The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
STORYLINE
UNICEF issues alert over growing needs and shrinking resources for 2024
At a time where humanitarian and protection needs “have never been greater”, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is concerned that their ability to meet these needs will be under increasing strain in 2024 amid a funding crunch.
“Earlier this week, UNICEF launched the $9.3 billion emergency funding appeal to reach at least 94 million children in 155 countries,” said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, briefing journalists on Friday at the UN in Geneva. “Yet at a time where humanitarian needs and protection needs have never been greater, we are approaching 2024 facing an increasingly bleak funding forecast. Flexible funding, which allows us to respond that speed, scale and nimbleness, is shrinking, restricting our ability to respond quickly.”
Around 300 million people desperately need humanitarian assistance as devastating earthquakes, climate-related disasters, disease outbreaks and new and surging conflicts have left tens of millions of children and their families reeling. Through its 2024 Humanitarian Action for Children appeal, UNICEF aims to continue assisting children with life-saving interventions.
“Among the most critically underfunded emergencies right now, we have Sudan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Haiti, Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Bangladesh,” said Mr. Chaiban.
The UNICEF official recalled that for humanitarian organizations, the “work has rarely been as important, and may never have been more complex. The horrendous situation in Gaza, which shakes us to the core of our humanity, exemplifies this.”
“What we're seeing is increased need in a fiscally tight space […] increasing the instability because of conflict and climate, the overhang of COVID and the economic consequences of COVID,” he said. “It's a triple threat that children around the world are facing.”
Using funds requested for 2024, UNICEF plans to vaccinate more than 17 million children against measles, enable more than 19 million children to access formal and informal education, support 26.7 million children and their caregivers in receiving mental health care and psychosocial support and provide 52 million people with access to safe water, among other programmes.
Mr. Chaiban said it was crucial that immunization “continues to be available, that primary health care continues to function, that children have access to treatment against severe acute malnutrition, and that some of the basics around child protection, psycho-social support, mental health, addressing grave violations against children, recruitment of children by armed groups, as well as education, which is a life-saving intervention in emergencies, that all those continue to exist.”
The UNICEF official stressed that “beyond the headline-grabbing areas affected by conflict and other crises, there are other children suffering as well”, combined with a rise in climate-related disasters, disease outbreaks and displacement, meaning that children continue to endure the unimaginable impact of protracted crises and emerging threats.
-ends-
STORY: Emergency Funding Appeal 2024 - UNICEF
TRT: 2:25”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 15 December 2023 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot: UN building with UN flag, UN Geneva.
- Medium shot, press briefing room with moderator UN Geneva
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director: “Earlier this week, UNICEF launched the 9.3 billion emergency funding appeal to reach at least 94 million children in 155 countries. Yet at a time where humanitarian needs and protection needs have never been greater, we are approaching 2024, facing an increasingly bleak funding forecast. Flexible funding, which allows us to respond that speed, scale and nimbleness is shrinking, restricting our ability to respond quickly.”
- Cutaway: Wide shot, press briefing room with journalists, UN Geneva
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director: “At a time when humanitarian protection needs have never been greater, we are concerned that our ability to meet these needs is going to come under increasing strain. Among the most critically underfunded emergencies right now, we have Sudan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Haiti, Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Bangladesh.”
- Cutaway: Medium shot, press briefing room with spokesperson and speaker on podium and journalists, UN Geneva
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director: “What we're seeing is increased need in a fiscally tight space affected by, you know, increasing the instability because of conflict i climate, the overhang of COVID and the economic consequences of COVID, if you will. It's a triple threat that children around the world are facing.”
- Cutaway: Medium shot, journalists listening, UN Geneva
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) - Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director: “Immunization continues to be available, that primary health care continues to function, that children have access to treatment against severe acute malnutrition, and that some of the basics around child protection, psycho-social support, mental health, addressing grave violations against children, recruitment of children by armed groups, as well as education, which is a life saving intervention in emergencies, that all those continue to exist.
- Cutaway: Medium shot, camerawomen looking at their cell phones, UN Geneva
- Cutaway: Wide shot, press briefing room with journalists and camera women, UN Geneva
- Cutaway: Medium shot, journalists listening, UN Geneva
- Cutaway: close up, journalists listening, UN Geneva
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Gaza: Hospitals continue to overflow with people injured while seeking food - WHO
As besieged Palestinian civilians face widespread malnutrition and starvation, hospitals in the Strip are increasingly overwhelmed by the influx of victims of shootings and other injuries at food distribution areas, warns the World Health Organization.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , WHO , UNMAS
Urgent help is needed to halt a deadly cholera outbreak that is sweeping across Sudan, UN agencies said on Friday, while warning that communities continue to be terrorized by parties to the conflict even as they flee violence.
2
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News , Images | UNEP
Negotiations got under way at UN Geneva on Tuesday to agree on a legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution, with delegates from nearly 180 countries attending.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNICEF
Gaza: Hundreds of trucks per day of free aid needed “for months”, in addition to commercial supplies - OCHA
Despite the tactical pauses Israel introduced last week to allow some safe passage for humanitarian convoys, the amount of aid that has entered Gaza remains by far insufficient for the starving population, and UN trucks continue to face impediments on their way to delivering aid.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
Aid agencies echoed wider warnings of growing signs of widespread starvation in Gaza on Tuesday, as UN-partnered international food security experts released their most dire assessment yet of the situation in the wartorn enclave.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , UNDP , UNHCR
Sudan: urgent help needed as more than 1.3 million war-displaced people begin to return home
As conflict rages on across parts of Sudan, pockets of relative safety have emerged in the past four month, spurring more than one million internally displaced Sudanese to make their way home, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM). A further 320,000 cross-border refugees have come back to Sudan since last year, mainly from Egypt and South Sudan, to assess the current situation before deciding to return to their country for good.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , WHO
Gaza: SOS messages describe people fainting from hunger; UN health worker detained
Worrying alerts from United Nations staff in Gaza who have been fainting from hunger and exhaustion over the past 48 hours have increased fears for people’s survival in the devastated enclave, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , UNOG
Over 11.6 million refugees risk losing aid access due to funding cuts, says UNHCR
Approximately one in three refugees and other vulnerable individuals normally supported by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) are expected to lose out from funding cuts, it said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made the following announcement on the Office’s opening of a new mission in Bangladesh.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
“The surge in the number of Afghans forced or compelled to return to Afghanistan this year is creating a multi-layered human rights crisis requiring the urgent attention of the international community,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday called for accountability and justice for the killings and other gross human rights violations and abuses in the southern city of Suweida.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNHCR
Syria: hundreds killed in Sweida, ‘widespread’ violations as civilians flee for their lives
Amid violent clashes in southern Syria’s Sweida governorate, a picture of grave human rights abuses and rising humanitarian needs is emerging by the hour, the UN said on Friday.