BACKGROUND
In South Sudan, the cumulative effects of years of conflict, violence and livelihood devastation have resulted in a major humanitarian emergency. The launch of the National Development Strategy 2018-2021, with the overarching goal of building peace and stabilizing the economy, reflects peace optimism, including new opportunities to “improve food security, livelihood and revitalize the economy” for women in South Sudan years to come. Men and children. Diet, gender inequality, and gender-based violence (GBV) are often linked. There is evidence that higher levels of acute and chronic malnutrition in women and girls are directly related to gender-specific access to nutritious food, quality health care, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Gender access to food and services is one form of GBV that can in turn contribute to other forms of GBV.
According to the UNICEF South Sudan GBV Briefing Note dated December 2019, GBV is one of the most critical threats to the protection and well-being of women and children in South Sudan. GBV was widespread before the conflict and is now approaching epidemic proportions. Studies show that 65 percent of women and girls have experienced physical and / or sexual violence in their lifetime and 51 percent have suffered intimate partner violence (IPV). About 33 percent of women have experienced sexual violence from a non-partner, mainly during assault or assault.
The majority of girls and women experience sexual violence for the first time under the age of 18. Children account for around 25 percent of all reported cases of conflict-related sexual violence, although there are concerns that the number may be much higher.
The partners of the nutrition cluster have made efforts over time to ensure the integration of GBV into nutrition programming. Action Against Hunger and CARE’s gender analysis reports take into account some of the partners’ best practices, including: increased focus on recruiting female staff at feeding sites, better staff understanding and capacities on gender issues, increased use of the gender marker at assessing the quality of proposals, recruiting men as agents of change at the community level, increasing the recruitment of women into the IYCF / MIYCN positions within programming, changing attitudes and practices among men (e.g. men taking PLWs to health care facilities support men participating in World Breastfeeding Week activities), training nutrition partners on GBV referral routes, organizations that are increasingly using gender / GBV specialists in their programming and the use of mother-to-mother self-help groups in nutrition programming.
The nutrition cluster consists of 64 active partners from governments, UN organizations, donors and national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who support the implementation of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions. In South Sudan, the global prevalence of acute malnutrition among children under five is 16.2 percent, above the WHO emergency threshold1. This is expected to correspond to 1,770,861 people who will need treatment for acute malnutrition in 2020. more than 292,000 children with severe acute malnutrition; Over 1 million children suffer from moderate acute malnutrition and approximately 470,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women suffer from acute malnutrition.
In 2020, the Nutrition Cluster committed to conducting safety audits and strengthening partners’ ability to facilitate referral of GBV survivors to response services. The Nutrition Cluster continues to focus on efforts to reduce and prevent GBV risks in its programs through capacity building and implementation of action plans. The nutrition cluster has adjusted GBV’s risk reduction as a criterion for project selection in the Humanitarian Response Plan 2020 (HRP) and the allocation of funds for the Humanitarian Funds of South Sudan 2020 (SSHF).
AIMS
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Advocate mainstreaming gender-based violence prevention and risk reduction (GBV) in nutrition cluster programs in a multi-faceted approach and throughout the Humanitarian Program Cycle (HPC).
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Building the capacity of the nutrition cluster partners to mainstream GBV in their various responses
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Mechanisms for coordinating nutrition
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Nutrition Actors (staff and leaders): NGOs, community level organizations (including National Red Cross / Red Crescent Societies), INGOs, and United Nations organizations
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Local committees and community-based groups (e.g. groups for women, youth / youth, elderly, etc.) on nutrition
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Other nutrition stakeholders, including national and local governments, community leaders, and civil society groups