Chair,

I am speaking on behalf of the European Union as a donor.

We acknowledge the report on the financing of the UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2022–2025. We welcome UNICEF’s efforts to harmonize its structured funding dialogue report with those of UNDP, UNFPA and UN-Women.

We note the record income of USD 9.326 billion received in 2022, which is positive in an increasingly difficult funding environment. The EU continues to be a main donor to UNICEF, with funding of over USD 500 million in 2022. Beside public sector income, which increased by 10 per cent compared to the 2021 actual income, we are pleased to see the record increase in private sector funding. We hope that this positive trend, supported in part by progress in digital fundraising and innovative approaches, will be sustained in 2023 and beyond. We would welcome more details on UNICEF’s plans and ambitions in this respect.

At the same time, we note with concern that only 36 per cent of the 2022 Humanitarian Action for Children was funded. Moreover, this funding was heavily concentrated on a few large-scale emergencies. We consider it important to address the needs of the most vulnerable worldwide, including in “forgotten crises”. Therefore, we would like to know whether and how UNICEF intends to raise funds for less visible emergencies, possibly jointly with other UN organizations.

We also note with concern that while overall thematic contributions received significantly increased in 2022, the education thematic pool was particularly reduced, going from USD 106 million in 2021 to only USD 39 million in 2022. We would appreciate information from UNICEF as to which action it is taking to remedy the gap in education funding. What steps are envisaged to improve the distribution of thematic contributions towards all underfunded thematic pools?

We welcome UNICEF’s work and action plan to enhance its partnership with International Financial Institutions and are pleased to see that contributions from IFIs have grown steadily over the past few years. We also support UNICEF’s efforts to develop innovative financing and welcome the positive results of the pilot World Bank financing instrument. Given the constrained funding environment, we encourage sharing of experience on innovative financing with other aid organizations. In this context, we would welcome information from UNICEF on what kind of such exchanges, for instance with other UN agencies, take place or related plans.

In the same vein, and considering the funding gap in a context of unprecedented needs, we strongly encourage UNICEF to continue developing joint-up approaches with other UN agencies in a “One UN” approach and strive for efficiency gains. In this respect, we welcome that in 2022, 87 per cent of all UNICEF country offices delivered programmes in partnership with sister UN agencies, beyond the Strategic Plan target of 85 per cent.

The formative evaluation of the UNICEF positioning to achieve the Strategic Plan, presented at the February Board, concluded that UNICEF was only partially ready to implement the Strategic Plan. Therefore, we would appreciate more information on how UNICEF intends to develop further its capacity to estimate the full resource requirements for the coming years, including in collaboration with sister agencies.

Lastly, in terms of visibility and recognition, we note the efforts made with regard to public donors. We strongly encourage UNICEF to further enhance its efforts in this respect, increasing for instance field-level visibility, including for EU funding.

Thank you.