Program Performance Report: Semi-Annual Report FY21, Period 1

Agency for International Development (USAID), aims to enhance global child protection capacity through the deployment of child protection specialists to UNICEF field offices. The project, implemented by the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), began on September 15, 2020, and will conclude on September 14, 2022. During the first period of the project, which spanned from September 15, 2020, to March 31, 2021, ICMC deployed one child protection specialist, Joshua, to UNICEF's Libya program, which is based in Tunis due to security concerns. Joshua has been coordinating UNICEF's Child Protection Sub-cluster, which includes 17 national and international organizations, to address protection gaps for children in western, eastern, and southern Libya. Joshua has identified various challenges, including mental health and psychosocial distress, gender-based violence, physical and emotional maltreatment, family separation, and recruitment by armed groups. He has also noted operational challenges, such as staffing transitions within UNICEF and the lack of a local co-coordinator, which have resulted in relatively low levels of engagement in the sub-cluster. Despite these challenges, Joshua has made significant advances, including coordination for complementarity, capacity building, increasing access to information, and mainstreaming child protection across sectors. He has also contributed to guidance on protection as related to evictions and is working to identify a co-coordinator for the CP sub-cluster from among national NGOs to foster deeper engagement and ensure continuity beyond the deployment. ICMC is awaiting further information from UNICEF on two potential deployments, one to support UNICEF's work in Sudan and the other to place a second deployee in Tunis to support child protection for the Libya program, specifically focused on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). The project has also focused on building the capacity of sub-cluster members, especially frontline child protection workers, through training initiatives. Joshua has initiated and supported two key processes to build capacity in protection: the Child Protection Minimum Standards training and the Case Management training. These trainings aim to enhance the skills and knowledge of child protection workers to better respond to the needs of children in crisis situations. The project's progress is measured through various indicators, including the number of deployments, the number of individuals trained in protection, and the time between the request and arrival of deployees. As of March 31, 2021, ICMC had deployed one child protection specialist, trained zero individuals in protection, and achieved a time between request and arrival of 95 days.