West and Central Africa

Vaccines are one of the most effective public health interventions that exist.,   In the last 50 years alone, vaccines have saved 154 million lives . That’s 6 people every minute , for five decades. As the journey to protect every child through immunization continues in Africa and around the world, UNICEF invites you to join us in taking action for a future without malaria, without polio, and without other vaccine-preventable…, Meet some of the people who have made it their mission to ensure vaccines reach every child., I joined the polio programme in order to help my community. Sadiya (Nigeria) We go door-to-door looking for unvaccinated or insufficiently vaccinated children. Abdoul Kader Niangadou (Mali), Learn about our impact on the ground, Our call-to-action to protect every child from vaccine-preventable diseases, In 2024, vaccines need urgent funding. It’s time for governments to re-commit to vaccines. We call on donor countries to financially invest in vaccines if we want to maintain the progress that has been made over the last 50 years and strive to bring vaccines to every child, every where. We call on governments to commit to catch their vaccination…, It is #HumanlyPossible!

1 in 3 children in Cameroon is deprived of a legal identity..., How many are there in your commune? How many children are deprived of access to school, protection and other rights because they have no legal identity? Mayors of Cameroon, you have the power to change this and build a better Cameroon. By creating more birth registration points in local centres. You can ensure every child in your community has a…, The Charter of the Mayors of Cameroon, They are taking up the challenge, UNICEF Champions Engage, Fabrice Ondoa, goalkeeper for the Indomitable Lions    S.M. Nfonrifoum Mbombo Njoya Mouhamed Nabil, Sultan Roi des Bamouns    , The Partners of the Challenge, 7 logos lined up  , How to accelerate universal birth registration, An illustration featuring the birth registration process What it means to be deprived of a legal identity: Without a birth certificate, an individual does not legally exist, and the guarantee of all fundamental rights is compromised. Legal identity is a fundamental right of the SDGs and in the African Child Charter, The Legal Identity Challenge, From March 18 to June 16, 2024, MINDDEVEL, BUNEC and UNICEF are challenging Cameroon's mayors to create new registration points in health centers and town halls, and to register children without legal identity in elementary school., One year to change with the Mayors, Week of 12 March, Launch of the campaign, April, Dissemination of detailed information on the situation in each municipality. Mobilisation of municipalities to work with judges and civil registrars to ensure Birth Registration as many children as possible who will sit the exams. Target: register 76,000 pupils., May, School exams - the aim is to ensure that the 76,000 children who are currently unregistered can sit their exams with a birth certificate., 16 June, Day of the African Child, 26 July - 11 August, Paris 2024 Olympics, 10 August, African Day on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS), 28 August - 8 September, Paris Paralympic Games, September, Start of the school year, October, Counting of campaign results, 20 November, 35 years of the Convention. Announcement of results and Municipal awards.

DAKAR – Nearly 55 million people in West and Central Africa will struggle to feed themselves in the June-August 2024 lean season, according to the March 2024 Cadre Harmonisé food security analysis released by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). This figure represents a four-million increase in the number…

There are 70 million adolescent girls in West and Central Africa. Many, if not all, deprivations that girls experience are compounded from their early years through adolescence and into adulthood and are based on common root causes such as restricted access to key social, cultural and political entitlements that are fundamental to the…

DAKAR – As the number of refugees fleeing armed conflict and human rights violations in the Central Sahel  has sharply increased over the past 12 months in West Africa’s coastal countries, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the…

The Gulf of Guinea Joint Response Plan led by WFP, UNICEF, UNHCR and IOM is a humanitarian response plan that interacts with existing development interventions in the northern regions of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo. Its aim is to support national authorities to bridge the gap between humanitarian and development interventions by ensuring…

DAKAR, 22 February 2024 – UNICEF’s new Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Mr Gilles Fagninou, arrived in Dakar, Senegal, this week, promising to continue supporting governments to accelerate results to advance child rights across the region’s 24 countries. Mr. Fagninou, a national of Benin, was previously the Secretary of the UNICEF…

Dakar/Harare/Nairobi/Yaoundé, 24 January 2024 – On the International Day of Education, dedicated to Learning for Lasting Peace , we reaffirm our commitment to supporting governments in Africa to provide universal access to quality education for every child. Recognizing education as an inherent right and a fundamental pillar for peaceful societies…

UNICEF’s MyName campaign aims to generate continental mobilization for universal birth registration in Africa, using the power of sport. This includes working with some of the continent’s leading football stars to showcase how registration and identity has empowered their path to success.  Tremendous progress has been achieved over the past…

DAKAR, 22 December 2023 – A forecast 46.7 million children face another year of humanitarian need in West and Central Africa mainly due to ongoing conflict and insecurity, including in the central Sahel region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the massive displacement of women and children into Chad from Sudan. UNICEF in the region is…

DAKAR – Despite considerable efforts by governments and partners, food insecurity continues to worsen in West and Central Africa with the number of hungry people set to reach a staggering 49.5 million people between June and August 2024 – a four percent increase compared to 2023, according to a regional food security analysis released today. The…

NEW YORK, 1 December 2023 – Nearly 98,000 adolescent girls aged 10-19 were infected with HIV in 2022 – or 1,900 new infections every week – according to UNICEF’s latest Global Snapshot on Children with HIV and AIDS , released ahead of World AIDS Day. While total infections among girls aged 10-19 have almost halved since 2010 – from 190,000 to 98,…