Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for having me and my colleague Annie Bodmer-Roy here today.
UNICEF is the world’s largest humanitarian organization for children. We work in 190 countries to help children survive and thrive.
Today UNICEF released our humanitarian action for children, a comprehensive overview of children's humanitarian needs and a costed plan to respond to those needs. The findings are alarming, in that 532 million children will need humanitarian assistance in 2021. Some areas of highest need include Syria, where 16 million people require humanitarian assistance; Yemen, as Rachel said, where 80% of the population relies on humanitarian aid; and sub-Saharan Africa, where children face a deadly combination of malnutrition, conflict and displacement, climate shocks and disasters. This includes more 11 million children in the DRC, 7 million children in the central Sahel and many more. Furthermore, close to 20 million people have been hurt by the crisis in Venezuela, and they also require humanitarian aid.
In all of these existing humanitarian crises, COVID-19 has just made things worse. Lockdown measures are hampering our life-saving efforts. Immunization campaigns, screening and treatment of malnutrition, safe water and child protection services have all been affected by the pandemic, so we must respond to the pandemic itself.
Our response covers three strategic priorities. First is reducing coronavirus transmission and mortality. Second is supporting the continuity of life-saving services. Third is supporting the access to COVID-19 tools known as the ACT Accelerator—and the Covax facility.
First of all, to reduce COVID-19 mortality, we scaled up our global humanitarian logistics capacity to equip 1.8 million health workers with PPE and have reached three billion people with life-saving information to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.
To ensure the continuity of life-saving services, we deployed flexible funding and mobilized our teams and partners on the ground, together vaccinating 3.4 million children against measles, treating 1.5 million children for severe malnutrition and providing safe water to more than 14 million people.
To ensure COVID-19 treatment, diagnosis and access to vaccines, we're working through the ACT Accelerator and are proud to be the official procurement agency and coordinator for the Covax facility, the global initiative to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines reach those in greatest need. We welcome Canada’s contributions and active engagement in the ACT Accelerator and Covax facility, and they must be scaled up to beat the pandemic in the months ahead.
Canada has played a critical role in supporting UNICEF’s response. Canadians from across the country have stepped up to contribute. Support from Canadians is now among the top five private sector contributions to UNICEF’s global efforts. While the Canadian government is not yet within the top five donors to our COVID efforts, we are grateful that Canada is one of the top 10 humanitarian donors to UNICEF. With the welcome commitment to provide an additional $400 million in funding to Canada’s international COVID-19 response, there is room for increased contributions.
Funding amounts are not the only important factor. We particularly appreciate the flexibility of funding that allows us to place that funding where it is most needed. As we head into 2021, we urge Canada to maintain this flexibility, increase contributions in line with need and in line with Canadians’ own generosity and ensure timeliness of response.
We're proud of the role Canada and Canadians have played this year in mobilizing to support children and their communities, and we know we can count on this support as we face the challenges of 2021.
Thank you. I'm happy to answer any questions.