Humanitarian Action for Children 2026
UNICEF's appeal for the coming year covers plans to deliver assistance to 73 million children in 133 countries. $7.66 billion will be required to meet targets in nutrition, education, protection and more.
In every region of the globe, children caught in emergencies are facing increasingly complex crises
UNICEF's 2026 Humanitarian Action for Children appeal highlights a shifting humanitarian landscape and maps out the organization's plans to deliver a more focused humanitarian response to reach the most vulnerable conflict- and disaster-affected children around the world.
Looking ahead to the coming year, UNICEF projects it will need $7.66 billion to fulfill its global mission of providing lifesaving assistance to 73 million children, including 37 million girls and over 9 million children with disabilities, across 133 countries and territories. The funding request represents a significant drop from the 2025 request for $10.2 billion.
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A growing gap between the scale of suffering and available resources
Announced and anticipated funding cuts by donor governments are already limiting UNICEF’s ability to reach millions of children in dire need. The cuts are affecting critical lifesaving emergency programs, forcing UNICEF front-line teams in humanitarian crises to make impossible decisions: focusing limited supplies and services on the most vulnerable children in some places over others, decreasing the frequency of services children receive, or prioritizing some interventions over others.
A 72 percent funding gap in 2025 forced cuts to UNICEF's nutrition programming in 20 priority countries, reducing planned targets from more than 42 million to over 27 million women and children. In education, a shortfall of $745 million has left millions more children at risk of losing access to learning, protection and stability. In child protection, shrinking resources are threatening programs for survivors of sexual violence, children recruited or used by armed groups and those requiring urgent mental health and psychosocial support.
In this challenging new context, UNICEF is adapting its approach, focusing on the most acute needs and prioritizing interventions with the greatest impact. The priority: save as many lives as possible with the resources available.
UNICEF HAC 2026: Key takeaways
The 2026 HAC appeal reflects the need for urgent action across every sector of society to prevent large-scale suffering and loss of life. Here are some key takeaways from the overview report:
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Across every region, children caught in emergencies are facing overlapping crises that are growing in scale and complexity, including war and instability, the threat of famine and malnutrition, intensifying climate shocks and widespread collapse of essential services.
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Escalating conflicts are driving mass displacement and exposing children to grave violations at the highest levels ever recorded; attacks on schools and hospitals continue unabated, while verified cases of rape and other forms of sexual violence against children are rising sharply.
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In many crises, children and the aid workers attempting to reach them are being deliberately targeted; in many emergencies, UNICEF and partners cannot reach children trapped behind shifting front lines.
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As humanitarian actors are forced to drastically reduce lifesaving services and supplies because of funding cuts, certain groups risk being disproportionately impacted — when funding is cut for treatment for acute malnutrition, it is the youngest children most at risk of dying; when services are cut for survivors of sexual violence, it is women and girls who bear the brunt.
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Chronically underfunded emergencies leave already vulnerable children exposed to under-nutrition, lacking foundational literacy and numeracy, and facing increased risk of disease, while systems break down through underinvestment in frontline capacity, leaving women and children without the services they rely on.
- UNICEF will continue to invest in quality humanitarian programming that promotes preparedness, anticipatory action and systems strengthening. UNICEF will also continue to leverage its presence and partnerships in-country before, during and after emergencies, and work hand in hand with national governments and local partners as response leaders.
- Mobilizing governments, civil society, private sector and other partners to promote outcomes for children at scale and with impact remains a top priority.
- Flexible funding is needed more than ever to support efficient, swift and agile humanitarian action, promote equity and enable UNICEF to reach those children who are hardest to access.
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Targets for 2026 humanitarian action by program area
According to the HAC overview, UNICEF and partners aim to reach 117 million people and work toward the following results in 2026:
HEALTH: 44.6 million children and women accessing primary health
NUTRITION: 33 million children screened for malnutrition
EDUCATION: 22.9 million children accessing formal or non-formal education, including early learning
PROTECTION: 12.9 million children, adolescents and caregivers accessing community-based mental health and psychosocial support; 6.7 million women, girls, and boys accessing gender-based violence risk mitigation, prevention and/or response interventions; 28.6 million people with safe and accessible channels to report sexual exploitation and abuse
WATER, SANITATION and HYGIENE (WASH): 55.2 million people accessing a sufficient quantity and quality of water
CASH SUPPORT: 3.2 million households benefiting from social assistance
ACCOUNTABILITY: 3.6 million people sharing their concerns and asking questions through established feedback mechanisms
SOCIAL AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE: 104.5 million people reached with timely and life-saving information on access to available services
The 2026 appeal highlights the needs of children in Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Gaza Strip and West Bank, Haiti, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine. There are individual crisis appeals for these and many other countries, territories and regions.
Learn more: Access individual crisis appeals and the UNICEF 2026 HAC overview
Call to action
UNICEF's appeal asserts that the future of humanitarian action for children depends on the collective willingness and ability — across every level of society — to identify and address their most pressing needs, while investing in proven solutions. To that end, UNICEF is calling on national governments, member state donors, private sector donors, and international humanitarian and development actors to do their part for the world's children.
UNICEF's mandate is to address emergency and long-term needs of children and women. Learn more about what UNICEF does and where UNICEF works