Our government strengthens strategic cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

The 20th Korea-UNICEF Policy Consultation Meeting Held

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs held the 20th Korea-UNICEF Policy Consultation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in New York on Thursday, December 5. From our side, Director-General for Development Cooperation Park Jong-han attended as the chief representative, and from UNICEF, Deputy Executive Director Kitty van der Heijden attended as the chief representative.

※ UNICEF is the world’s largest children’s relief organization and one of our government’s five key cooperation organizations.

In this meeting, both sides shared the view that the lives of children, the most vulnerable group, are greatly threatened in the midst of the worst humanitarian crisis in history, including armed conflict, refugees, and infectious diseases, and agreed to seek more effective and strategic ways of cooperation to contribute to achieving the common goal of protecting children.

Director Park Jong-han introduced that our government, as a responsible donor country, will actively contribute to the international community to resolve global issues, and as part of this, we have increased the scale of ODA this year by more than 30% compared to last year. In particular, in order to fulfill the international community’s promise to expand flexible contributions, our government will increase regular funding for UNICEF this year by 14.5 million dollars compared to last year, and will additionally provide 30 million dollars to UNICEF through ACT-A* to help children suffering from poor health environments around the world.

• ACT-A (Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator) is an initiative launched in April 2020 to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 basic health technologies (vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics).

Assistant Secretary-General van der Heyden expressed deep gratitude for Korea’s expanded contribution and emphasized that our government’s support will greatly contribute to saving the lives of millions of children around the world. Assistant Secretary-General van der Heyden said that thanks to the Korean government’s humanitarian support last year, we were able to provide relief to children in need in more than 20 countries, and that Korea’s ACT-A contribution of 20 million dollars in 2023 will greatly contribute to improving basic health and water and sanitation for children in 22 countries. Assistant Secretary-General van der Heyden said that as Korea’s contribution has expanded, we will make even more efforts to ensure that Korea’s support is used effectively and tangibly. During this policy consultation, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell also visited the conference room and had a conversation for about 30 minutes. Secretary-General Russell highly praised Korea’s leading role in the international community’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by increasing its ODA, and said that UNICEF, as a member of the UN development system, will actively support Korea’s ODA initiative. In addition, he expressed special appreciation for Korea’s decision to more than double its support for child relief to UNICEF, the world’s largest children’s relief organization, which uses more than two-thirds of its resources for humanitarian assistance. In addition, both sides reviewed Korea-UNICEF cooperative projects in areas such as ▴humanitarian assistance, ▴health, ▴education, and ▴climate, and agreed that it is important to carry out projects currently being promoted with Korea’s support without a hitch. Recognizing that the contribution has greatly expanded, the two sides agreed to strengthen project monitoring at the field level, while continuing to review the status of projects at the headquarters level, and to further expand communication so that our contribution can be promoted more effectively and visibly. In addition, Director Park stated that the support of our people is essential for the Korea-UNICEF partnership to develop further, and urged that cooperation be expanded with our private sector, including ▴our people’s participation in UNICEF, ▴our companies’ procurement, and ▴our civil society’s participation in projects. Assistant Secretary-General van der Heyden said that he would keep in mind our government’s requests and continue to make efforts to further expand cooperation with our people, companies, and civil society. Meanwhile, Director-General Park Jong-han of the Development Cooperation Bureau plans to meet with high-ranking officials from UN development agencies, including Assistant Secretary-General Shoko Noda of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), during his visit to New York, to further discuss ways to strengthen strategic cooperation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs