The Role of States

States remain the primary duty bearers for the respect, promotion and realisation of children’s rights.  They bear the primary responsibility for responding to a crisis, providing assistance to the victims and facilitating the work of humanitarian actors, including through mobilisation of domestic and international resources and use of national systems and capacities. UNICEF contributes to these efforts by mobilising national and international resources through its technical expertise, coordination and advocacy. States can use the CCCs to inform their humanitarian action and guide their efforts to meet the needs and protect the rights of affected populations.

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Partnerships

UNICEF seeks to build an alliance around the CCCs with various stakeholders. The CCCs are realised through close collaboration with states; national and local authorities; affected populations; civil society organisations (CSOs), including international and national NGOs, community-based organisations, human rights institutions and faith-based organisations; the UN system, including its operational funds, agencies and programmes; donors; academic and research institutions; the private sector; and the media. 

At country level, UNICEF establishes partnerships with host governments, CSOs, communities and the private sector for programme implementation. The fulfilment of the CCCs is closely linked to UNICEF’s operational partners’ ability to deliver on the ground. The operational commitments (Chapter 3) describe UNICEF’s accountability to enable the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance by UNICEF and its partners.

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Application

The CCCs must be used by every Country Office (CO) as a framework to monitor the situation of women and children and take appropriate preparedness and response measures, in order to deliver predictable, timely, principled and child-centred humanitarian response.

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Implementation

The CCCs describe UNICEF commitments to the most disadvantaged children and their families, regardless of the kind of crisis (sudden-onset or protracted emergencies, natural disasters, public health emergencies, complex emergencies such as international or internal armed conflicts, etc), irrespective of the Gross National Income level of the country (low, middle or high) or legal status of the affected populations.

While the CCCs apply in all contexts, UNICEF’s scope of action and programming will be adapted to the context, based on the analysis of the situation, assessment of humanitarian needs and national capacities. UNICEF implementation modalities may include systems strengthening, through technical assistance, policy development and capacity-building; support for service delivery; direct programme implementation; intervention through operational partners; remote programming; coordination; and advocacy. 

The fulfilment of the CCCs depends on many factors, including availability of resources (cash, in-kind, technical expertise, core assets); UNICEF presence; partners’ presence, resources and their ability to deliver on the ground; access to affected populations and humanitarian space; and security conditions. In complex emergency situations, UNICEF commits to do the utmost effort to mobilise resources and advocate for humanitarian access to affected populations.  

The CCCs also apply in situations where UNICEF does not have direct access to affected populations. In this case, UNICEF does its utmost to respond to the protection and humanitarian needs of the affected populations. In cases where UNICEF operates through remote programming and monitoring, UNICEF still engages with communities remotely even when implementation and monitoring are executed through partners and third-party monitors.

Identification of populations in need, targeting of communities and locations and prioritisation are a core component of Country Offices’ strategic planning processes and day-to-day programmatic decisions. Through the targeting process, UNICEF aims at ensuring that the populations facing the most severe needs and with the worst prospects to meet their needs, are not left behind and are receiving humanitarian assistance.

Guiding parameters for the prioritisation include: the severity of humanitarian consequences; magnitude (estimated numbers of people in need); likely evolution of the needs; factors causing the needs; people’s own prioritisation of their needs; as well as interventions by other actors. Availability of funding, access constraints, security and other operational challenges should not be factored in the targeting and prioritisation process. These are considered at a later stage, during the planning and implementation phases, to inform the decision-making and day-to-day management of programmatic priorities by Country Office Senior Management.

In the case of a sudden onset or rapid deterioration of a humanitarian crisis, UNICEF priorities reaching those most at risk with critical activities such as life-saving interventions. 

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Performance Monitoring

The CCCs are fundamental to UNICEF’s planning, monitoring and evaluation architecture and guide UNICEF’s contribution to the interagency Humanitarian Programme Cycle.

Programme commitments and benchmarks (Chapter 2) are supported by the CCCs Indicator Guidance to help Country Offices (COs) plan, monitor and report against their humanitarian programming. 

Operational commitments and benchmarks (Chapter 3) are supported by the CCCs Operational Monitoring Framework for Operational Commitments, using UNICEF’s corporate systems to track performance.

Systematic reference to the CCCs in UNICEF planning and reporting documents supports their implementation and strengthens UNICEF accountability to deliver on the CCCs. UNICEF builds on its existing performance monitoring system[3] to measure progress and report against the CCCs regularly.