EU Statement – UNICEF Executive Board – UNICEF Strategic Plan 2026-29

EU Statement - UNICEF Executive Board - UNICEF Strategic Plan 2026-29

2 September 2025, New York - European Union Statement at the UNICEF Executive Board Second Regular Session on Agenda Item 4: UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2026-2029

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Chair, Madam Executive Director

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

We take note of the new Strategic Plan, an important tool to guide UNICEF actions towards 2030. We welcome in particular its narrowed focus on five impact results and the objective to further move away from output to outcome-level achievements. However, considering the current funding constraints and despite UNICEF's intention to enhance financial resource mobilisation, we wonder whether the impact results listed in the Strategic Plan are not over-ambitious.

We welcome UNICEF's continued efforts to shift from direct service delivery to strengthening national systems, with a view to strengthening government capacities to uphold and realise child rights and improve the lives of children and young people.

We also welcome UNICEF's plans to strengthen collective action and strategic and multisectoral partnerships, such as Generation Unlimited, to secure resources for national systems to deliver on learning, skills, and dignified livelihoods for all children and young people.

We support UNICEF's intention to tailor its programmes to the different contexts and better take into account local capacities when devising a strategy, based on strong evidence and a risk analysis. In the current funding context, it will be all the more important to develop new approaches, increase partnerships with the private sector and work towards strengthening domestic financing.

We welcome UNICEF's attachment to non-discrimination and its commitment to advance equity and to focus on the most disadvantaged children, including those with disabilities. We also strongly support the reaffirmation of the centrality of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, notably adolescent girls, which is at the core of EU policies.

We welcome that principled humanitarian action will remain central to UNICEF's mandate, and the Strategic Plan's intention to strengthen coordination along the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. We note that UNICEF intends to make its partnerships with local actors more strategic, and we would be interested in hearing more about what this will entail and which major steps UNICEF intends to take to contribute to a real local ownership.

We appreciate the references to the need to protect children from climate and environmental risks and hazards and build resilience in the face of these risks. However, we note with concern the exclusion of 'climate change' as an exacerbating factor of such risks.

We would also appreciate if Education in Emergencies came out more strongly in the education section (Impact Result 2).

Despite the many challenges ahead, we trust that this Strategic Plan will be a key instrument to achieve progress towards the 2030 objectives, provided that UNICEF manages to mobilise enough financial resources. We encourage UNICEF to continue leveraging partnerships with emerging and private donors and diversifying its funding base.

We also warmly welcome UNICEF's leading role in the UN80 reform process and place our full confidence in your continued commitment to prioritize the common good in building a more streamlined and effective United Nations system. Furthermore, we commend UNICEF's dedication to enhancing coordination, fostering integrated approaches, and promoting collaborative efforts that serve the broader interests and in particular those of governments, children and young persons.

The European Union has been and will remain a major donor to UNICEF and we look forward to continuing working with you to deliver a better future for children.

Thank you.