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The lunch bell rings at Mpondwe Primary School in Mpondwe Lhubiriha Town Council, Kasese District. Hundreds of children dash out of the classrooms to the adjacent sports pitch, squealing with excitement as a netball match begins. Thirteen-year-old Salama* joins the boys playing football, dribbling a brand-new ball past three opponents before…, Transitioning schoolgirls from survival to recovery  , About 3 km away, a separate lot of students are staying in school, but for a different and even smaller-sized reason. Each of the 369 girls at Nyabugando Baptist School in Mpondwe Lubhiriha Town Council has received a dignity kit that fits in two palms clasped together. Each kit comprises two packets of ultra-absorbent reusable sanitary towels…, “The attack doesn’t have to be the end of your future, please study and let’s move on together as a community,”, Faisal Kirarira Bagumira, the Kasese District Probation and Social Welfare Officer counsels during the school assembly.  The Senior Three and Six learners walk back to their classrooms, dignity kits in hand, to sit their end of term exams. Among them is 23-year-old Agathe* who wishes to become a reverend doctor when she completes school, so that…, Now I don’t have to worry about the UGX 5,000 (about 1.5USD) that I needed per month to purchase disposable sanitary towels, ,” Agathe says in a sharp, clear voice. A total of 1,350 schoolgirls across Kasese, who have received the UNICEF-funded dignity kits, no longer have to bear this worry either.  In addition, Allen Uhiriwe, the Programme Officer, Child Protection at UNICEF Mbarara Zonal Office, reveals that in emergency contexts where livelihoods are lost, dignity…

In the wake of the World Water Week 2023 World Water Week conference, UNICEF Innovation Specialist for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Esther Shaylor, shares her five key takeaways along with her thoughts on whether or not the world is progressing swiftly enough on its journey toward Sustainable Development Goal 6 to ensure availability and…

When monsoon rains triggered Devastating floods in Pakistan Pakistan's most devastating floods in recent history , the resulting humanitarian crisis affected 33 million people and took almost 1,800 lives. UNICEF immediately raced to deliver life-saving supplies to communities inundated by the floodwaters.   Masooma Qazilbash, Programme Specialist…, Everything was disrupted, Every year, Pakistan experiences monsoon rains – but 2022 was devastating. The floods were unlike anything we’d ever seen before. By the time they ended, tens of millions of people were affected in more than half of Pakistan's districts and over 9 million children needed humanitarian support. Millions of homes were either damaged or washed away.…, A mammoth supply effort, In Pakistan, UNICEF had supplies prepared to meet the immediate needs of around 150,000 people. My amazing supply and logistics colleagues got into action fast, delivering Emergencies pre-positioned emergency supplies . More were brought in by trucks and international charter flights. Our supply headquarters in Copenhagen airlifted urgently needed…, Reaching vulnerable communities, Seeing the flooding first-hand was unbelievable. Miles and miles of land completely underwater. You could only see the tops of trees and rooftops in some places. Entire villages were turned into lakes. Honestly, it was very difficult to see that. The scale of the needs compared to the resources UNICEF, its partners and the government had at the…, Back to school, We quickly set up temporary learning spaces using tents and tarps. Soon after, we installed High-Performance Tents, which are durable and comfortable spaces for children to continue learning. This gave kids some sense of routine amid the chaos around them. While we provided blackboards, learning kits, recreation kits, floor mats and backpacks.  …, Clean water, Clean drinking water was desperately needed. Wells and infrastructure were damaged, leaving communities only stagnant ponds to access water. Drinking it was life-threatening as cholera was spreading rapidly. UNICEF trucked in treated water for people to collect in jerry cans and we provided purification tablets so families could clean potentially…, Nutrition, Malnutrition was already a big problem in Pakistan before the floods and the displacement and loss of livelihoods made it worse. Our initial response was to distribute ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) through mobile health teams and clinics to reach severely malnourished children.   In the last year, we’ve delivered hundreds of thousands of…, Protection against the elements, The floods destroyed over 2 million homes right before winter arrived. As families were left exposed to freezing temperatures and snow, UNICEF quickly distributed thermal blankets and winter clothes such as jackets, hats, socks and shoes to displaced children and families. As needs grew, UNICEF procured more supplies to see children through the…, UNICEF response to Pakistan floods in numbers, The interactive iframe below cannot be accessed via keyboard navigation due to external source limitations.

