Press releases
114 unaccompanied children rescued at sea off the coast of Libya
More than 350 people have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean since the start of the year From Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North…
UNICEF sends 3,000 oxygen concentrators and other critical supplies to India as country battles deadly COVID-19 surge
29 April 2021 – UNICEF has sent critical lifesaving supplies to help India in its battle with a deadly wave of COVID-19.
The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) appoints Shatish Dasani as Chair
Thursday 29 April 2021 – The United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) is pleased to announce the appointment of Shatish Dasani as Chair with immediate effect. Shatish brings a…
Vaccination Demand Observatory launched to strengthen local communication programmes to address vaccine misinformation
29 April 2021 - UNICEF, Yale Institute for Global Health, and Public Good Projects team up to create the Vaccination Demand Observatory to equip country teams with tools to counter misinformation and mistrust related to all vaccines.
Immunization services begin slow recovery from COVID-19 disruptions, though millions of children remain at risk from deadly diseases – WHO, UNICEF, Gavi
Mass immunization campaigns are also disrupted. According to new data, 60 of these lifesaving campaigns are currently postponed in 50 countries, putting around 228 million people - mostly children - at risk for diseases such as measles, yellow fever and polio. Over half of the 50 affected countries are in Africa, highlighting protracted inequities in people’s access to critical immunization services.
UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) response to UK aid cuts announcement
22 April 2021- “Announcements on cuts to UK aid made this week are of serious concern to the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK). For every pound cut, children living in some of the world’s worst crises and conflicts could suffer the consequences - with fewer children able to attend school, receive life-saving food and access critical healthcare services."
Syria receives its first delivery of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Facility
22 April 2021 – “Syria received 256,800 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, the first COVAX delivery of vaccines to reach the war-torn country.
COVAX REACHES OVER 100 ECONOMIES, 42 DAYS AFTER FIRST INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY
• The COVAX Facility has now delivered life-saving vaccines to over 100 economies since making its first international delivery to Ghana on February 24th • So far, more than 38 million doses of vaccines from manufacturers AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Serum Institute of India (SII) have now been delivered, including 61 economies eligible for vaccines through the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment• COVAX aims to supply vaccines to all participating economies that have requested vaccines, in the first half of 2021, despite some delays in planned deliveries for March and April.
Yemen receives 360,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses through the COVAX Facility
Yemen received 360,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses shipped via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore on killing of polio workers in Afghanistan
Four polio vaccinators, three of them women, came under attack this morning, March 30, while carrying out their life-saving work for children in Nangarhar province, Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Tragically, the three women were killed.
Geneva Palais Briefing on the situation of children in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique
GENEVA, 30 March 2021 – “UNICEF teams were at Pemba airport yesterday to receive children evacuated from Afungi by UN Humanitarian Air Services. There were at least seven children on that plane who were completely alone. All the children are disoriented and afraid. Many had spent days hiding in the bush without food and water."
Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore on situation of children following attack on Palma, Mozambique
“Palma was already hosting well over 35,000 people forcibly displaced from other areas of the province due to previous attacks. Half of them are children. The district has been cut off by road due to insecurity for the past months, with minimum supplies and assistance provided by air and sea. Until small amounts of food and other supplies started coming in recently, much of the district beyond the provincial capital had been virtually inaccessible to humanitarian workers struggling to provide assistance. As of today, the three remaining functional health facilities are no longer operational and the main hospital has been destroyed.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore's remarks at the Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation in Syria
29 March 2021 - "Council members — this year marks an anniversary no one wanted to see: the 10th year of the Syria crisis. "
New Global Tracker to Measure Pandemic’s Impact on Education Worldwide
March 26, 2021—The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education for 1.6 billion children worldwide over the past year. To help measure the ongoing global response, Johns Hopkins University, the World Bank, and UNICEF have partnered to create a COVID-19 – Global Education Recovery Tracker.
Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore on the fire at Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
26 March 2021 – Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore on the fire at Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.