “When we arrived to the stabilisation centre (CRENI), Kanta was extremely thin and apathetic. Now he has gained 135 health structures continuously supplied with nutrient inputs and medicines weight and he cries when he wants milk “, Amina, Kanta’s grandmother 142 support groups for infant and young child feeding practices established in seven health districts Crédit : Corantine Groccia / Save the Children HEALTH We provide important support to preventive and curative activities through: Logistical back-up to health centres and hospitals Mass screenings and vaccination campaigns Support to mobile clinics in the Diffa region Human resources support and capacity building through training for health district staff Joint supervision visits with health districts and regional health directorates Community participation, awareness raising activities and support to health agents Support to the referral system We also worked to strengthen the capacity of local authorities and communities Crédit : Chiara Trincia / Save the Children to respond to epidemics by supporting the development of district and regional level contingency plans and supported teams of nurses and community health workers carry out quarterly mass immunisation campaigns. OUR KEY ACTIVITIES Support the provision of antenatal care, quality maternity services and postnatal 2015 care In 2015, our health programmes supported seven health districts. Organise awareness campaigns to prevent child and maternal diseases A key aspect this year was putting together the Health component of the Support health structures to promote free access to health care 2016-18 Strategic Plan, ensuring it a central place in the country programme. The Global Fund for Health System Support project, which got underway Train health workers this year aiming at reducing child morbidity and mortality specifically due to malaria and HIV/AIDS and covering all 8 regions in Niger, will contribute Advocate for an increase in the share of the national budget allocated to health significantly to this.