Around the world, 785 million still people do not have basic access to safe and affordable drinking water. The effects of climate change will only increase the threat to water quality, particularly where water is scarce or in regions that are more prone to natural disasters. To make sure children have access to safe water, no matter where they…, Monitoring ground water in Madagascar  , In Madagascar, only 42 per cent of the population have access to clean water. People living in remote villages often need to walk 5 to 20 kilometers to fetch water, and consumption of contaminated surface water from open sources like lakes, ponds and rivers is very common.   The situation is even more alarming in the arid southern regions,…, Solar energy to treat water in Venezuela, Water is abundant in San Francisco de Guayo, Venezuela, home to the indigenous Warao community. Six hours away by boat from Tucupita, the capital of the Delta Amacuro State, San Francisco de Guayo is located by the Orinoco River, the fourth largest in the world by flow rate.   Until very recently, people in this community consumed water directly…, Featured video, Embedded video follows

UNICEF supply and logistics experts are frequently deployed to humanitarian emergencies across the world, helping to make sure that life-saving supplies are delivered to the children who need them most.   These deployments, called “surge deployment missions”, are vital to UNICEF’s ability to promptly scale up a supply response to multiple large-…, *, for school supplies. Chapters 4 and 5 will be on political changes and getting malaria. The final chapter will be about the inspiration of being in Burkina Faso for three months and understanding the lengths a humanitarian will go to achieve results for children."  Jaclyn Benche, Knowledge Management Officer, Strategy, Partnerships and Knowledge…, UNICEF supply and logistics deployments in 2022 by area of expertise, The interactive iframe below cannot be accessed via keyboard navigation due to external source limitations.

The introduction of new vaccines was one of the main topics at this year’s Vaccine Procurement Practitioners Exchange Forum (VPPEF) Vaccine Procurement Practitioner’s Exchange Forum (VPPEF) , an annual meeting that gathers government, UNICEF experts and key partners to discuss strengthening procurement planning for new vaccine introductions.   The…, Muhammad Faruq-Uz-Zaman, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Government of Bangladesh “I am responsible for preparing medium-term budget frameworks, especially for the health sector, where Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) activities are incorporated. During the forum, I learned more about market intelligence, EPI activities in different countries and the…, Tabawa Abubakar, Deputy Director, Department of Logistics and Health Commodities at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health “This was the first time I came to UNICEF Supply Division. As I work with quality assurance and strategic planning in procuring health products, this meeting was relevant to my team.  …, Diaa Hjaija, Director of the Communicable Disease Department, Ministry of Health, State of Palestine “In October 2022, I attended a subregional meeting held in Amman, so this is the second time I participated in this kind of meeting. The forum was excellent to attend as I got to listen and share experiences with other countries and figure out what's happening…, Cong Luat Nguyen, Deputy Head of the National EPI Office, Ministry of Health, Viet Nam “I really enjoyed the forum and was impressed by many things. It was well prepared, informative, had relevant content, and involved participants from different continents, not just focusing on one specific region. Attendees came from diverse backgrounds and were at different…, Akhona Tshangela, Programme Coordinator for Partnerships, the African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM)  “I was invited to the VPPEF as a partner, and it was great to be able to learn about and reflect on other countries' plans. The forum is a solid platform to share experiences between countries, where countries can discuss procurement best practices, challenges and…

Around the world, children are living through unrelenting emergencies that have been ongoing for years, and in some cases, even decades. Their lives have been turned upside down by conflicts, food insecurity and the escalating realities of climate change, forcing them to leave their homes. On World Refugee Day, we look at some of the most…, A child rights crisis in Afghanistan, In Yzad province, Iran, an Afghan refugee child receives hygiene supplies procured and distributed by UNICEF. A severe humanitarian emergency, driven by an unstable political landscape and children’s lack of access to nutrition, education and protection, has forced millions of people across Afghanistan’s borders, while millions more are internally…, Drought in the Horn of Africa, At Higlo IDP site in Ethiopia, where thousands of drought-affected people are living, a health worker measures the arm of a child to assess his nutrition level. Five successive failed rainy seasons in the past three years have left over 1.9 million children in the region at risk of severe malnutrition, with millions internally displaced or…, Migration across Mexico, In Tapachula, Chiapas – a town bordering Mexico and Guatemala – a child receives a health check-up. Every day, migrants and asylum seekers from South and Central America arrive in Tapachula, fleeing violence, poverty and lack of opportunities. Many decide to travel onward to the United States. UNICEF continues to deliver crucial primary care…, Fleeing a human rights disaster in Myanmar, Embedded video follows Baby Riazur, living in a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, receives his routine vaccines from UNICEF-supported community health volunteers. More than 952,000 Rohingya, half of whom are children, are living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar after escaping violence that broke out in Myanmar in 2017. As Rohingya…, Conflict in Yemen, Five-year-old Saiba and her mother Taiseer Jamel receive hygiene supplies in Abyan, Yemen, where thousands of internally displaced persons are living. In Yemen's eighth year of conflict, there remains a deteriorating economy and collapsing basic services. Critical water and sanitation problems increase the risk of malnutrition, cholera, and death…, Supply response to large displacements of people, Explore a geographic overview of some of the major crises of 2022 that were marked by the extensive uprooting of populations, with a glimpse into the priorities and focus of UNICEF’s supply response for children and families. Hover the mouse over the location icons for more information. The interactive iframe below cannot be accessed via keyboard…, More to explore, Embedded video follows

