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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.
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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
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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