UNICEF in emergencies

Reaching children when they need it most

Supporting children before, during and after emergencies

Emergency partners can maximise impact by supporting UNICEF’s humanitarian response.

Want to support UNICEF’s emergency work through your organisation?

Get in touch.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

It seems to be true for the world these days that misfortunes never come alone. Across the globe, children are facing catastrophic crises like never before. From blistering heat waves to a global hunger crisis, and record levels of displacement to deadly conflict, the needs of children and families have never been greater.

These needs are only growing as climate change impacts the frequency, intensity and duration of emergencies. From flooding in Libya to drought across the Horn of Africa, and with heatwaves from China to Europe and the United States, climate change is intensifying inequities across the globe, driving new waves of conflict, displacement, and disease. On top of those, escalation of chronic conflict leads to unprecedented levels of acute needs and trauma for children.

In the face of skyrocketing humanitarian need, the cost of inaction is devastating for children. UNICEF’s strategy is to take a no-regrets approach: act early and at scale, ensure principled humanitarian response that saves lives, and build up sustainable systems now to buffer the impact of current and future overlapping crises on already vulnerable communities.

UNICEF’s Global Humanitarian Thematic Fund (GHTF) contains the most flexible funding, which allows for rapid and strategic responses by UNICEF to humanitarian crises.

The GHTF makes it possible for UNICEF to deliver assistance to the most vulnerable children when and where it is needed and in a timely and effective manner, as funds for sudden-onset emergencies can be released within 24 hours.

Colleagues have their boots on the ground and UNICEF can immediately activate humanitarian efforts to reach children in need with lifesaving relief. When disasters strike, UNICEF is able to respond quickly thanks to pre-positioned supplies and teams on the ground.

The GHTF has already gotten into play in the current situation in Palestine and the earthquakes in Afghanistan.

UNICEF continues responding to humanitarian needs in the Gaza crisis, despite extremely challenging conditions. To respond to urgent needs for safe drinking water in Gaza, UNICEF has provided 5m3 of water treatment reagent to sustain the UNICEF-supported desalination plant providing water for 75,000 persons. UNICEF has further released medical supplies prepositioned in the Gaza Strip to hospitals, including medicines for at least 1,600 people. UNICEF response will continue to focus on responding to the needs of around one million children currently facing an urgent and pressing need for protection and humanitarian assistance. Main priorities the following months include medical supplies and fuel for health facilities, rapid repairs to water and sanitation infrastructure, remote mental health and psychosocial support, and implementing recreational activities to give children in crises a sense of normality.

In Afghanistan, UNICEF continues to scale up the ongoing response through delivery of life-saving supplies and provision of essential health, WASH, and nutrition supplies as well as child protection interventions. The UNICEF response aims to reach around 200,000 people, including about 96,000 children living across 9 affected districts.

The GHTF enables UNICEF to respond equitably based on needs and to ensure preparedness in a cost-effective manner with high quality response.

In 2022, UNICEF disbursed funds via GHTF towards – among others – protracted emergencies, emergency preparedness, public health emergencies, sociopolitical emergencies, natural disasters, refugee responses, nutrition crisis, and more.

This year, GHTF disbursements have included supplies for water, sanitation and hygiene, cholera response, child-friendly spaces for refugee populations, setting up a child helpline, offering mental health and psychosocial support, and much more.

The GHTF allocation criteria include critical unmet needs for the most vulnerable children, critical funding gaps based on available and projected contributions, strong implementation capacity based on the delivery track records of regular country programmes, as well as alignment with organization-wide initiatives aimed at strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness of UNICEF humanitarian action.

By partnering with UNICEF on responding flexibly to humanitarian needs, emergency partners stand with us for every child in need.

Supporting Thematic Humanitarian Funding is an opportunity to enable work that delivers the greatest impact. 95% of these funds are directly used to further our mission.Emergency partners contribute towards some of the most urgent challenges for children globally and receive unmatched impact and a breadth of communication opportunities in return.

Email us at partners@unicef.dk to find out more.