Canada and UNICEF

UNICEF works to improve the social and economic conditions of children by increasing children's access to health care, safe drinking water, food, and education; protecting children from violence and abuse; and providing emergency relief after disasters. UNICEF works in more than 150 developing countries.

Canada has been a strong supporter of UNICEF since its establishment in 1946. Canada sits on the 36-member Executive Board of UNICEF, on a rotating basis.

Canada's support for UNICEF

Canada supports UNICEF's programs to improve children's lives. For example, in Colombia, work with UNICEF strengthened child protection. Canada also supports the Catalytic Initiative to Save a Million Lives—a multidonor initiative that works to reduce child deaths in Africa.

Achievements

In 2011, with the support of Canada and other donors, UNICEF:

• Responded to 292 humanitarian situations in 80 countries
• Provided support to more than 11,600 children formerly associated with armed forces or groups to help reintegrate them into their families and communities
• Helped provide anti-retroviral drugs, to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, to 48% of women in the world who are HIV positive
• Helped strengthen child protection systems (the mechanisms to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse) in more than 120 countries
• Helped countries fight malnutrition and disease by providing vitamin A to 350 million children and vaccinating 10 million children against measles
• Helped scale-up national social protection programs in 93 countries and ensured a more intensive focus on children in national development plans and budgets in 102 countries

Related links

• Cartoons by UNICEF on children's rights (in French only)
• The State of the World's Children 2016
• Progress for Children: A report card on adolescents
• 2016 Humanitarian Action for Children
• Making Education a Priority in the Post-2015 Development Agenda (PDF, 4 MB, 61 pages)