Children

A UNICEF research brief published today warns that at least 40 million children around the world have missed out on early childhood education in their critical pre-school year as COVID-19 shuttered childcare and early education facilities.  Lockdowns also left parents struggling to balance childcare and paid employment.

Severe flooding in Bangladesh is currently affecting some 1.4 million people, with United Nations agencies providing $5.2 million in early funding.  In China, heavy rains have impacted more than 38 million people, while floods and landslides in Nepal have led to more than 100 deaths.

The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund warned today that disruptions in the delivery and uptake of immunization services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is causing an alarming decline in the number of life-saving vaccines for children around the world, threatening hard-won progress.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme today jointly warned that funding shortages, conflict and disasters — as well as supply chain challenges, rising food prices and loss of income due to COVID-19 — threaten to leave millions of refugees across Africa without food.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in a new report that millions of children in Yemen could be pushed to the brink of starvation due to huge shortfalls in humanitarian aid funding amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  So far, the COVID-19 response is only 10 per cent funded, as UNICEF appeals for $53 million.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Nicolas de Rivière (France):

While warring parties agreed to more than 30 action plans, road maps, command orders and other measures to better protect children in 2019 — the highest number in any one year — cases of grave violations committed against minors remain unacceptably high, two United Nations experts on the matter told the Security Council in a 23 June videoconference meeting.

A new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report finds that universal child benefits such as cash payments or tax transfers — crucial to fighting child poverty — are only available in 1 out of 10 countries.  Officials say that they are needed now more than ever amid the economic fallout of COVID-19.

In Bangladesh, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed today that a 71-year-old Rohingya man is the first refugee in the Cox’s Bazar camp to die from COVID-19 and some 30 other people have tested positive so far, yet the numbers are likely higher as testing is ramping up.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Global Vaccine Alliance, warned today that COVID-19 is disrupting routine vaccination efforts around the world, putting about 80 million children under the age of one at risk of diseases including diphtheria, measles and polio.