The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in UNICEF

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a member state of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund 'UNICEF' joined the organization on July 4, 1961, when it signed the first basic cooperation agreement. The capital city, Riyadh, houses the organization's office in the Arabian Gulf region.

Coordination between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the organization was carried out through UNICEF's office in Beirut until 1975, when a new liaison office was opened in the capital city, Riyadh. This office operated for six years before transforming into a country office in 1981 and finally into a regional office for the Gulf region in 1987.

The Kingdom's economic and social growth encouraged UNICEF to rely on its office in Riyadh City to provide services to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait. This is due to the Kingdom's role in supporting the organization's programs in its regional environment and several countries worldwide, and its contributions to building national capacities and evolving cooperations with UNICEF in multiple domains.

The UNICEF's office in Riyadh City supports the partnership between the Kingdom and the organization by implementing a group of plans and programs aimed at protecting and caring for children, girls, and young boys and ensuring their human, social, and educational rights, in addition to supporting them with comprehensive health and educational services without discrimination or segregation.

The Kingdom has provided support to UNICEF by opening up horizons for cooperation with all relevant entities in the Kingdom and the countries of the region in a way that achieves the goals of the organization’s programs and makes commitments, partnerships, and resources in the interest of children in the fields of health and education, and supports UNICEF Strategic Plan 2023, which is based on four axes, namely: early childhood, child protection, providing evidence and data related to children, and harnessing the necessary support to achieve the goals of helping them mature in healthy and proper ways.

King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) continues to support UNICEF activities by providing children with moderate and severe disabilities with a package of education, health, and protection services. It works to access the most challenging places in the world to support and assist the most deprived children. It is also one of UNICEF’s largest supporters in supplying the world’s children with vaccines, supporting children’s health, and providing them with skills and good education, in addition to protecting them from violence and exploitation.

The Kingdom has contributed to supporting the work of UNICEF and has played a vital role in reducing polio in several countries. In 2013, the Saudi Fund for Development signed a memorandum of understanding with UNICEF to eradicate polio and improve children’s rights worldwide. The Kingdom supported the initiative with an amount of USD7.5 million, benefiting forty-five million children, including the countries of Sudan, Yemen, Niger, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Chad.

As an extension of their relief efforts, the Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates provided, in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, SAR225 million to help Yemen combat the cholera epidemic, treat malnutrition, and improve environmental sanitation in 2019, to alleviate the suffering of children, improve their immunity, and support them with treatment and food.

Coinciding with the United Nations Children's Fund's celebrations of International Children's Day, which falls on November 20 of each year, the Saudi Ministry of Education participated in the celebration to raise awareness in society about the importance of developing children's behaviors and skills and preparing them to build a more sustainable personality that interacts with future developments.

The Kingdom's vision aligns with UNICEF's in most objectives and decisions, including the choice to resume in-person education for kindergarten and primary school. At the beginning of 2022, when all schools in the Kingdom reopened, the organization explained that the decision to bring back in-person education was supported by reports and studies warning of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which would result in children's learning disruption, emphasizing that keeping schools closed would result in the current generation lacking essential skills at each educational stage, as well as missing out on daily personal interactions with friends.

Represented by the KSRelief, the Kingdom and UNICEF signed several agreements and memoranda of cooperation to cooperate in several countries. In 2023, they signed two agreements to provide water, sanitation, hygiene, and food support to children affected by the earthquake and people at risk in Syria, amounting to over SAR13 million.

In 2020, KSRelief signed a memorandum of cooperation with the organization, under which USD3,974,000 was donated from some of the winners of the prizes in the “Gamers Without Borders” competition, organized by the Saudi Federation for Electronic and Intellectual Sports, to be disbursed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic among children in the Middle East and North Africa. This was to be achieved by implementing preventive and awareness programs and providing support in public health, medical services, education, child protection, and psychological and social support for the most vulnerable children.

Moreover, in 2024, KSRelief and UNICEF signed a memorandum of support to help children in emergencies and crises in Somalia, Bangladesh, and Burkina Faso, benefiting 1,579,929 individuals. Under this memorandum, a donation of USD10 million from some of the winners of the fourth edition of the “Gamers Without Borders” competition held in 2023 will be delivered to international and UN charitable organizations, while USD5.5 million will be allocated to UNICEF.

In 2023, KSRelief signed an agreement with UNICEF to care for children worldwide, aiming to strengthen the partnership between the two parties, cooperate in providing humanitarian aid, exchange expertise and knowledge, build capacities and innovation, and provide support to voluntary programs.

In 2022, KSRelief and UNICEF signed a cooperation agreement to provide essential health services for mothers and newborns amounting to USD10 million. This agreement aims to provide free basic health services for maternal emergencies and advanced newborn care, enhance the readiness of Yemen’s health sector with medical equipment for newborn care, and localize and sustain health services for mothers and children. Additionally, the agreement will train and qualify 156 midwives in emergency obstetrics and newborn care, benefiting 43,522 individuals across several Yemeni governorates.

Moreover, in 2022, both parties signed an agreement to promote radio-based education for children affected by the conflict in Burkina Faso. The agreement aimed to enable children affected by insecurity and school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic to access primary education through radio broadcasting and to enhance children's literacy skills, benefiting ninety thousand children.

In 2024, KSRelief offered USD6.2 million for 827,000 children to ensure access to good educational opportunities in Yemen, according to UNICEF, which asserted that this funding enabled the organization to provide access to formal and informal education for vulnerable girls and boys.