UNICEF Emergency Response

Dear Friend,

Seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the global number of cases per day continues to increase. As the pandemic endures, it perpetuates an unprecedented socioeconomic, humanitarian, and human rights crisis which is taking its toll on the most vulnerable worldwide. The pandemic has threatened hard-won gains to protect and advance children’s rights to adequate health, nutrition and education, and has the potential to cause irreversible damage to the social and emotional development of an entire generation.

The global COVID-19 pandemic is overstretching health systems, exacerbating deep inequities within countries and across regions, and causing children to face widespread disparities. Ninety percent of countries are experiencing a disruption in the ability to provide crucial healthcare services, leaving millions of children at risk of illness and death. Furthermore, due to the suspension of services and movement restrictions, there has been a decline in access to routine immunizations for mothers and children.

Before the pandemic, UNICEF reached approximately 45 percent of the world’s children under the age of five with vaccines each year.As the search for an effective and safe vaccine for all countries ramps up, UNICEF is playing a critical role in preparing for what could be the largest, most rapid vaccination program the world has seen to date:

• SCALE: UNICEF procures more than 2 billion doses of vaccines annually, for routine immunization and outbreak response on behalf of nearly 100 countries, making it the largest single vaccine buyer in the world,
• EXPERTISE: UNICEF is the main procurement partner of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance which over the last 20 years has reached more than more than 760 million children with life-saving vaccines, preventing more than 13 million deaths.
• INFLUENCE: UNICEF has worked with the governments of nearly 100 countries in low- and lower middle-income countries to provide technical support and expertise to support their vaccination programs.
• REACH: UNICEF has been working on health systems strengthening for the past 70 years, and understands the role of a grassroots, bottom up approach to support health outcomes at the community level.

 Your support of UNICEF’s emergency programs has helped ensure the systems are in place, should a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine become available. You have also helped protect children from other harmful diseases as the world grapples with the effects of the pandemic.

Due to your support, UNICEF will be able to support vulnerable populations in mitigating the negative consequences of COVID-19. As the pandemic continues, UNICEF is working with partners to reimagine and develop a world that is a safer and more equitable place for communities and children everywhere. Today, new technologies and avenues exist as global stakeholders aim to provide a vaccine for the disease. It is UNICEF’s goal to ensure that in a post-pandemic world, all children will be better off than before. In the words of UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, “What the world looks like for children and young people tomorrow is our collective responsibility today.”

In Partnership,

Whitney Simon