What We Do
How the UNICEF Seoul Liaison Office works with the Government of the Republic of Korea
Our work
The UNICEF Seoul Liaison Office opened in 2017 as an extension of UNICEF’s Public Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Division (PPR) 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 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.
Climate Partnership
Climate Action for the Last Mile: Reaching the Most Vulnerable Children
UNICEF and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) launched an ambitious $42M Climate partnership in 2024. The programme will initially be implemented over a three-year period, with a 10-year partnership vision. It is the first significant multi-country, multi-sectoral Climate investment that UNICEF has received since the launch of UNICEF’s Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan in 2023.
Global Health Partnership
ACT-A Initiative
Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) is a global collaboration that UNICEF helped lead to ensure equitable access to vaccines, tests, treatments, personal protective equipment (PPE), and infection prevention and control (IPC), especially for children in vulnerable environments.
Humanitarian Partnership
Resilience for Children+ Partnership
Announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the 20th Annual Consultation in December 2024, this partnership is part of Korea's new Humanitarian Flagship framework to channel larger, multi-country investments into high-impact, people-centered responses.
Country Projects
One of the most enduring aspects of this partnership has been the Republic of Korea’s commitment to addressing the needs of children in humanitarian crises, for which UNICEF receives emergency funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.