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How UNICEF supports humanitarian action for children around the world.
The appeal for Global Support for 2026 is critical for effective leadership and coordination of the organization’s global humanitarian response, including through a fully dedicated security team and the 24/7 Operations Centre. In 2026, UNICEF requires US$53.3 million in funding to cover the costs for Global Support.
UNICEF’s global support for humanitarian action – led by the Office of Emergency Programmes in its global oversight role – ensures a rapid, effective and coordinated response to emergencies affecting children and their families worldwide. Global support encompasses provision of humanitarian technical assistance, financial resources, supply and logistics, operational capacity, human resources, advocacy, capacity building and technical expertise. Through global support, UNICEF provides coordinated support to sustain our emergency programmes and operations in the field, deploying highly experienced emergency staff with a diverse range of expertise to enhance the quality of emergency response in sudden-onset, protracted or complex emergencies.
In 2026, UNICEF will continue to advance several key efficiency initiatives within the Humanitarian Reset and UN80, and ensure these are shaped with children’s interests front and centre. These include the integrated humanitarian supply chain initiative, which UNICEF co-leads and which aims to streamline procurement and both global and country-level logistics supplies; an initiative to create a more collaborative humanitarian diplomacy framework for emergent and protracted crises, which UNICEF also co-leads; clarification of roles and responsibilities designed to reduce duplications in the area of nutrition, led by UNICEF; cluster simplification, co-led by UNICEF; and further promotion of common services.
In line with the Humanitarian Reset and UN80, UNICEF continues to retool itself to carry out its mandate given the new realities, through the Future Focus Initiative. Among many other elements, the Future Focus Initiative includes streamlining of capacities across headquarters and regions and the establishment of four Centres of Excellence to strengthen the organization’s global support capacity. Complementing the Office of Emergency Programmes global oversight role, and the Regional Offices’ accountability for coordination and oversight of emergency response in their respective geographies, the new Centres of Excellence will maintain robust emergency programme expertise and surge capacity to enhance UNICEF’s humanitarian action and response architecture – ensuring rapid, coherent and effective global emergency operations.
Funding for global support also helps UNICEF drive forward the humanitarian–development–and peace nexus strategy, which fosters resilience and long-term recovery for vulnerable populations.