UNPROTECTED: Special Edition - Analysis of Funding for Child Protection in Armed Conflict in 2021 and 2022

Oslo Conference on Protecting Children in Armed Conflict 5–6 June 2023

The impact of armed conflict on children is one of the most pressing humanitarian concerns today. A strong humanitarian child protection response is critical to protect children and promote their rights, dignity, and resilience. This requires sustainable, flexible, multi-year funding for child protection within UN-coordinated humanitarian and refugee response plans.

This briefing sets out the latest analysis on financing for child protection in humanitarian response plans (HRPs) and the Bangladesh Joint Response Plan (JRP) for 2021 and 2022.

• Section 1 provides an overview of funding across all HRPs and the Bangladesh JRP.

• Section 2 focuses on funding trends for conflict-driven HRPs and the Bangladesh JRP specifically. This categorisation is built from markers for types of crisis used by Development Initiatives in its Global Humanitarian Assistance report for 2022, as well as the ACAPS Crisis Overview.

• Section 3 provides a forecast for child protection funding for conflict-driven HRPs and the Bangladesh JRP that analyses data from 2020 to 2022 to predict the future funding gap for child protection in conflict settings by 2026 if there is no change in the current trajectory.

CALL TO ACTION: A TIME TO ACT

It’s clear what needs to happen. As an international community, we need to turn the forecast of an ever-growing funding gap in child protection on its head.

Now is the moment to act. We must seize the opportunity of the Oslo Conference to highlight, elevate, and prioritise essential and life-saving child protection programming in armed conflict contexts.

Together we can ensure that children growing up in the most dangerous places on earth can have the care, support, and protection that every child needs.