The European Union
UNICEF public-sector partner
UNICEF partners with the European Union (EU) ─ including the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European External Action Service and the European Council across key programmatic areas such as Education, Social Protection, Nutrition, Child Protection, Health and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene both in development and emergency settings. The partnership also focuses on key advocacy areas around child rights including ending child poverty, empowering and protecting children in the digital age, child participation, birth registration, child marriage, migration and equity.
The European Commission was a champion on promoting new mechanisms to facilitate child and youth participation in EU decision making processes, in 2020. The EU, UNICEF and child rights organizations consulted more than 10,000 children living in Europe and beyond to shape the EU global strategy on the rights of the child. In preparation of a planned EU-African Union Heads of State Summit, the EU, African Union and UNICEF gathered over 450,000 African and European youth voices through the U-Report to get their opinions on various topics including climate change; education, skills and jobs; digitalization; good governance.
In 2020, the European Commission was UNICEF’s third largest resource partner, providing essential support to some of the most disadvantaged children in 77 countries. The EU was the top contributor to Gender related programming through the Spotlight Initiative and continued to be among the top resource partners to the UNICEF humanitarian response.
Since 2017, UNICEF and ECHO have supported more than 628,000 children in Turkey with education in emergencies and child protection programmes aimed at encouraging Syrian and other refugee families to send and keep their children to school. In Zimbabwe, the EU and UNICEF reached over 552,965 children with nutrition services and continue supporting health system strengthening as well as reducing maternal and children under-five mortality.
2020 contributions1 to UNICEF
Other Resources (regular): US$372 million
Other Resources (emergency): US$142 million
Total: US$514 million
1Contributions received in cash and in kind.
