UNICEF calls for urgent investment in life-saving services for children to meet urgent needs by Catherine Russell UNICEF Executive Director   Jan. 2026   UNICEF calls for urgent investment in life-saving services for children as global humanitarian needs reach new extremes.   Surging conflicts, rising hunger, global funding cuts, and collapsing basic services are driving humanitarian needs for children to extreme levels worldwide.   As UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children 2026 (HAC) appeal is launched today, US$7.66 billion is urgently required to provide life-saving assistance to 73 million children - including 37 million girls and over 9 million children with disabilities – across 133 countries and territories next year.   Across every region, children caught in emergencies are facing overlapping crises that are growing in scale and complexity.   Escalating conflicts are driving mass displacement and exposing children to grave violations at the highest levels ever recorded.   Attacks on schools and hospitals continue unabated, while verified cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children are rising sharply. In many crises, children and the aid workers attempting to reach them are being deliberately targeted.   “Around the world, children caught in conflict, disaster, displacement and economic turmoil continue to face extraordinary challenges,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Their lives are being shaped by forces far beyond their control: violence, the threat of famine, intensifying climate shocks, and the widespread collapse of essential services.”   The global humanitarian funding environment has deteriorated dramatically in 2025. Announced and anticipated funding cuts by donor governments are already limiting UNICEF’s ability to reach millions of children in dire need. Severe shortfalls in 2024 and 2025 are forcing UNICEF to make impossible choices.   Across UNICEF’s nutrition programming alone, a 72 per cent funding gap in 2025 forced cuts in 20 priority countries – reducing planned targets from more than 42 million to over 27 million women and children.   In education, a shortfall of US$745 million has left millions more children at risk of losing access to learning, protection and stability.   For child protection, rising violations coincide with shrinking resources, threatening programmes for survivors of sexual violence, children recruited or used by armed groups, and those requiring urgent health support.   “Severe funding shortfalls are placing UNICEF’s life-saving programs under immense strain,” said Russell. “Across our operations, frontline teams are being forced into impossible decisions: focusing limited supplies and services on children in some places over others, decreasing the frequency of services children receive, or scaling back interventions that children depend on to survive.”   At the same time, humanitarian access is being restricted at levels unseen in recent years. In many emergencies, UNICEF and partners cannot reach children trapped behind shifting frontlines, making sustained humanitarian diplomacy essential to secure access and to protect children from escalating violations.   UNICEF warns that more than 200 million children will require humanitarian assistance in 2026. Many live in protracted crises, leaving entire generations at risk of under-nutrition, denied education, exposed to disease outbreaks, and deprived of safety and stability.   “The current global funding crisis does not reflect a decline in humanitarian need, but rather a growing gap between the scale of suffering and the resources available,” said Russell.   “While UNICEF is working to adapt to this new reality, children are already paying the price of shrinking humanitarian budgets.”   UNICEF is urging national governments, public sector donors and private sector partners to increase their investment in children, prioritising flexible and multi-year funding; support locally led response and national systems; uphold humanitarian principles and the centrality of protection; and remove barriers that impede humanitarian access.   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-calls-urgent-investment-life-saving-services-children-global-humanitarian http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/remarks-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-launch-unicefs-humanitarian Visit the related web page
	Child labour: New report shows urgent need for action by ITUC, EI, Global March Against Child Labour   Nov. 2025   Child labour: New report shows urgent need for action   A new report by the ITUC, Education International (EI) and the Global March Against Child Labour has found serious setbacks in efforts to eradicate child labour.   Drawing on responses from civil society and trade union organisations across Africa, Asia and Latin America, the report evaluates progress since the Fifth Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour in Durban, South Africa, as the world approaches the Sixth Global Conference in Morocco.   As the Equal Times article explains, it is estimated that more than 137 million children are engaged in work. While frontline organisations remain deeply committed, global and national systems are failing to deliver the scale and speed of action needed. Findings include:   Widespread concerns that child labour is becoming more hidden, hazardous and harder to monitor. Persistent underfunding of public education, labour inspection and social protection systems. A lack of reliable data on child labour in most countries, limiting policy impact.   Weak enforcement of laws in sectors with high rates of child labour, particularly in agriculture and domestic work. Limited engagement of survivors and young people in national decision-making.   Luc Triangle, ITUC General Secretary, said: “We strongly back the demands of this report, including reinforced legal protections for children and workers, robust public investment and meaningful participation by civil society and unions in policy processes.   “This report makes clear that political promises alone will not end child labour. What we need is enforcement, funding and freedom to organise. Governments must put decent work, social protection and education at the centre of their national strategies, with trade unions and civil society as full partners.”   http://www.ituc-csi.org/child-labour-new-report http://www.equaltimes.org/from-mexico-to-the-persian-gulf http://globalmarch.org/publication/durban-call-to-action-organisations-and-union-perspectives-on-progress-made/ http://joining-forces.org/publications/learning-agenda-planning-joining-forces-for-africa-acting-to-end-child-labour-jofa-acte/ http://joining-forces.org/jofa-acte   Protecting children is a priority – now is the time to prove it - WHO Council of Government Ministers to End Violence Against Children   When governments adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we committed to a world that invests in our children, where every girl and boy grows up free from violence, exploitation and neglect. Establishing, for the first time, global targets to end all forms of violence against children, grounded in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.   Today, 10 years on, we must confront a stark reality: we are not on course to achieve those targets. One billion children face abuse each year.   Each year, half of the world’s children are victims of violence. Bluntly, we are failing to keep a billion girls and boys safe in their homes, schools, communities, care settings and online.   We recognise the complexity of the issue, and we recognise its consequences, often lasting lifetimes and spanning generations. Violence erodes every investment that families, communities, and governments make in children, from their education and social inclusion to their mental and physical health.   The violence experienced by a billion children today is the same violence that will undermine the health, prosperity, and stability of our societies tomorrow.   As Ministers, we are driven by the possible, by the interventions and investments that can most improve people’s lives. We are motivated by the fact that violence against children is entirely preventable. And that preventing violence strengthens public health outcomes, social protection systems, community resilience and intergenerational mobility.   Decades of rigorous research, community mobilisation, and country experience have given us a clear understanding of what works. The INSPIRE framework, coordinated by WHO and partners, provides a proven blueprint of seven strategies – from strengthening norms and laws to supporting parents and caregivers, scaling response services and creating safe school environments.   A recent, largest-ever, evidence review on preventing violence against children confirmed unequivocally that INSPIRE strategies work. We are now the first generation in history with the knowledge and tools to deliver sustained reductions in violence at a national scale. We have the opportunity, and responsibility, to act.   This is why we are launching the WHO Council of Champions to End Violence Against Children. The first-ever global collective of Ministers committed to using our political capital to position violence prevention where it belongs: at the centre of national and global health, social development, justice, protection and economic agendas.   We are compelled to act by the fact that children who grow up safe are healthier, learn better and are more socially protected, becoming adults who contribute to stronger, more equitable societies.   Together, we, the 10 Ministers, will generate – and demonstrate – political leadership. From the outset, we must confront the dramatic disparity between the scale of the problem and the scale of investment.   Whether looking at domestic budgets or funder flows, the power of preventing violence – with its wins for child outcomes from social development to mental health – remains unrecognised and under-resourced. We are committed to prioritising the problem, increasing funding and intensifying actions to unlock the enabling potential of preventing violence against children.   This year is our proof point. In November 2026, the Second Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children, hosted by the government of the Philippines, will stand on the shoulders of an impactful First Global Ministerial Conference in Colombia in 2024. That moment proved what is possible.   Prioritising our most promising and vulnerable citizens, mobilising member states, civil society, citizens and delivering unprecedented commitments to action for children affected by violence.   With the SDG deadline fast-approaching, we must do more and do better. The Ministerial Conference in Manila must celebrate success, lock-in progress, elevate expectation and generate concrete commitments, commensurate with the scale of the violence prevention challenge.   It represents a moment to scale best-proven INSPIRE strategies, confront the financing gap head-on, strengthen health and social protection systems, and ensure that lived experience – of children, young people, civil society and victims of violence – helps shape the solutions so essential to delivering our shared SDG promise.   Let us all redouble our efforts to work towards a world free from violence and exploitation, just as we pledged, just as each child deserves.   http://www.who.int/initiatives/council-of-champions-on-ending-violence-against-children http://www.who.int/health-topics/violence-against-children http://inspire-strategies.org/ http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(25)00214-7/abstract http://www.unicef.org/documents/inspire-seven-strategies-ending-violence-against-children http://www.unicef.org/topics/violence-against-children http://violenceagainstchildren.un.org/en/our-work/investment-case http://violenceagainstchildren.un.org/en/pathfinding-global-alliance http://childfundalliance.org/ending-violence-against-children/ http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/end-violence-overview http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/stop-the-war-on-children-security-for-whom-2025 http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/ Visit the related web page
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