West and Central Africa

Hamady Gueye, 19, is from a poor suburb in Nouakchott, Mauritania. When he was 14 and living with his family in Senegal life was not easy. He started to get into trouble, lost interest in learning and dropped out of school. His father brought the family to Mauritania and setup a welding business, working right on the main dusty road that runs…

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…, Highlights from the Mayor's Forum, View photos below UNICEF Cameroon 2024 UNICEF Cameroon 2024 UNICEF Cameroon 2024 UNICEF Cameroon 2024 UNICEF Cameroon 2024 UNICEF Cameroon 2024 UNICEF Cameroon 2024 UNICEF Cameroon 2024 Thumbnail Thumbnail Thumbnail Thumbnail Thumbnail Thumbnail Thumbnail Thumbnail Banner image featuring an illustration of men and women wearing traditional attire., 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., What is birth registration and why is it important, In target 16.9, Goal 16 of the MDGs calls for all people to be guaranteed a legal identity by 2030, in particular through birth registration. The declaration and registration of births, and official entry in civil registers, constitute the first official recognition of a child's existence. A birth certificate is an official document that can…

It’s 11.30am on a Wednesday morning in Tchaourou. The atmosphere at the public secondary school is quiet: all students are in class while a group of women are preparing lunch in the school central yard, under the tree. In one of the classes, we hear the voice of Ganirath, a fourteen-year-old student, who, only a few months ago, had seen her dreams…

Since the onset of the conflict in Sudan on April 15, Chad faces a massive influx of refugees from Sudan, together with Chadian returnees. According to the latest figures, around 150,000 people had crossed the Chadian border by mid-June, and numbers continue to increase. On 16 and 17 June, following yet another outbreak of violence in El Geneina,…, 13-year old Abdelaziz show the drawing he did while attending a Child-Friendly space in Koufroun, a Chadian village in eastern Chad hosting refugees from Sudan. "I want peace so that I can go home to Sudan" he says., UNICEF/UNI399784/Mahamat A UNICEF staff member interacts with children sitting in a Child-Friendly-Space UNI399790, UNICEF Chad child protection officer Valery Nodjimadji sits with children in a Child-Friendly space in Koufroun, a Chadian village in eastern Chad hosting refugees from Sudan. The Child-Friendly Spaces are run by UNICEF partner the Chadian Red Cross. Children can have fun, enjoy themselves in a safe space and receive psycho-social support., UNICEF/UNI399790/Mahamat Young girls are standing near a newly installed borehole to fetch water UNI399785, Children are fetching water from a UNICEF-installed borehole in the village of Koufroun in eastern Chad, on the border with Sudan. Koufroun is home to thousands of Sudanese refugees. Even before they arrived, the village had poor access to clean water, the borehole helps both refugees and host communities., UNICEF/UNI399785/Mahamat A landscape image featuring children and women with their donkeys near a newly installed water borehole UNI399786, UNICEF has set up boreholes in the villages hosting refugees, for the use of both refugees and host communities., UNICEF/UNI399786/Mahamat A young boy holds a small blackboard in his hands on which he has drawn a house A UNICEF staff member interacts with children sitting in a Child-Friendly-Space Young girls are standing near a newly installed borehole to fetch water A landscape image featuring children and women with their donkeys near a newly installed…

Face beaming with joy and hope; he said from pianissimo to fortissimo, "You are unsung heroes; keep spreading peace around you.” These words stuck in my mind while walking in my neighborhood. A 60-year-old man addressed it to a group of adolescent boys and girls who had just completed their door-to-door visits to sensitize communities to peace and…, Dear heroes,, Often, at your age, in some parts of the world, adolescents and young people have a different life: They live in a peaceful and reassuring environment. They go to school and enjoy leisure activities. Unfortunately, in Mali, you don't necessarily have the same opportunities that your friends do in other countries. For many years, the country has…, Dear heroes,, Like your friends in the Faso Kanou neighborhood, you have carried out community-based conflict prevention interventions in 4 regions of Mali. These resilience projects have positively impacted the community, as evidenced by the more than 1,200 home visits you have made to raise awareness of social cohesion, reaching approximately 20,000 people. A…, I am so proud of you!, To the 3000 heroes, Thanks for being agents of positive change in your community. Indeed, your resilience is bearing and will continue to bear fruit.   For every adolescent, and every young person, a peaceful country For every child, a world with no violence.   Your friend, Daniel Ouedraogo

“It really gives you a lot of joy when you can make a change for a child. I feel it’s like a sacred task,” says Therese Mansan, UNICEF Child Protection Specialist in Niger. Therese is one of the UNICEF child protection experts in West and Central Africa working on the frontlines to monitor grave violations of child rights in armed conflict. Their…

27 May 2022 - In a context of conflicts, global food price rises, poor harvests, climate change and COVID-19, the African Union and UNICEF used the side-lines of this week’s African Union Extraordinary Humanitarian Summit in Equatorial Guinea to call for stronger commitments from African leaders to strengthen multi-sectoral nutrition investments…

“The answer is 4,” said ten-year-old Patricia, smiling brightly before she walked to the chalk board with confidence to write the answer to the maths problem in class that morning. Division was the topic of today’s primary 2 math lesson at Afoko District Assembly School in Sandema, district capital of Bulisa North in Ghana’s Upper East region and…

Guinea-Bissau was certified as polio-free between 1998 and 2021, with no recorded cases of polio for more than 20 years. However, four cases of polio were confirmed in the capital Bissau and Biombo region, in October 2021. In addition, polio cases were reported in neighbouring countries, namely Guinea-Conakry, Senegal and Gambia, in 2019. In…

Ebenezer Mensah prays daily that one day his son’s left eye will see well and he can live his dream of becoming a teacher.   A peasant farmer and father of five sons, Ebenezer and his family live 13 kilometers from the district capital of KEEA, a half hour drive from Cape Coast.   Daniel is 12 years old and in grade 6, the second child in the…

This World Immunization Week, join UNICEF in celebrating vaccine heroes who promote the use of vaccines to protect every child against disease in West and Central Africa, and whose passion and engagement have made both routine and COVID-19 vaccination possible amid the ongoing pandemic. Watch our Thank You video to U-Reporters! I decided to get…, Read the vaccine heroes' inspiring stories, Learn more about UNICEF's work to achieve immunization for every child