UNICEF warns children face 'extreme' humanitarian needs amid funding cuts

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday warned that surging conflicts, rising hunger, global funding cuts and collapsing basic services have pushed humanitarian needs for children to "extreme levels worldwide," as it launched its Humanitarian Action for Children 2026 appeal.

UNICEF said $7.66 billion is urgently required to provide life-saving assistance to 73 million children in 133 countries and territories next year, including 37 million girls and more than 9 million children with disabilities.

"Across every region, children caught in emergencies are facing overlapping crises that are growing in scale and complexity," said a statement, noting that escalating conflicts are driving mass displacement, exposing children to record-high grave violations and leaving schools and hospitals under attack.

Stressing the scale of the crisis, UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said, "Around the world, children caught in conflict, disaster, displacement and economic turmoil continue to face extraordinary challenges."

"Their lives are being shaped by forces far beyond their control: violence, the threat of famine, intensifying climate shocks, and the widespread collapse of essential services," she added.

Noting that the global humanitarian funding environment deteriorated sharply in 2025, UNICEF stated that a 72% funding gap in nutrition programs led to reduced targets in 20 priority countries, while a $745 million shortfall in education has left millions at risk of losing access to learning and protection.

"Across our operations, frontline teams are being forced into impossible decisions: focusing limited supplies and services on children in some places over others, decreasing the frequency of services children receive, or scaling back interventions that children depend on to survive," Russell said, adding that "severe funding shortfalls are placing UNICEF's life-saving programs under immense strain."

UNICEF warned that more than 200 million children will require humanitarian assistance in 2026 and called on governments and donors to increase flexible, multi-year funding and remove barriers to humanitarian access.