How UNICEF's Unrestricted Funding Transforms Children's Lives Worldwide

Forbes

28-04-2025

Written by Patrice Peck
The impact of severe drought in Yemen stretches far beyond water shortages. Young girls there, who fetch water over long distances daily, lack the time to attend school, limiting their future opportunities.
International children's organization UNICEF stepped in with a creative solution: installing solar-powered water systems throughout the country. These systems bring reliable, clean water directly to communities in need, thus keeping girls in the classroom to further their education.
In the drought-stricken Afar region of north-eastern Ethiopia, water scarcity and loss of livelihoods are threatening the future of girls who are increasingly forced into child marriage. UNICEF is conducting awareness-raising activities on the ground to ensure that young girls can study and fulfill their potential.
© UNICEF/UNI466961/Raphael Poug
This one story showcases UNICEF's interconnected approach in action: The organization's work spans Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), identifying solutions to address multiple issues in tandem, from education to clean energy to gender equity.
Despite progress, the broader picture for children globally is sobering. Only one in four children will live in countries meeting 70% of child-related SDG targets by 2030. Carla Haddad Mardini, UNICEF's global director of private sector partnerships and fundraising, explains that to change this trajectory, the organization relies heavily on innovative strategies and the critical support of private-sector partners committed to meaningful, systemic change.
"Collaboration and partnerships are crucial, and we invite all stakeholders to join us in creating a better future for every child," she says.
At the heart of UNICEF's agility and effectiveness is unrestricted funding. This type of funding allows UNICEF to address issues from an interconnected lens, respond quickly to a range of emerging crises, invest in long-term solutions and allocate resources where they're most needed.
"Unrestricted funding is the lifeblood of UNICEF's operations," Mardini says. 'It provides the flexibility, predictability and efficiency needed to address the most pressing challenges facing children today.'
Other kinds of funding are earmarked for specific projects. Mardini explains that earmarked funding is valuable but can leave some children out. In fact, in 2023, 44% of earmarked funding went to just 10 countries — where only 14% of the world's children reside. Unrestricted funding, which can be used when and where it's most needed, has become a smaller proportion of the total funds that UNICEF has raised over the last five years. The organization hopes to increase the amount of unrestricted funds, Mardini explains, to ensure the organization's broad and inclusive impact.
Children who are survivors of Tropical Cyclone Freddy play at Kapeni Camp in Blantyre southern Malawi
© UNICEF/UN0814229/Thoko Chikon
Unrestricted giving ensures underserved children in less-visible regions get their needs met, for example. In Least Developed Countries, where funding gaps are often critical to the future of children and communities, the flexibility of unrestricted funding can mean the difference between hope and stagnation, says Mardini.
In Ethiopia, Africa's second-most-populous country, ongoing conflict, food insecurity and disease outbreaks leave children vulnerable. Unrestricted funding empowers social workers to tackle the country's complex challenges — including sexual violence and child marriage — and develop a sustainable system to safeguard as many children as possible.
UNICEF took a two-pronged approach there. First, unrestricted funding allowed the organization to hire and deploy 1,200 social service workers, representing 15% of Ethiopia's social service workforce, in development and humanitarian settings. These front-line professionals worked one-on-one with children facing extreme hardship, supporting repatriated migrant children, providing mental healthcare, preventing child marriages and helping survivors of violence access critical services.
Unrestricted funding also helped provide preservice and in-service training to all 8,000 social workers in Ethiopia, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to protect children more effectively. This investment made it possible to reach nearly 600,000 children, in both immediate interventions and by improving the entire child-protection infrastructure. One intervention involved a UNICEF-supported social worker who helped an eighth-grade student get out of an arranged marriage by rallying local leaders and connecting her to comprehensive care. Her story highlights how unrestricted giving can deliver profound results across multiple SDGs, including education, gender equality and social justice.
"Thanks to my school principal, the social worker ... and the committee that convinced my mother to cancel the arranged marriage, I am now free to pursue my education," shared the student.
Unrestricted funding not only allows UNICEF to act swiftly during humanitarian emergencies, says Cristina Shapiro, UNICEF USA's chief strategy officer, but also enables the organization to address both existing and new challenges amid a crisis. She cites The Every Child Fund, which helps catalyze more equitable distribution of funds when and where they are most needed — for example, during a devastating flood in Pakistan in 2022.
"UNICEF used flexible funding to set up learning centers and provide educational materials [in Pakistan] — giving children access to school, some for the first time," says Shapiro. "These temporary learning centers also offered protection, clean water and healthcare. Flexible funding was the key for UNICEF to prepare for, respond to and support recovery efforts for the 33 million people affected across a number of areas.'
UNICEF often approaches large problems by looking for inherent connections. Instead of isolating individual issues, its programs target overlapping challenges, tackling multiple SDGs in a single effort, says Mardini. Collaboration is key to this strategy, which involves a wide range of partners, including governments, experts and other organizations working together to amplify results.
A group of indigenous girls plant trees outside their home in Quiche, Guatemala.
© UNICEF/UNI498512/Anderson Flo
In Montenegro, child poverty was an entrenched problem, with poverty rates remaining above 30 percent since records began in 2013. As a result, all aspects of children's lives were affected, from education to healthcare to protection. To address the issue sustainably and holistically, UNICEF put unrestricted funding to work, tapping experts across spaces to enact change. Social policy experts analyzed child poverty trends, shaping data into an advocacy blueprint. The timing mattered: Elections had just reshuffled the political landscape, creating an opening to make child poverty a cross-party priority. UNICEF moved quickly, securing government buy-in and leveraging expertise from an international finance institution to assess cash transfer options.
The result? Montenegro transitioned from limited targeted cash grants to a universal child allowance that now reaches nearly all children in the country. Children's families receive monthly cash transfers, with additional support for children with disabilities and those from families on social assistance. Over the past decade, child poverty has fallen by 6% — to the lowest recorded level. The child allowance's ripple effects have helped alleviate poverty by connecting families with social welfare officers who provide support for issues like violence and other challenges. Being able to monitor and target payments administered through post offices makes it easier for the system to allocate payments during emergencies. Mardini points out that these long-term, systemic changes wouldn't have been possible without the power of UNICEF's various alliances."By supporting unrestricted funding, donors enable UNICEF to deliver integrated solutions that maximize impact, drive sustainable development and ensure that no child is left behind," says Mardini.
UNICEF's wide-reaching impact is made possible by a rich network of partners, including governments, private sector donors and philanthropic organizations. These successful efforts in Yemen, Ethiopia and Montenegro are a few of the many, and show how addressing overlapping challenges can create ripple effects that benefit entire communities and enact lasting, structural change. And while the path forward to meet child-related SDG targets is challenging, Mardini says the opportunity to replicate these powerful outcomes through collective action and sustained investment is undeniable.
"Children make up one-third of our world and 100% of our shared future," says Shapiro. "When we invest in their well-being, we're not just supporting them — we're building a better future for everyone."
Intersectional and collective contributions keep UNICEF agile and able to respond not only to pressing crises but also to ongoing "forgotten" challenges. Looking ahead, Mardini adds that achieving the SDGs for children will demand even deeper collaboration and more substantial investment from impactful partners.
"With the right support, we can transform today's challenges into opportunities for every child, everywhere."
Find out how you can support UNICEF.