Skip to main content

UN and Partners COVID-19 Response Plan - Djibouti, in support of the National Solidarity Pact | June - December 2020

Countries
Djibouti
Sources
UNCT Djibouti
Publication date

Foreword by the Resident Coordinator

The COVID-19 pandemic is severely impacting the lives of people living in Djibouti, and on the country’s trajectory towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It has triggered emergency needs, particularly in the health but also across all other sectors, particularly amongst the most vulnerable. It also started having a toll on the socio-economic fabric of the country, and on the most vulnerable swath of the population in particular.

The UN country team (UNCT) is working with the authorities and with other partners, and the World Bank in particular, to assess the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic. Additional studies are required to better understand the impact on the country’s SDG achievement pathway, and financing that will be required to achieve the 2030 agenda from the post-pandemic baseline. Vulnerabilities are likely to be further compounded by extreme climate-related events, including flash floods, droughts and locust infestations, which are could occur between now and the end of the year. Any such occurrence during the COVID-19 emergency will further weaken the population’s conditions, jeopardize access to services, heighten risks of water- and vectorborne disease outbreaks and will affect the fight against the pandemic itself, including the practice of barrier measures to halt and prevent the virus spread.

While the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the existing vulnerabilities of the society, it also presents an opportunity to build a more sustainable world and to address critical impediments to the achievement of the 2030 agenda. The immediate, short and medium-term country priorities will need to be revised to adapt to a post pandemic context, to enable the country to ‘build back better’ and to take advantage of opportunities for accelerating processes and removing existing systemic bottlenecks - including around governance - which, in turn, could accelerate progress towards SDGs achievement.

United Nations Resident Coordinator On April 22, the Government of Djibouti launched the "Pacte de Solidarité Nationale ", a reference document framing the response to the pandemic. The "Pact" highlights the impact and needs of financing of three priority sectors: health, social measures, and economic measures. The measures identified are of urgent nature and accompanied by estimated financial needs until the end of the year 2020. Echoing the “Pact”, this document is organized around three interlinked and complementary pillars of the response: Health;
Emergency requirements; and a set of initial, immediate development measures to address the Socio-Economic Impact of the crisis, in line with the April 2020 UN framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19, based on evidence available to date.
While acknowledging that COVID-19 is a primarily public health emergency, the United Nations System in Djibouti remains attentive to the protection dimensions of this crisis. Hence, the document highlights the pressing needs to provide protection lenses to the overall emergency prevention and response efforts, and immediate development action by all stakeholders.

This Plan will run from May to December 2020; and will be revised and/or extended as the situation evolves and as results of key assessments become available, considering that the impact of the pandemic is expected be felt well into 2021.

The United Nations will continue to advocate for contributions direct to the "Pact", in order to support efforts to respond to the crisis led by the Government. Funding requirements of the United Nations and its partners included in this document are a sub-sector of those indicated in the "Pact", identified on the basis of the implementation capacity and comparative advantages of Nations United and its partners.

These needs encompass uniquely emergency actions required to address the immediate consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as resources needed to carry out urgent assessments to better understand the impact of the crisis to the most vulnerable. These evaluations are crucial to adjust both immediate as well as medium to longer-term interventions.