UNICEF Executive Board Second Regular Session
Statement delivered by Ms. Ingrid Kressel, Director for Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
New York, 3 September 2024
Madam/Mr. President,
Madam Executive Director,
First, I would like to thank the UNICEF´s staff for their relentless efforts to improve the socioeconomic situation of children in continuously challenging times. Our focus is right, to pay special attention to the ones suffering from wars and crises and tackling the special challenges faced by the most vulnerable social segments and countries, in particular African countries, LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS. With the approaching Summit of the Future, we must reaffirm our commitments to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as to reaffirm our commitments to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Estonia, re-joining as a Board member, is committed to contribute to UNICEF’s work and do our utmost to offer our future generations an opportunity to thrive in prosperity and achieve sustainable development. The Executive Director mentioned the organization’s commitment to strengthening climate action for children and the UNICEF priorities for COP29. Being the birthplace of the World Cleanup Day, Estonia welcomes the idea to have a Special Focus Session on climate change and children. Estonia also welcomes that the proposed programme of work for the Executive Board sessions in 2025 includes focus areas like health and addresses discrimination and sexual abuse. In particular, we emphasize the need to accelerate action on the empowerment through access to quality education and ethical use of modern technologies and innovation, which have boosted Estonia’s development and contribute more broadly to the objectives and work of UNICEF. Protecting the rights of children and contributing to their wellbeing will be our main priority if Estonia is elected to the UN Human Rights Council for the period 2026-2028.
The UNICEF’s financing model, availing flexible funding through core, thematic and multiyear funding, offers a strong basis for our action. In the recent years the Estonian financial contribution to UNICEF belongs amongst the top greatest proportional increases amongst the OECD/DAC countries. We have been contributing to UNICEF´s work in Syria and Afghanistan, Ukraine and Georgia, and we have responded, of course, to the humanitarian needs of children in Gaza, as well as reaching the digital connectivity goals through GIGA initiative, supporting its activities in Kenya and Namibia. We call upon others, who are in such financial position, to continue to do the same.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Estonia appreciates that the UNICEF country programme documents adequately reflect the current country situations and challenges in light of the activities and resources needed. Sadly, we also witness that UNICEF’s access to the people in active conflicts is under severe pressure. Estonia pays special attention to the continuously aggravating situation in Ukraine. We would like to record it loudly – as long as the Russian aggression continues, the financing needs in Ukraine skyrocket.
While offering home to more than 60 000 Ukrainian war refugees, mostly women and children, we see a worrisome trend in education that the refugee children from the conflict affected areas are less and less using Ukrainian online learning platforms. That means that their hope for a safe return to schools and face-to-face learning back home is vaporizing, as are vaporizing their schools and homes in Russian brutal shelling of civil infrastructure. Another long-term consequence that we must deal with, is health, especially mental health and physical disabilities. Also, here we see an increased demand for UNICEF action for long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction in coming years. Let me use the opportunity to thank UNICEF representative and his staff in Ukraine, who are doing an excellent job there.
Madam/Mr. President,
In finishing, we thank the UNICEF Executive Director for the update on the management response to the implementation of the recommendations in the evaluability assessment and formative evaluation of the UNICEF positioning to achieve the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-2025. It provides a clear view of gaps in achieving our goals and we welcome the steps proposed in the document to strengthen the organization.
Thank you!