Spokespersons for UNICEF and UNHCR in Geneva warned that the liquidity crunch has jeopardized lifesaving work, including progress in reducing child mortality, which has fallen by 60 per cent since 1990.  

By slashing severe acute malnutrition by one-third since 2000, UNICEF’s efforts have kept 55 million children alive, through simple interventions, it insisted.

“There are ways in which we can still be optimistic if we know that we can do it,” said Kitty van der Heijden, UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director said from Abuja, Nigeria.  

But that work can only get done with the support of a “conveyor belt” of partners in government, philanthropy, and the private sector.  

Donors are essential to delivering lifesaving assistance to children and mothers worldwide, Ms. Van der Heijden insisted: “We never do this alone.”

Advances being rolled back

But these gains are now at risk of being rolled back by recent pullouts, she warned, adding that the issue does not lie with a single benefactor.  

“It is the fact that it’s a cumulative set of donors that are doing this. That really risks rolling back that progress,” she said.  

“These decisions have impacts on real children, real lives every day in the here and now.”

Due to funding shortages, around 1.3 million children could lose access to life-saving support and ready-to-use therapeutic foods this year in Nigeria and Ethiopia.

In 2025, some 213 million children in 146 countries will need lifesaving humanitarian support, according to the UNICEF spokesperson.

Supply chain break down 

In the Afar region of northeast Ethiopia, UNICEF runs 30 mobile clinics – which Ms. van der Heijden visited last week and described as a “sheet under a shaded tree”.

The facilities, aimed at supporting impoverished pastoralist communities that are on the move, provide pregnant and lactating mothers as well as children with the “bare minimum”, she said, including supplementary vitamin A, iron deficiency, malnutrition and malaria treatments.

Only seven out of these 30 clinics remain, with the others shut by the wave of financial cutbacks.

“Without new funding, we will run out of our supply chain by May,” she said. “And that means that 70,000 children in Ethiopia depend on this type of treatment cannot be served.”

Similarly, in Nigeria, UNICEF could run out of supplies between this month and May.

Beyond treatment, prevention

Investing in prevention, nutrient supplementation and early screenings is also crucial to preventing more unnecessary deaths.  

“It’s not just about the treatment. We have to be able to prevent it getting to this stage.”  

Earlier this week, Ms. van der Heijden visited a Nigerian hospital and saw a child so malnourished that his skin was peeling off.  

“That’s the level of malnutrition that we’re seeing here,” she said, stressing the importance of prevention.

“As needs are rising, we need the global community to step up to the plate, to rise to the occasion, to keep investing in the art of the possible,” Ms. Van der Heijden stressed, adding that UNICEF will not retreat.  

“All over the world, the price is the same. It’s children that bear the brunt of decisions in capitals.”

Failing the children

“If you’re holding a child that is about to die of a totally preventable, treatable disease. It is nothing short of heartbreaking,” said Ms. van der Heijden. “We should not allow the global community to fail children in this way.”

The severe financial crisis underway is also posing a security risk to staff, hampering humanitarians’ ability to deliver.  

UNHCR downsizing operations

Finding itself in a similar position, UNHCR has also announced cuts to operations and programmes.

It is the latest agency to face painful cutbacks in the field and at headquarters following the announcement of a drastic drawdown in funding from the United States Government.

“The biggest concern that we have is, of course, in all of this for refugees, for the displaced, they will be feeling the brunt of these cuts,” said Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesperson for UNHCR.

Mr. Saltmarsh said the agency was conducting a review to determine how many staff would have to be let go.   

UNHCR has already has to halt multiple initiatives including in South Sudan, Bangladesh and Europe, and closed offices in countries like Türkiye.

In Ethiopia, the organization has suspended operations at a safehouse for women facing death threats, Mr. Saltmarsh said.

“In South Sudan, only 25 per cent of the dedicated spaces supported by UNHCR for women and girls at risk of violence are currently operational. That has left some 80,000 people without access to services like emergency psychosocial support and legal and medical assistance.” 

Briefing journalists in New York from Damascus, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, Adam Abdelmoula, explained that the country remains at a critical juncture as the situation continues to worsen despite the hope sparked by the fall of Assad.

The presence of landmines and explosive remnants of war continues to pose a deadly threat, with over 600 casualties reported since December – a third of whom were children.

Efforts towards stability

Despite the grim circumstances, there has been some movement toward stability.

Since December, 1.2 million people have returned to their homes, including 885,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 302,000 refugees.

UNHCR projects that up to 3.5 million refugees and IDPs may return this year, underscoring the urgent need for investments in recovery and reintegration efforts.

Key obstacles include lack of basic services, security risks and missing legal documentation.

Ongoing hostilities

Despite progress, active hostilities continue in northern, southern and coastal Syria, displacing thousands and creating difficulties for aid delivery.

The recent escalation in coastal areas has resulted in hundreds of casualties and significant damage to infrastructure, including health facilities.

