Deadline: 27-Oct-2025
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund has announced a call for expressions of interest for the establishment of contingency partnerships in Rwanda, focusing on emergency preparedness and rapid response mechanisms.
The initiative is designed to strengthen national and local capacities to respond swiftly and effectively to emergencies affecting children and families, particularly in the City of Kigali and surrounding areas. The partnerships will ensure that essential services—spanning health, nutrition, education, and protection—remain accessible and functional during times of crisis.
The programme covers multiple cross-sectoral areas, including emergency preparedness, education in emergencies, health and nutrition interventions, and child protection in emergency settings. It aims to build a strong, flexible response framework capable of addressing sudden shocks such as disease outbreaks, displacement, natural disasters, and other crises that disrupt access to basic services.
The scope of activities will depend on the type and scale of the emergency. In health, UNICEF expects to support children and women in accessing primary health care, vaccinations, and community health services, particularly during disease outbreaks. Nutrition efforts will focus on screening young children for wasting and supporting breastfeeding mothers through counselling and awareness on proper nutrition and outbreak response.
In education, the programme will prioritize ensuring that children and adolescents have continued access to formal and non-formal learning opportunities, including early learning and skills development programmes. Child protection interventions will strengthen community-based mental health and psychosocial support systems, enhance responses to gender-based violence, and ensure that safe and confidential reporting channels for sexual exploitation and abuse are operational.
The social protection component will work closely with government mechanisms to ensure that vulnerable households receive emergency assistance through existing or newly established cash transfer programmes. Meanwhile, risk communication and community engagement will be critical to the initiative’s success, with efforts focused on raising public awareness, encouraging preventive behaviours, and establishing reliable feedback mechanisms that keep communities informed and involved in the response.
Cross-cutting efforts will also ensure that humanitarian cash transfers reach affected households efficiently, with robust monitoring to track the reach and impact of support. By fostering collaboration across sectors and strengthening partnerships with national actors, UNICEF aims to create a sustainable framework that enhances Rwanda’s readiness and resilience in the face of emergencies.
Through this call, UNICEF reaffirms its commitment to protecting children’s rights and well-being even in the most challenging circumstances—ensuring that when crises occur, essential services are not interrupted and communities are better equipped to recover and rebuild.
For more information, visit UN Partner Portal.