Check against delivery

Chair, Madam Executive Director, 

I am speaking on behalf of the European Union as a donor.

We congratulate UNICEF and its staff for their humanitarian achievements in 2024, in a context where it has become more and more difficult to assist children because of hindered humanitarian access, violations of international humanitarian law and a decline in funding. 

We regret to see that at the end of 2024, UNICEF had received only 31 percent of its total requirement, with the top six crises accounting for 52 per cent of humanitarian contributions received, and that private sector contributions decreased by 35 per cent, back to pre-COVID-19 and pre-Ukraine war levels. 

In this constrained environment, we welcome that UNICEF transferred USD 850 million in cash to its humanitarian partners, with 45.5 per cent going to local and national civil society organizations, and 19 per cent of it to local women-led organizations. We encourage UNICEF to continue on this trend, all the more so considering the severe funding problems WLOs are currently confronted with in the field. 

We support UNICEF’s steadfast humanitarian diplomacy efforts on behalf of children and commend its determination to speak out and overcome access obstacles in the most difficult contexts, notably in Gaza. 

We welcome the results achieved by UNICEF in its different fields of activity, notably that 9 million children had access to education, and we reiterate the EU’s strong commitment to the priority sector of Education in Emergencies. 

We welcome the tangible progress made in terms of inclusion of children with disabilities in the UNICEF response, as well as the fact that in 2024, nearly 90 per cent of country offices ensured the availability of core gender-based violence mitigation services.

We encourage UNICEF to enhance innovative finance schemes for children, such as the UNICEF-WHO mechanism for polio vaccination developed in partnership with the EIB, the Commission and the Gates Foundation. Mobilising financing capital has become even more urgent in the current funding environment, and we would like to hear what are UNICEF’s prospects in this respect for 2025. 

The humanitarian system is going through a systemic change and will have no choice but to focus on life-saving programmes. We support UNICEF’s efforts to prioritise its response and focus on the most acute needs, while putting country programmes at the centre of its action and leaving a greater role to local actors. At the same time, we count on UNICEF to keep advocating for the protection of girls and boys, and we encourage you to continue building strong partnerships to collectively reduce humanitarian needs and address root causes, while promoting the humanitarian, development and peace nexus.   

Thank you.