President,
I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and my own country, Norway.
We thank UNICEF for the update and for the dedication and courage of staff and partners working under extremely challenging conditions. UNICEF’s principled presence remains essential for children affected by conflict, violence, climate shocks, and deepening inequality.
The Nordic countries welcome UNICEF’s frank assessment of the humanitarian landscape, including difficult prioritization driven by severe funding constraints. We appreciate UNICEF’s engagement in the Humanitarian Reset and the UN80 Initiative and support reforms that enhance efficiency while protecting frontline delivery. We expect UNICEF to exercise leadership in developing more aligned and integrated functions at country level, including in support of the “Shared Platform Initiative” and reconfigured UN Country Teams under empowered leadership by the RC/HC.
We welcome UNICEF’s leadership on localization. Meaningful local partnerships are critical to effective humanitarian action and accountability to affected communities. We support the vision set out in the humanitarian reset of a more coordinated engagement with local humanitarian actors through the Country Based Pooled Funds, and encourage UNICEF to present how this will be supported.
Protection, gender equality, and inclusion must not become casualties of prioritization or reform. These are central to principled humanitarian assistance and to UNICEF’s mandate. We underline the importance of the centrality of protection which remains at the heart of humanitarian action.
The Nordic countries strongly support UNICEF’s efforts to prioritize child protection and education in emergencies as core life-saving interventions. We are concerned that targets for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, gender-based violence, and mental health and psychosocial support were reduced as part of the hyperprioritization. We note that some of the cuts will be mitigated through integrated programming, but will there be sufficient expertise and dedicated resources to support this critical work?
Considering the high number of grave violations against children in armed conflict, we underscore the importance of UNICEF’s role in the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism. We encourage continued prioritization of the MRM in close cooperation with partners at country level.
Children must be protected from the devastating consequences of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, and we reaffirm strong support for the EWIPA Declaration. We commend UNICEF’s leadership in advocating the protection of children affected by such harm.
The Nordic countries are worried about the decline in support for education, including education in emergencies, and particularly the effect this has on girls. We will continue to support UNICEF’s advocacy to promote education as a life-saving protection component of humanitarian action. In this regard, our cooperation on the Safe Schools Declaration is highly appreciated.
We welcome UNICEF’s efforts to improve humanitarian access and humanitarian diplomacy, recognizing that denial of access heightens protection risks for children and undermines accountability. Linked to this, we would appreciate an update on UNICEFs engagement in the reform initiative on humanitarian diplomacy.
The Nordic countries remain steadfast partners to UNICEF and are committed to providing flexible funding. We will continue to advocate for a humanitarian system that is needs-based, protection-centered, gender-responsive, locally led, and for reforms that deliver real improvements in safety and dignity for the most vulnerable children.
We look forward to our continued cooperation.
Thank you.