Humanitarian Action for Children brings hope
HUMANITARIAN action lies at the heart of UNICEF’s mandate. When UNICEF began its mission 70 years ago, it was at a time when the world was grappling with the aftermath of the Second World War, which saw the lives of millions of children being affected by years of conflict.
Seventy years on, UNICEF continues to bring life-saving assistance, long-term support and hope to children whose lives have been put at risk by crisis, conflict, poverty and the devastating effects of climate change.
Currently worldwide, 535 million children are living in countries that are affected by a wide range of emergencies — that’s one in every four children. This staggering number illustrates the urgency of the current global situation.
On Monday, UNICEF launched the Humanitarian Action for Children for 2017, which calls for $3,3 billion to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to 81 million people, including 48 million children in 48 countries.
This appeal comes against the backdrop of increased vulnerability of children due to increased conflict and crises around the world. In 2016, the world grappled with the Zika virus in Latin American and the Caribbean; the increased refugee crisis in Syria and migration in Europe; renewed conflict in South Sudan; unprecedented malnutrition in Yemen and Nigeria; displacement in Myanmar and escalating conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In all these instances, children are always the most vulnerable group as they face the highest risk of violence, exploitation, disease and neglect.
This call to action appeals to our collective responsibility to uphold the rights of children and to protect their lives and future.
UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children highlights the efforts made by UNICEF and development partners to confront the challenges being faced by children around the world and to provide children with access to safe water, nutrition, education, health and protection. In 2016, the Humanitarian Action for Children appeal raised $2,8 billion to assist 76 million people, of whom 34 million children resided in 63 countries. These countries included Zimbabwe, which like many countries in the Southern African region, was facing El-Nino that resulted in the worst drought in 35 years. For millions of people across the region, particularly children, the impact on access to clean water, food security and nutrition has been catastrophic.
In Zimbabwe, El Nino effects were compounded by the onset of the “La Nina” phenomenon, which has resulted in heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding. The Government’s 2016-2017 Humanitarian Response Plan provides a commendably strong response strategy, which focuses on the areas of water and sanitation; food security and agriculture; education; health and nutrition and protection.
By emphasising resilience building, the plan has also created robust linkages between short-term humanitarian interventions and long-term development.
Development partners, most notably the UK’s Department of International Development (DFID), EU, Sweden, Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), USAID-PEPFAR, USAID-Food for Peace, Germany, Japan and Canada have responded by offering scaled-up financial assistance to UNICEF’s supported programmes.
Donors’ consistent support has been a critical element in allowing for various interventions that have made a difference in the lives of the most affected communities. These efforts complemented those of the Government that also managed to provide lifesaving and critical assistance to the population groups affected by the drought.
Many of the 535 million children living today in countries affected by emergencies were already vulnerable, even before crises strike — living in poverty, deprived of adequate nutrition, out of school, at risk of abuse and exploitation.
Therefore, how we respond to humanitarian situations should also lay the foundation for future growth and stability of our children.
Both the Sustainable Development Goals and the “Grand Bargain” struck at the World Humanitarian Summit last year reflect this growing link between humanitarian and development support.