Mitchell Dzoro
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) have penned US$39 million grant today to assist in the delivery of climate-smart social services in the Southern and Eastern Africa Region and East Asia Pacific Region.
The partnership is to run for 3 years and the objective of the project is to strengthen the resilience of child-critical social services.
“Funding will help to build community resilience and ensure that children have access to essential services and supplies like healthcare, education, water and food even when climate-related disasters strike,” said
Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director.The partnership specified that Zimbabwe is to benefit through the strengthening of climate-smart social services,“
Countries were selected based on KOICA’s dual priorities of supporting fragile and/or conflict countries and aligning with the Korean government’s commitment to addressing the interlinkages among the humanitarian, development, and peace interventions,” said the UNICEF Executive Director.
KOICA Vice President Jungmee Sohn highlighted that the changing climatic conditions in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region have compounded environmental degradation and contributed to increased displacement and migration, with some 86 million internal climate migrants recorded,further reducing access to basic social services, increasing gender inequality, and deteriorating livelihoods and food security.
KOICA’s climate grant is to help UNICEF protect children and communities in Africa that are among the most disaster-prone and vulnerable.