Brussels, 05/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Speaking to the UNICEF executive board in New York on 4 February, European Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs said that the European Union is mobilising €320 million ($431 million) through UNICEF in order to improve the health and nutrition of children and women in 15 developing countries and to help speed progress in achieving the millennium development goals (MDG).
The recipients of this aid are all countries from the ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) Group - Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Timor-Leste.
The funding, from the 10th European Development Fund (2008-2013), will enable UNICEF and the EU - in cooperation with partner countries and civil society organisations - to complete projects that combat under-nutrition and infectious diseases, which are among the root causes of child mortality. The funding will finance multi-year programmes focusing on improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, as well as quality medical services, health care and adequate nutrition. Although child mortality rates have dropped considerably (to approximately 6.6 million in 2012 from an estimated 12.6 million in 1990), around 18,000 children still die of preventable diseases each day. At the current rate of progress, the world will not meet Millennium Development Goal 4 - to cut the rate of under-five mortality by two-thirds - until 2028.
The €320 million comes from funding agreements signed in 2013 between the European Commission and 15 UNICEF country offices, via the ACP-EU's partnership initiative aiming to give European Development Fund financing to accelerate progress towards meeting the most off-track MDG goals in the ACP countries that are the most committed to making progress. The amount represents a 350% increase in development funding from the European Union to UNICEF since 2008. (AN/transl.fl)