Government, UNICEF sign agreement on child rights

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday, 17 January agreed to provide US $100 million in funding to help improve the lives of Sudanese children over the next four years, the Sudanese Ministry of International Cooperation and UNICEF said in a joint statement. "The 'Programme [of Cooperation]' aims to assist the GoS [government of Sudan] in its obligation, as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to protect and promote the rights of children to survival, development, protection and participation," the statement said. The agreement between the government of Sudan and UNICEF, covering the period 2002-2006, was signed in Khartoum on Thursday by Sudanese Minister of International Cooperation Karam al-Din Salih and UNICEF Country Representative Thomas Ekval. An additional US $32 million would be provided by the Sudanese government and other national partners, the statement said. The new programme of cooperation would include six major areas of intervention: health and nutrition; water and environmental sanitation; basic education; rights, protection and peace building; planning, monitoring and evaluation; and communication and advocacy. Child rights, gender equality and HIV/AIDS issues would cut across all interventions, UNICEF and the government of Sudan stated on 17 January. To reduce geographical disparities, the programme would focus on the nine most disadvantaged states of the country. The selected "focus states" were Northern Darfur, Western Darfur, Southern Darfur, Northern Kordofan, Western Kordofan, Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, Kassala, and El-Gadaref (Al-Qadarif). The programme would allow work to continue in Juba, Wau, Malakal and other "accessible locations" in the government-controlled areas of southern Sudan. The programme would also provide a framework for humanitarian emergencies arising from conflict and natural disasters such as drought and floods, and would help "communities prepare for emergencies and develop appropriate coping mechanisms", UNICEF and the Sudanese Ministry of International Cooperation stated.