Press Releases

Presidents, Prime Ministers, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors and global businesses unite with children and young people on World Children’s Day

Publication date: November 20, 2020

Stars and leaders around the world joined children and young people to reimagine a better post-pandemic world on UNICEF’s annual World Children’s Day.

Teen boy holding microphone where World Children's Day cyan blue shirt

UNICEF calls for averting a lost generation as COVID-19 threatens to cause irreversible harm to children’s education, nutrition and well-being

Publication date: November 19, 2020

Children and adolescents account for 1 in 9 of reported COVID-19 infections, according to new analysis released ahead of World Children’s Day

Ujas 11 shows how to correctly wear masks

2.3 million children in Tigray region of Ethiopia need humanitarian assistance, as thousands flee across border into Sudan

Publication date: November 19, 2020

Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore

An Ethiopian refugee child who fled fighting in Tigray province sits holding a child in a hut at the Um Raquba camp in Sudan's eastern Gedaref province, on 16 November 2020. Sudan – one of the world's poorest countries, now faced with the massive influx – has reopened the camp, 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the border. It once housed refugees who fled Ethiopia's 1983-85 famine that killed over a million people.

Children and young people join UNICEF Ambassadors Simu Liu, Ishmael Beah, David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, Millie Bobby Brown and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in conversations for World Children’s Day

Publication date: November 13, 2020

Youth advocates raise their voices and reimagine post-pandemic world for children

Youth protestor wearing a UNICEF shirt and holding a megaphone

UNICEF and WHO call for emergency action to avert major measles and polio epidemics

Publication date: November 6, 2020

As COVID-19 disrupts immunizations, urgent action needed to protect most vulnerable children from deadly and debilitating diseases

A child in Kandahar, Afghanistan shows her marked finger after being vaccinated against polio during the a vaccination campaign in September 2020 that targeted over 6 million children under five years of age.

Children in the poorest countries have lost nearly four months of schooling since start of pandemic – UNESCO, UNICEF and World Bank report finds

Publication date: October 29, 2020

New report looks at national education responses to COVID-19 including lost learning; remote learning support for students, parents and teachers; school reopening plans; health protocols; and financing

Malnutrition surges among young children in Yemen as conditions worsen

Publication date: October 27, 2020

One in five children under five in parts of Yemen are estimated to be acutely malnourished and in urgent need of treatment as malnutrition cases increase across the south, UN agencies warn.

After receiving the food supplements for his 2 malnourished daughter, Moharram Al-Oshari is taking his daughters, Bulqis and Arwa back to their tent.

1 in 6 children lives in extreme poverty, World Bank-UNICEF analysis shows

Publication date: October 20, 2020

The pre-COVID-19 analysis reveals that 356 million children struggle to survive on less than $1.90 a day, two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa

Maria and her friend play as the sun sets in Zambia. Her father Clement, receives UNICEF-supported cash transfers, which help him give her nourishment and protection

UNICEF to stockpile over half a billion syringes by year end, as part of efforts to prepare for eventual COVID-19 vaccinations

Publication date: October 19, 2020

Initial preparatory work – in partnership with Gavi and WHO – will include purchasing boxes for the safe disposal of syringes and mapping out cold chain equipment to ensure delivery of effective vaccines

UNICEF to stockpile over half a billion syringes by year end, as part of efforts to prepare for eventual COVID-19 vaccinations.

Simu Liu, actor known for Kim’s Convenience, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, announced as UNICEF Canada Ambassador

Publication date: October 6, 2020

Liu to raise awareness for children’s rights in Canada and around the world