in 2022, CAST & the Field Support Team will be holding a series of events for national coordination teams on assessment, information management, cross-cutting themes, targetting, prioritization, costing for HRPs as well as advocacy throughout 2022. These events will be targetting national WASH coordinators and information managers and offer key learning and knowledge exchange experiences.

WASH Cluster Coordination Support to Chad – Direct Mission

In addition to multiple ongoing emergencies in Chad, 2021 saw unprecedented floods across the country, affecting over 250,000 people and resulting in areas heavily impacted directly or by rainfall deficits.

Following the challenge to fill the position of the National Coordinator role in the given context and the general deterioration, FST support was requested to finalize the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). This additional capacity has been provided through Karl Lellouche, Cluster Coordinator with Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), from 15th November to 10th December 2021. During this period, the cluster collaboration with all WASH implementing partners was key to evaluating the combined humanitarian WASH needs and plan for the overall 2022 WASH response.

In this capacity, his priorities embraced data assimilation, workshop conduction to increase overall coordination, production, and submission of HNO and HRP, recommendations for cluster capacity support 2022, and support to the newly recruited national WASH sector coordinator.

Read more on the Chad WASH Sector Website here.

WASH Cluster Coordination Support to South Sudan – Direct Mission

The recent floods in South Sudan affected more than 1 million individuals mainly in the northern states (Unity, Upper Nile). The response to the needs remains limited due to poor funding, access challenges, and limited partners’ capacity. To support the scaling up of the response in Unity State given the high risk of acute watery diseases and cholera outbreaks, the FST deployed Ewan Chainey, Cluster Coordinator with OXFAM, as sub-national WASH Cluster Coordinator to Bentiu, South Sudan. He was deployed on January 11^th and is expected to be on mission until late February 2022.

The main focus of his deployment is to support day-to-day operational coordination with partners, the development of advocacy messages, response quality monitoring, and the mainstreaming of Accountability to Affected Populations in WASH programming. Further, his tasks include GBV mitigation measures, disability inclusion, and capacity building of coordinating staff and partners.

Read more on the South Sudan WASH Sector Website here

The humanitarian crisis in North East Nigeria remains one of the largest most complex humanitarian crises in the world. As the insurgency by non-state armed groups (NSAGs) continues to affect local communities, the conflict has entered its twelfth year. Exacerbating factors such as severe food insecurity and disease outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, the economic downturn due to the conflict, has resulted in continuous displacement, lack of humanitarian access and high needs in WASH as well as other sectors.

Displaced people fill buckets and other containers with fresh water in General Hospital Camp for IDPs in Bama, Borno State, Nigeria. Photo Credits: UN0119016/VladSokhin

According to the 2020 Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessment (MSNA), 74% of households in Borno State have a WASH sectoral need. As the crisis in the region continues, it is increasingly necessary to address facility information gaps through increased coordination, proper facility registration, and broad information sharing in order to improve the quality of WASH-related humanitarian assistance. The Nigeria WASH Sector requires to have a common assessment process, both for rapid assessment needs but also for planning the overall WASH response. There is also a need to set up a baseline of WASH infrastructure, which will enable planning and identify critical gaps in the response.

To support these requirements, Juan Luis Lopez, FST Surge Support, was deployed to Maiduguri, Borno State from 3rd to 20th November 2021 to coordinate and implement a WASH infrastructure assessment in the Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Bama, Damboa and Ngala, Borno State. The objectives of the assessment were to provide up-to-date information on the location and status (functionality and accessibility) of WASH infrastructure in key programming sites and to contribute to a centralized database of WASH infrastructure available to WASH cluster partners and local government.

The results showed significant gaps, with just below half of all assessed infrastructure being fully functional across the three towns. The findings also pointed out poor safety attributes with only 20 percent of latrines used by women having a privacy wall, 3 percent having a light outside the facility and 53 percent with lockable doors observed.
 
Next to the infrastructure sweep, a successful training of trainers was conducted as well as a pilot joint exercise between the Sector Lead (UNICEF), three leading sector members (IMC, FHI 360 and Intersos), and the government (RUWASSSA) to strengthen assessment framework and resources.
 
Download the factsheets in PDF - Bama - Damboa - Ngala
Read more about the Nigeria WASH Sector here

According to OCHA, funding for the GHO 2021 was $18.2 billion or 48 percent of requirements at the end of December, with significant new funding reported since the end of November for the Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Ethiopia plans, as well as the plans for the Syria Region and Rohingya crises. Both the amount received for the GHO and the coverage of needs is higher than at the same time in 2020 ($17.9 billion and 46 percent, respectively). Coverage of the plans in the GHO varies widely, with only 20 out of 45 appeals funded at or above the global average.

Total reported humanitarian funding of $26.4 billion is also higher than at the end of December 2020 ($25.7 billion).

The GHO 2022 launched on 2 December 2021 requires $41 billion to assist 183 million of the 235 million people in need in 63 countries. Read more here.

The GHO 2022 can also be accessed here.

Latest WASH & Covid-19 New Updates From Partners

• COVID-19 Data Explorer: Global Humanitarian Operations Monthly Highlights, Special 2021 Edition - View here
• RCCE Collective Latest Updates - 17th January 2022 - View here
• Analysis of the adaptation, innovation and coping mechanisms of humanitarian organizations in the context of limited access to information during the COVID-19 pandemic - COVID-19 Situational analysis project - iMMAP - December 2021 - Download here
• Latest ALNAP Covid-19 Learnring Updates - December 2021 - here
• WHO RCCE Collective Service, please sign-up for updates here
• WHO COVID-19 vaccine newsletter, please sign-up for updates here
• WHO Infodemic Management newsletter, please sign-up for updates here
• COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, please read here the Weekly Operational Update.