“To prevent further suffering, all parties must commit to de-escalation and abide by international humanitarian law,” said Mr. Abdelmoula, stressing that immediate, unimpeded humanitarian access is crucial to deliver aid.

Funding and economic challenges

The situation is further complicated by severe economic challenges, including cash shortages, limited electricity and rising prices, which hamper aid efforts and access to basic services.

“The freeze of funding for humanitarian activities in January has severely impacted operations, especially in northeast Syria, particularly in informal settlements and IDP camps,” Mr. Abdelmoula explained.

The UN and its partners are adapting by scaling up humanitarian operations to address the growing needs of the population.

The path to recovery

For Syria’s long-term stability, economic revitalisation and inclusive recovery efforts are crucial.

The UN has developed a transitional action plan aimed at reducing poverty, supporting refugee reintegration and strengthening institutions. However, international support is needed to ensure the success of these efforts.

“The cost of inaction […] is much more expensive than responding to the immediate needs of the Syrian people,” Mr. Abdelmoula concluded.

“Any ceasefire is welcome because it saves lives, but it is essential that a ceasefire paves the way for a just peace in Ukraine,” the UN Secretary-General said in Brussels, where he also addressed the massive Israeli escalation in Gaza and urged the world not to give up on slowing climate change.

A “just peace” in Ukraine “is a peace that respects the UN Charter, international law and Security Council resolutions, namely about the territorial integrity of Ukraine”, the UN chief stressed, after meeting leaders of the 27 member states of the European Union, during a working lunch as part of a European Summit in Brussels.

His comments followed an earlier statement in which he welcomed further declarations by President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine seeking to extend the ceasefire to the Black Sea – a crucial trade route for food and fertilizer exports to the wider world.

“Reaching an agreement on safe and free navigation in the Black Sea, with security commitments and in line with the UN Charter and international law would be a crucial contribution to global food security and supply chains,” the Secretary-General said, in a statement issued by his spokesperson’s office. 

“It would reflect the importance of trade routes from both Ukraine and the Russian Federation to global markets.”

Key shipping lane

The UN has been heavily invested in ensuring that Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea can happen safely, along with the transport of Russian food and fertilizer, to halt spiralling food prices worldwide and stave off famine in vulnerable countries.

The UN-brokered Black Sea Initiative was agreed by Russia, Ukraine, Türkiye and the UN in Istanbul in July 2022. It allowed more than 30 million tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs to leave Ukraine’s ports and played an “indispensable role” in global food security, Mr. Guterres said at the time.

A parallel accord was also agreed between the UN and Moscow on grain and fertilizer exports from Russia, known as a Memorandum of Understanding.

In July 2023, the UN Secretary-General expressed his deep regret at Russia’s decision to terminate its involvement in the grain initiative.

“The Secretary-General has consistently supported the freedom of navigation in the Black Sea,” his statement continued, adding that he remains “closely engaged in the continued implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Russian Federation on global food security”.

Gaza killings condemnation

Addressing journalists on the sidelines of high-level discussions at the European Council, Mr. Guterres said that he was “saddened and shocked because deaths and destruction are back in Gaza”, amid confirmation from the Israel Defense Forces that it had begun ground operations in the north of the enclave and “waves of attacks throughout the Strip”.

“The Palestinian people have already suffered too much,” the UN chief insisted, before renewing his appeal for the ceasefire to be respected, for unimpeded humanitarian access to all areas of Gaza and for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages.

“It is absolutely essential to keep the door open for the only way to bring peace to the Middle East, which is to have a Palestinian state side-by-side with an Israeli state,” he continued.  

UNRWA’s Lazzarini speaks out

In a related development, the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, expressed his fears for civilians in Gaza on Thursday, “given the ongoing ground invasion separating the north from the south”. 

In an online message warning that the people of Gaza were “again and again going through their worst nightmare”, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini explained that Israeli military evacuation orders were once again impacting tens of thousands of people.

“The vast majority have been already displaced, treated like “pinballs” since the war began nearly 1.5 years ago,” he said.

The veteran humanitarian also condemned the confirmed killing of another five UNRWA staff “bringing the death toll to 284. They were teachers, doctors and nurses: serving the most vulnerable”, he said.

‘Double down’ on climate change

The UN Secretary-General also expressed concern – and cautious optimism – at new UN data highlighting the negative impact on vulnerable communities of climate change.

The latest State of the Global Climate report confirms 2024 as the hottest year since records began 175 years ago, with a global mean temperature of 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels – surpassing the critical warming threshold of 1.5°C for the first time.  

“I am now used to listening time and time again that we are living in the hottest day of the hottest month of the hottest year of the hottest decade. But let’s not give up,” Mr. Guterres stressed. 

“The report also says that the 1.5°C limit is still possible in relation to global warming, but we need to double down; double down in the reduction of emissions, double down in decarbonization and double down in the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable energy.”