THE RAPID RESONSE MECHANISM

(RRM)

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The Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) in South Sudan – a partnership to save lives in

the most remote regions.

The Issue: Children in emergencies

RRM goal: Delivery of life-saving services in

areas of the country where the resumption of

conflict has deprived vulnerable communities

of essential services, leaving hundreds of

thousands of people displaced and on the

edge of a catastrophic food security and

nutrition crisis.

The outbreak of fighting in Juba in December

2013 quickly spread across the Greater

Upper Nile region in Unity, Upper Nile and

Jonglei States. Many humanitarian actors

suspended operations as security

deteriorated. Communities have been

displaced and denied protection, losing

access to even the most basic health and

nutrition services. Reaching the most

vulnerable was an imperative, requiring

innovation in a complex and ever changing

security environment. The World Food

Programme (WFP) and UNICEF established

a joint Rapid Response Mechanism to reach

the most inaccessible areas, where UNICEF

and WFP staff would deploy to deep field

locations, and using general food distribution

as a way to access large numbers of conflict-

affected people, conduct registrations and

allow screening to trigger services in nutrition

and other sectors.

Starting in March 2014, the WFP-UNICEF

RRM targeted areas with alarming levels of

food insecurity and delivered an integrated

package of life-saving humanitarian relief

including food, preventive blanket

supplementary feeding, curative nutrition

services, vaccination for children, support for

children to access education, register the

thousands of unaccompanied and separated

children, as well as help for communities to

access safe water. Both agencies partnered

with dozens of local and international

organisations and gathered support from

donors and humanitarian partners operating

in South Sudan.

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RRM key principles

1. The RRM’s mission is guided by the

humanitarian imperative and the

rights of children. It enables a shared

vision of needs and priorities within the

humanitarian community and provides a

platform to advance UNICEF’s core

commitments to children in humanitarian

action (CCCs). These oblige UNICEF to

ensure that a predictable, timely and

effective response is undertaken to meet

the humanitarian needs of children in

emergencies.

2. As a humanitarian entry point the

RRM is a foundation for planning

beyond the immediate emergency

response. It provides essential support

to UNICEF partners for the re-

establishment of their presence in areas

which have experienced little or no

humanitarian services since the

outbreak of the conflict in 2013.

3. The RRM is designed to be a key tool

to accelerate the Joint WFP-UNICEF

Nutrition Scale-Up Plan, which

endeavours to halt the deteriorating

food security situation and prevent

famine in South Sudan. When setting

up the RRM both WFP and UNICEF built

on immediate and rapid responses each

agency had initiated from the start of the

crisis. The RRM offers unique

opportunities to reach not only the areas

that were previously inaccessible but

also those to which newly displaced

populations have recently fled as well as

to return to remote locations where there

has been a deterioration and where

there is little or no partner presence on

the ground.

4. The RRM plays a key role in child

protection and the protection of child

rights through gathering – formally and

informally – data and information on

grave child rights violations, and issues

such as unaccompanied children. All of

this is then used in ongoing advocacy.

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The Challenges

UNICEF and WFP have faced tremendous obstacles. A third of all the planned missions were

eventually cancelled or delayed because of the volatile security situation and the tough operating

environment. In any year, for the five or six months of the rainy season 60 per cent of the road

network is impassable, while heavy rainstorms and sodden airfields often renders flights unable to

fly or land. The start of the rains coincides with the critical hunger gap period. The access and

security situation for humanitarian staff has further deteriorated. Requests for individual screening

of national team members before deployment, together with restrictions on their movements once

on the ground is a continuing trend. During deployment coordination with authorities is challenging

when state-level and local administrations are often from opposing sides.

The RRM operates in an environment of constant uncertainty. A balance must be struck between

reducing time on the ground to the minimum necessary for staff safety and staying long enough to

deliver sustainable results and build capacity. The Rapid Response teams deploy to locations

where humanitarians have previously been forced to withdraw due to insecurity, often leaving the

local population vulnerable and without any life-saving services. Other times, it is the population

who have also fled – waiting days and weeks in the bush or in swamps for the fighting to stop.

Where possible, UNICEF and WFP work to build the capacity of partners not only so that they are

able to return but also so they can remain. In this way the RRM has added value as a multiplier of

capacity to expand coverage for NGOs engaged in the mechanism.

The Impact of RRM

As of September 2015, UNICEF has undertaken 55 RRM missions with WFP and other partners.

Each mission has been a voyage of discovery, building on the experiences of the preceding

missions to constantly refine and improve the operational response. More than 840,000 people,

including 173,000 children under five, were reached by UNICEF RRM interventions in nutrition,

health, water, sanitation and hygiene, education and child protection.

In conflict-affected states more than one in four children UNICEF vaccinated against measles was

reached through the RRM. Preliminary data suggests that the scale-up in operations – facilitated

through the RRM – helped stabilise the food security and nutrition situation in the country, even

though it remains fragile. More than 137,900 children were screened by UNICEF, which reached

3,500 children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition with therapeutic care delivered through

the RRM missions.

The RRM has helped provide lifesaving supplies including 34,700 mosquito nets and 5,600 clean

delivery kits as well as essential WASH supplies for 158,000 people. Approximately 35 per cent

of registered unaccompanied, separated and missing children have been identified through RRMs

while 54,000 children have gained access to education in emergencies.

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Investment Case

In the South Sudan context, where the cost of operating large scale humanitarian operations is

one of the most expensive in the world, UNICEF and WFP have joined forces to ensure value for

money in an effective and efficient response to some of the most remote parts of the country

through the RRM. The direct implementation of programmes has also made an important

contribution by providing not only an immediate on the ground response but also high quality

information on the situation of women and children in hard to reach areas, which has been

particularly significant for nutrition, health and child protection programmes.

Additionally, the RRM has demonstrated significant cost effectiveness given that dedicated RRM

resources amount to about 7 per cent1 of humanitarian funding received by UNICEF in 20142. The

cost savings of deploying an integrated package of services targeting the same population group

has also demonstrated a cost-efficient response, as compared to individual programmes or

partners implementing a lesser number of interventions at any one time.

The RRM also delivers across lines in opposition controlled areas and has enormous potential to

bring peace dividends or contribute to peace consolidation following the signing of the peace

agreement in late August.

1 Specific allocations to RRM received from mainly CHF (US$6.7M), Ikea (1mEuro) in addition to smaller contributions from DFID, ECHO and CERF totaling less than US$10 million dedicated RRM funds. By 14 December 2014, UNICEF received US$134.95 million towards their Other Resources Emergency (ORE) budget, based on signed agreements, against its appeal of US$151.8 million for the humanitarian response in 2014 (UNICEF HAC 2014 Overview). 2 It important to note that UNICEF does not pay for air assets for RRM missions which are funded by WFP and the logistics cluster therefore UNICEF funding for the RRM does not reflect the total cost.