"Ambassador Clase, thank you so much for having me today. I really appreciate it.
"Let me start by saying what you all know. Across the globe, children are facing record levels of violence, displacement, and deprivation.
"In 2024 alone, the United Nations verified more than 41,000 grave violations against children. That is the highest number ever recorded. Sadly, 2025 will show a similar trend, highlighting that children continue to pay the price for wars that they had nothing to do with starting.
Parties to conflict are increasingly disregarding international norms and the rules of war. New technologies are changing the ways wars are being fought, making strikes faster, more frequent and deadlier, especially in densely populated areas where children live, learn, and play.
"Explosive weapons now account for nearly 70 per cent of child casualties in conflict zones. In Sudan, so far this year, armed drones alone are responsible for nearly 80 per cent of reported child casualties.
"At the same time essential services are coming under attack. Schools, hospitals, electricity grids and water and food systems are not just collateral damage; they are increasingly drawn into conflict.
"We know that children are especially vulnerable to disruptions of services like health and nutrition. One of the clearest examples is the growing crisis of hunger.
"Nearly 38 million children today, across 26 countries, need urgent nutrition support, including about 10 million who are severely malnourished. These are children who are at risk of dying.
"During my mission to Somalia last month, I met mothers who had walked for days under extreme heat to reach treatment centres carrying children whose bodies had already begun to shut down from lack of food and water.
"Many had fled conflict and drought that destroyed crops and cattle that families depend on for nourishment. The ripple effects from the Middle East conflict of rising food and fuel prices are only adding to the hardship.
"One of the most haunting things to see is bed after bed with malnourished children and anxious mothers just hoping that their children will survive.
"This really is not about the scarcity of food, but political action to resolve conflict and ensure access. Famine and hunger are preventable. But only if we act early and address the drivers of famine and not just the symptoms.
"Children are not just going hungry. They are increasingly without the systems to keep them safe from harm, including sexual violence.
"In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at the height of violence last year, a child was raped every 30 minutes.
"Behind each number is a child like Reine, who, after surviving rape and becoming pregnant, experienced the trauma of her family accusing her of dishonoring them. She told us simply that: "All I want now is to give birth… and then I want to continue my studies." She was in eighth grade when the attack took place.
"Her words speak to unimaginable suffering, but also to resilience, and the urgency in supporting children like her.
"Without education, children lose not only learning, but access to safety, support, and a sense of normalcy.
"In Gaza, where 90 per cent of schools have been damaged or destroyed, more than 650,000 children have been out of school for over two and a half years. Children there - like Reine - told us what they want:
"Not tents. Not temporary fixes. But real schools - places where they can feel safe again.
"The humanitarian system meant to protect children is under growing strain. Funding is shrinking. Access is increasingly limited. And humanitarian workers themselves are under attack.
"As needs continue to outpace funding, humanitarian organizations are being forced to make choices that no humanitarian should make. In practical terms, this means reducing the frequency of nutrition treatment, scaling back protection services, and limiting access to safe learning spaces.
"For children, these are not marginal adjustments. They are the difference between survival and death. Between recovery and relapse.
"In 2026, UNICEF is appealing for 7.7 billion dollars to reach 73 million children. In line with the Global Humanitarian Overview, our Humanitarian Action for Children strategy is 25 per cent smaller than last year, not because needs have decreased, but unfortunately because resources have. As we prioritize our humanitarian action, protection and education cannot be seen as secondary. UNICEF considers them, and we believe they are, life-saving.
"Here I cannot overemphasize the importance of the flexible funding you provide. It enables us to prioritize the most critical needs, including in underfunded crises that receive little global attention - whether in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, or Haiti.
"It allows us to act immediately when disasters strike. For example, our Global Humanitarian Thematic Funding enabled us to respond within hours to the devastating earthquake in Myanmar last year.
"In Gaza, it allowed us to rapidly scale up operations following the ceasefire, helping to avert famine.
"Yet, in 2025, UNICEF only received $75.2 million in global humanitarian thematic funding, less than 4 per cent of all funding received. This reiterates the importance of having a mixed balance of funding mechanisms, combining core, flexible, and pooled funding.
"Several reform processes have been launched last year to ensure the humanitarian system can address many of the challenges I have outlined today.
"UNICEF is fully engaged in these efforts, to make the system more efficient, more accountable, and better able to deliver results.
"We are strengthening partnerships with governments and local actors, supporting them as the first line of response and investing more in local humanitarian capacity..
"For example, in the current crisis in Lebanon, we are working with the Water, Health and Education Ministries to provide essential services to displaced populations and host communities. We are working through the national social protection system to provide cash support to households with people with disabilities.
"We are investing more in preparedness and anticipatory action, and stretching every dollar to increase the impact of our work for children.
"But there are limits to how efficiency can compensate for declining resources.
"Above all, reforms must protect children, save lives, and uphold the principles that define humanitarian action.
"We must respond with the urgency, the resources, and the political will that this moment demands.
"This means political action to resolve conflicts and ensure access, and investing in early warning. It means funding humanitarian response efforts at the scale required.
"So let me end with three clear asks.
"First, we must restore respect for international law. We cannot allow the unacceptable scale of grave violations to become the new normal.
"Second, we need flexible, timely funding to immediately reach children wherever they are.
"Third, we must not abandon children who fall outside today's increasingly narrow humanitarian response. This means greater investments in sustaining essential services that children rely on and addressing the root causes of crises.
"Ultimately, it is a question of choice of whether we accept a world where children are routinely attacked, displaced, and left to go hungry, or whether we act together to protect them.
"The true measure of our response is whether children are given a real chance to live, to learn, and to hope for a better future.
"Thank you."
