WIREDGOV

As famine, droughts, conflict and malnutrition threatened the survival of millions in 2017, UNICEF spent over half a billion dollars to deliver emergency, life-saving supplies to children in urgent need of assistance. This is the agency’s highest expenditure on supplies for humanitarian crises thus far.

In 2017, drought and armed conflict devastated children’s lives in South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and north-east Nigeria, with some 22 million children left hungry, sick, displaced and out-of-school. Nearly 1.4 million children were at imminent risk of death from severe malnutrition. In response, UNICEF sent US$122.4 million worth of nutritional products, including Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food, milk, high-energy biscuits and anthropometric equipment to weigh and measure children.

In the Horn of Africa, where droughts exacerbated a large-scale nutrition crisis, UNICEF delivered nearly a quarter of its global therapeutic food to save hundreds of thousands of children affected by acute malnutrition. More than half was manufactured by local suppliers in countries where UNICEF has nutrition programmes, which helped to improve efficiency and support local markets.

Besides nutrition-related supplies, UNICEF also sent life-saving water and sanitation supplies, vaccines and pharmaceuticals, as well as education and clothing items to children and families caught in, or displaced by conflict, natural disasters and other crises across 61 countries. Most of the emergency supplies were delivered to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, Yemen, the Horn of Africa, Syria, the Lake Chad region and South Sudan.

To serve Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, logistics services were rapidly put in place, while water, sanitation and health supplies were delivered to deal with simultaneous cholera outbreaks around the world. In Yemen alone, where almost 22 million people were affected by food insecurity and a crumbling health system, UNICEF provided over 900 million purification tablets, 1,800 acute watery diarrhea kits and 33 million doses of vaccines.

In 2017, UNICEF and its partners also substantially reduced vaccine prices, thanks to efforts to influence markets. For the first time, a complete set of vaccines for a child under the age of one is now available at under US$18 for low-income countries – down from the 2013 price of US$24.46.

In total, UNICEF procured US$3.46 billion worth of supplies and services for children in 150 countries and areas last year.

The report is available here.

For more information please contact:

Unicef UK Media Team, 0207 375 6030, media@unicef.org.uk

About Unicef

Unicef is the world’s leading organisation for children, promoting the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

Unicef UK raises funds to protect children in danger, transform their lives and build a safer world for tomorrow’s children. As a registered charity we raise funds through donations from individuals, organisations and companies and we lobby and campaign to keep children safe. Unicef UK also runs programmes in schools, hospitals and with local authorities in the UK. For more information please visit unicef.org.uk