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The European Union

Learn more about UNICEF's top public sector partners

Partnership overview

UNICEF partners with the European Union (EU) ─ including the European Commission (EC), the European Parliament, the European External Action Service, and the Council of the EU ─ across key programmatic areas in education, health, nutrition, WASH and social protection. The enduring partnership focuses on both humanitarian and development contexts, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, and Europe and Central Asia. In 2024, the EU was the third largest donor to UNICEF, contributing a total of US$550 million.

UNICEF and the EU have scaled up collaboration in humanitarian preparedness and response, ensuring that critical supplies are available to children most in need. In 2024, these efforts included addressing global logistic challenges and deploying emergency stockpiles to children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gaza and Lebanon. UNICEF also partnered with the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) and the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) to deliver mpox vaccines from EU Member States’ national reserves to countries in Africa affected by the outbreak.

The partnership between the EU and UNICEF also focuses on protecting and advancing child rights worldwide, in line with the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, adopted by all 27 EU Member States in 2022. Central to this commitment is our work to address child poverty, promote public health, safeguard children in the digital age, advance gender equality and the rights of children living with disabilities, and protect children living through armed conflict, displacement and migration. The 2024 adoption of revised EU Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) marked a significant achievement after years of negotiation. Child rights are also now integrated into key EU policies and legislations, notably the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, the Clean Air Directive, the Digital Services Act, and the Council of the EU conclusions to protect the mental health of children and adolescents. The child rights agenda was also integrated into the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29).