What we do

UNICEF believes that every child has the inalienable right to survive and live with dignity and in a safe environment where they can develop to their full potential. 

The UNICEF Seoul Liaison Office opened in 2017 as an extension of UNICEF’s Public Partnerships Division headquartered in New York. The mandate of the office is to work with the Government of the Republic of Korea to strengthen our collaboration at the global and field level. Together, we seek strategic alignment between Korea’s ODA priorities and UNICEF’s Strategic Plan priorities.  We seek to identify opportunities to co-finance UNICEF programmes for children, jointly advocate for children’s rights, and foster technical exchanges between Korea and UNICEF.

Our line ministry is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which provides the strategic direction for the government’s engagement with UNICEF, invests core resources, and funds UNICEF’s humanitarian programmes; the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), which funds UNICEF’s development programmes; the Ministry of Unification, which provides humanitarian support to children in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; and the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. 

We also work closely with several other government offices.  Our primary Health partners are the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), and the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH).  Our primary Education partners are the Ministry of Education, the Korean Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE), and the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI).  We also engage with the Office for International Development Cooperation within the Prime Minister’s Office. We are continually expanding our collaboration with other government offices, academia, and civil society organizations.