"Friends, partners, colleagues, thank you for joining this virtual launch of UNICEF's 2026 Humanitarian Action for Children and for your ongoing support for the world's most vulnerable children.
"Over the past week, I have been travelling in South Sudan and Sudan, where I met children and families who shared heartbreaking stories of loss, displacement, and interrupted childhoods. Their experiences reflect what we are seeing in humanitarian settings around the world: children whose lives are being shaped by forces far beyond their control - conflict, the threat of famine, intensifying climate shocks, and the collapse of essential services.
"South Sudan and Sudan are just two of the 34 humanitarian emergencies highlighted in our appeal this year.
"In South Sudan, hunger, disease and overstretched basic services are taking a devastating toll.
"More than 2.1 million children under five are at risk of acute malnutrition; climate change is driving severe flooding and extreme weather; and the country has faced the worst cholera outbreak in its history. South Sudan has also welcomed more than 1.3 million refugees and returnees fleeing the war in Sudan, stretching essential services to the breaking point.
"Meanwhile, in Sudan, children face one of the fastest growing and least visible crises in the world.
"This was my second visit to the country, and the experiences I heard were devastating - especially from Darfur and Kordofan, where areas of famine are confirmed and where children have witnessed unspeakable violence. Millions have been displaced from their homes, and communities, and many have lost one or both parents.
"But these crises are part of a larger global picture.
"Around the world, we are seeing record levels of grave violations against children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and alarming increases in rape and other forms of sexual violence. Essential services are collapsing, and millions of children are losing access to the safety, learning, and healthy future they deserve.
"In the Gaza Strip, children continue to endure cycles of violence and loss that no child should ever experience. Essential services have been decimated, and families struggle daily to secure food, water and protection.
"In Haiti, spiraling insecurity and the collapse of basic systems have pushed families and children in grave danger.
"In Bangladesh, nearly one million Rohingya refugees, almost half of them children, remain trapped in a protracted crisis with no clear solutions in sight.
"Across the Sahel, rising armed violence is devastating children's survival, education and protection.
"And in Ukraine, the ongoing war continues to disrupt every aspect of children's lives from learning and mental health to access to safe water and heating in the winter months.
"These are only some of the emergencies where children urgently need our support.
"Yet while humanitarian needs are growing, the resources available to meet them are diminishing. Funding cuts, sudden, severe, and widespread, are forcing impossible decisions across our operations: limiting supplies, reducing frequency of services, and scaling back interventions that children depend on to survive. The gap between needs and resources is widening at the very moment children need us most.
"Still, even in the hardest places, we continue to see stories of hope.
"In South Sudan, I met children attending a UNICEF-supported learning centre who told me they want to become doctors, teachers and lawyers, refusing to give up on their education despite the crisis around them.
"Earlier this year, in Adre, Chad, I met mothers fleeing the war in Sudan whose malnourished children had been brought back to life with UNICEF's support.
"One woman whispered to me about the horrific sexual violence she and many others endured in Darfur and how UNICEF and our partners offered them a lifeline.
"These moments remind us why this appeal matters and why your partnership is essential.
"As we look ahead to 2026, UNICEF is sharpening its focus on the children at greatest risk, especially those living in chronically underfunded and neglected emergencies. We are investing in national and local capacities; strengthening essential systems; and reinforcing preparedness so we can respond quickly and effectively when crises deepen.
"These efforts save lives. But we cannot do this alone.
"I urge all of us to take urgent, collective and courageous action so that every child, no matter where they live, can survive, learn and thrive.
"Thank you."
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