Statement of the Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Chumakov at the second regular session of UNICEF Executive Board during the dialogue with the Executive Director
M-me President, m-me Executive director,
First of all, let me commend UNICEF team worldwide for their hard work during the times of the pandemic. UNICEF has done a great job in reacting to the needs of children and their mothers at the time of COVID-19, from providing the continuity of natal care and vaccinations to delivering digital learning opportunities to 227 mln. children, who would have otherwise been cut out of education.
M-me President,
We welcome UNICEF's work with partners aimed at resource-mobilization and the consequent increase in UNICEF's budget. In this regard we would like to invite UNICEF to increase cooperation with the World Bank and other financial institutions in the countries in conflict in a politically neutral manner as usually demonstrated by UNICEF.
M-me President,
We welcome the information on UNICEF's work on increasing efficiencies as mandated by UNDS reform. As for the programmatic work, we would like to ask what benefits and what challenges has the reform brought after one and a half year of its implementation?
M-me President,
We took note of the evaluation of UNICEF work on education in humanitarian settings and welcomed the overall progress showed by UNICEF in this regards including the growing expenditure for education. One of the recommendations showed that there are challenges in securing education in protracted crises situations. What do you think we as the Board could do to better assist UNICEF in this regard?
M-me President,
In conclusion I would like to thank UNICEF and its regional office for Europe and Central Asia for our successful and growing bilateral cooperation. Russia remains a strong partner for UNICEF for the case of children worldwide.
Thank you for your attention.
