Regional IAWG on RH in Crisis Middle East and North Africa Olivia Hill, MSF Co-Chairs Mollie Fair, UNFPA ASRO Ali Shaar, UNFPA OPT Members of the Steering Committee 14th Annual IAWG Conference, Kuala Lumpar 2013

Middle East North Africa Region Situation… Diverse region that suffers from a variety of emergencies affecting a large number of states Political unrest & armed conflict (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, South Sudan) Prone to natural disasters (ie. floods, droughts, earthquakes) Displacement & Migration (refugees, IDPs, migration from rural to urban areas) MENA established December 2008 In addition to estimates of tens of thousands killed in the conflict, the civilian population has been impacted significantly. The conflict has caused large scale population displacement, with over 860,000 people who have left Libya and remained in displacement since February 16 and estimates of internally displaced people within Libya have reached as high as 240,000 people. 2

1st Regional Meeting  for MENA (Cairo July 2009) and Regional MISP Training of Trainers: A course for SRH coordinators (Cairo December 2009) Developed MENA Action plan… Focused on 4 priorities: Capacity building Develop team of trained RH Coordinators through MISP TOT and echo trainings. Adaptation of MISP ToTs. Technical assistance Develop roster of experts & identify good tools Coordination and information sharing Enhanced communication, expanded network, information sharing Advocacy and awareness raising Develop advocacy tools and strategies to integrate SRH preparedness into national emergency preparedness plans

MISP TOT: echo training Participants, Jordan 2010 – 2011 MENA Activities MISP ToT Manual Translated into Arabic MISP ToT echo trainings held in country Jordan :28 participants from Jordan, 5 from Syria, + 1 Advocacy Day, Drafted RH Emergency plan for integration into Jordan MOH National Health Strategy Plan for Disaster Preparedness Palestine: 2 echo MISP ToT trainings Sudan: Multiple MISP ToT trainings held in Darfur and South Sudan Lebanon: MISP ToT planned for North, South and Bekaa regions Yemen: MISP ToT Libya: MISP trainings, CSSAS, EmOC Coordination: MENA WG emails exchanged during onset of Egypt and Libya crisis Jan/Feb 2011 Advocacy: meetings with MoH at country level MISP TOT: echo training Participants, Jordan

2012 MENA Activities 2nd Regional IAWG (19-21st March 2012, Cairo, Egypt) Over 60 participants representing 12 countries and 28 organizations Aim: build a regional network of agencies to support country level coordinated SRH preparedness and response interventions in crisis with particular focus on women and young girls, and adolescents. Strategies: the group continued working on the 4 priority areas for its work: Capacity building Technical Assistance Knowledge Management Advocacy Facilitation: MSF-Spain, UNHCR, OCHA, IMC, IPPF, Save the Children, Ibis, and WHO have volunteered to be members of the Steering Committee UNFPA agreed to continue to serve as Secretariat for the Group. All presentations are available at http://www.iawg.net/

MENA Action Plan for 2009 - 2013 Summary Terms of Reference submitted to IAWG January 2009 and updated 2013: 1.1 Identify gaps and challenges in reproductive health and rights for populations in crisis settings in the MENA region. 1.2 Provide a platform to share information and lessons learned across projects in the region and enable partnerships to minimize duplication of efforts and to fill gaps in order to facilitate effective and coordinated SRH response in emergencies in the region. 1.3 Improve access to information, services and support partnerships to encourage capacity building of actors providing reproductive health services in the region. 1.4 Advocate and implement the MISP in the region through support of the SPRINT initiative and by seeking efforts to continue to mainstream MISP into humanitarian response. 1.5 Advocate for response to unmet needs in reproductive health in countries facing crisis in the region. 1. Review of the IAWG MENA work plan for 2012-2013 - review the work plan to check what has been achieved, the gaps and the progress made - provide practical a proposal to redesign the work plan including objectives, activities, task forces, membership and the functioning

MENA updates for (Feb 2013) Briefing by OCHA on the Minimum Preparedness Package (MPP) mapping exercise for MENA region; present the current MPP presentation prepared by OCHA ROMENA for the region and its challenges briefing on the process to update the MPP mapping exercise in the region in order to have a clear picture about the MPP status in the region, the gaps and challenges Update on Current Crises in the Region and brainstorming on joint activities/action Egypt’s response to influx of Syria refugees UNHCR has carried out several assessments related to the influx of Syrians into Egypt; UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM and Partners joint assessments in Egypt's Damiette and Alexandria will be uploaded in the web portal http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php UNCT in Egypt will develop the SRRP for June-January

MENA priorities and challenges Reminder of Priorities Need for concerted efforts to build capacities (UN, NGO's, etc. for MISP) Strengthen advocacy efforts to ensure RH is recognized as a priority in crisis situations Improve and share information to build off lessons learnt (MSF, UNFPA) Challenges (1) No organization has staff fully dedicated to IAWG activities-- it is an add on to existing responsibilities and portfolios; therefore, to some degree it is voluntary in nature which makes it difficult in terms of accountability; we are looking into getting an intern to help support some activities (2) We have no budget (3) Expectations of working group may not match dedicated resources