EU Statement UNICEF Executive Board, Agenda Item 4: Annual report on UNICEF humanitarian action

EU Statement -- UNICEF Executive Board, Agenda Item 4: Annual report on UNICEF humanitarian action

16 June 2026, New York -- Statement by EU as a donor delivered by Mr. Hans Das, Deputy Director General Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO - EU Commission), at the UNICEF Executive Board on Item 4: Annual report on UNICEF humanitarian action.

Chair, Madam Executive Director,

I am speaking on behalf of the European Union as a donor.

We wish to commend UNICEF's humanitarian work in 2025, in an environment marked by unprecedented needs, erosion of IHL with a record number increase in grave violations against children, attacks on humanitarian workers including your staff, and severe funding shortages. We welcome UNICEF's humanitarian diplomacy and advocacy work in crises with severe access constraints such as Palestine, Sudan or DRC, to name a few, under the leadership of the Emergency Relief Coordinator and in cooperation with other UN agencies.

We regret that UNICEF received only 31 per cent of its original requirement for its Humanitarian Appeal, and we understand that in the context of the Humanitarian Reset, UNICEF had to prioritize its interventions and focus on life-saving interventions. [In this context, we welcome UNICEF's efforts to adapt and strengthen its humanitarian supply chains so as to maintain the timely and efficient delivery of life-saving assistance and the EU continues to be a partner with you on this.]

We note that this prioritization of interventions as of mid-2025, in line with the Humanitarian Reset, led UNICEF to greater reliance on local partners. While this is certainly a positive development, in order for this process to lead to a qualitative work, it should be accompanied by solid engagement with local authorities and civil society. We therefore support the new UNICEF localization strategy for 2026-2029, which puts the emphasis on capacity building of local partners, including national Governments.

We welcome UNICEF's renewed commitment to the centrality of protection in humanitarian aid, and to ensure that child protection and education in emergencies remain an integral part of life-saving assistance. In view of all funding constraints, how can UNICEF ensure that education in emergencies will stay a priority for the organisation?

We also welcome UNICEF's integration of children and caregivers with disabilities into emergency assessments, planning and response, and its work with local organisations of persons with disabilities wherever possible. Securing better data collection and analysis is also crucial to the quality of programmes, and we welcome the development of a version of the Child Functioning Module for humanitarian contexts.

Finally, we welcome that UNICEF started integrating anticipatory action more systematically into its humanitarian preparedness and response, as this is an efficient tool to reach populations earlier in case of shocks and maximise the efficient use of scarce humanitarian resources. We look forward to the roll out of a new anticipatory action strategy for 2026-2029.

We will stay actively engaged with UNICEF and look forward to advocating together for the protection of girls and boys and for building strong partnerships to operationalise the humanitarian, development and peace nexus, for every child in any humanitarian crisis setting.

Thank you.