UNICEF Launches New Core Commitments for Children

Dear Colleagues,

Today, UNICEF is releasing the new Core Commitments for Children (CCCs) — our core policy for humanitarian action, a vital framework that guides and shapes our humanitarian response in these complex and life-threatening environments.

This new edition responds to a critical need: to provide timely and quality humanitarian support in the midst of fast-moving emergencies.

It reaffirms key principles and standards that guide our action to ensure that children are protected, their dignity is respected, and no child is left behind, even in the most adverse circumstances.

The CCCs give every UNICEF Country Office, and our partners, a consolidated and detailed framework to monitor the situation of women and children, and take appropriate preparedness and response measures in the face of humanitarian needs.

The CCCs are accompanied by advocacy, management, planning and training tools that managers and staff members can use to meet these commitments to children in humanitarian and development contexts alike. The CCCs should inform our annual work plans, emergency response plans, country programme documents and partnerships with governments and civil society organizations, and performance reports.

For more information, and to access the tools and learning material to bring the CCCs to life in your offices, please visit UNICEF’s website and E-resources on the CCCs. You can also visit corecommitments.unicef.org.

As a UNICEF family, let’s gather around these Core Commitments for Children, and keep our promises to the children and families who are so often left behind.

Henrietta H. Fore

UNICEF Executive Director