Yellow fever, a mosquito-borne disease that causes more than 50,000 deaths annually, has long affected tropical and sub-tropical regions. With its potential to cause widespread outbreaks, it poses a significant threat to children’s health and well-being. In the fight against this disease, UNICEF has taken the lead in procuring and delivering…, Early detection, rapid interventions, Diagnostic tests are crucial for early detection and containment of disease outbreaks, significantly reducing the risk of death for the most at-risk people. In the case of yellow fever, testing is critical as part of disease surveillance efforts as it allows countries to identify outbreaks and take countermeasures, such as mass vaccination…, A blueprint for development, Recognising the urgent need for improvements, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, called on UNICEF’s expertise in procurement and the WHO technical know-how to overcome issues in supplying yellow fever diagnostics to countries. With a financial commitment from Gavi between 2019 and 2025, UNICEF engaged with manufacturers and partners to bring affordable…, Evolution of tests, Building on the achievements of this first stage of the diagnostics project, the overall partnership, which includes FIND, Gavi, UNICEF, the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) and WHO, expanded its efforts to include additional diagnostic tools for yellow fever. A major development occurred in 2022 when molecular diagnostics (…, Next in line: cholera , The impact of UNICEF and its partners’ work extends far beyond yellow fever. The success of tackling this disease can be replicated to address other major public health concerns. Cholera, another vaccine-preventable disease, is set to benefit from the pioneering development of bundling all the critical supplies a country needs to test rapidly and…

When I first arrived in Syria, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. After 12 years of conflict and a devastating earthquake earlier this year, I feared the worst. I arrived in April for a five-week mission to support UNICEF’s earthquake response and cholera response. I traveled to Aleppo using the main highway connecting the north to the south of…

On 16 December 2021, as families across the Philippines prepared to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones after a two-year COVID-19 travel ban, typhoon Rai (locally known as Odette) hit the central and southern parts of the country with force exceeding the previous records set by super typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Strong winds reaching 195 km/h…, Dealing with emergencies, On the day typhoon Odette happened, I was working in the UNICEF Country Office in Manila. When I heard the news, I immediately searched social media channels to see the extent of the damage. Although the typhoon was huge, I was not worried about UNICEF’s readiness to respond to the crisis.   Since typhoon Haiyan almost ten years earlier, our…, Urgent needs, In the first days following the typhoon, children and families urgently needed access to clean water and sanitation, shelter, medicines, and food. To protect communities at risk of waterborne diseases, we provided Aquatabs to purify water, jerrycans to store clean water, family hygiene and dignity kits. We also provided high-performance tents to…, Agility to respond, Pre-positioning supplies is integral to our office emergency preparedness plan and is essential to ensure we can support families in an emergency and mitigate further crises such as disease outbreaks. For UNICEF to live up to our Core Commitments for Children, pre-positioning of life-saving supplies is an important part of our work especially for…

Every year, UNICEF delivers more than 2 billion Vaccines life-saving vaccines help to protect children against diseases such as measles, pneumonia and polio. At the heart of this work is ‘pooled procurement’ – a process where UNICEF forecasts and combines vaccine demand from the countries it supports to get better commercial terms from…, 1. Uninterrupted supply of life-saving vaccines, UNICEF procures childhood vaccines to reach 45 per cent of the world’s children under five years of age, working with countries to estimate expected vaccine requirements for the coming years. This enables UNICEF to plan for supplies to be available with manufacturers who require long-term visibility due to the complexity of vaccine production,…, 2. Driving down the price of vaccines, Pooled procurement offers significant benefits by allowing countries to access vaccines at lower prices than they would typically obtain through individual negotiations with manufacturers. This is accomplished through economies of scale, whereby manufacturers can reduce their costs and streamline production processes by manufacturing larger…, 3. Building healthy markets , As the largest single vaccine buyer in the world, UNICEF works with partners to ensure vaccine markets remain healthy now and in the future. This is why UNICEF’s tender process takes into account much more than just pricing and production schedules. For instance, it’s critical that we ensure there is more than one manufacturer of each vaccine to…, 4. Partnerships are key to progress , UNICEF does not work alone to procure vaccines. It requires a mix of funding from donors, consultations with the vaccine industry and competitive tenders to secure access. UNICEF works in collaboration with multiple disease prevention partnerships such as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the Measles and Rubella Initiative. UNICEF is…, 5. Success stories , UNICEF’s pooled procurement of vaccines has helped countries make big strides in their routine immunization efforts, and the procurement of the pentavalent vaccine stands out as a success story. The vaccine protects against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenzae type b – five potentially fatal diseases. In 2001,…

Globally, just one in eight girls are vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) – the leading cause of cervical cancer. Although momentum was building before the global pandemic, HPV vaccination programmes were severely affected by COVID-19.   HPV vaccines are often delivered in schools because the primary target group for this vaccine is 9 to…