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What we do

What we do


What we do


Child survival and development
Child survival and development Under-five mortality in the Middle East and North Africa decreased by 25 per cent between 2000 and 2010, largely due to better access to health and vaccination services.

  HIV and AIDS
In most countries of the region, HIV is mostly concentrated among certain communities, in particular populations at high risk including men having sex with men, injecting drug users and commercial sex workers.

Most countries in the Middle East and North Africa have made significant progress toward increasing children’s school enrolment, attendance and completion.


Child protection
UNICEF uses the term ‘child protection’ to refer to preventing and responding to violence, exploitation and abuse against children – including commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, child labour and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and cutting and child marriage.
One of UNICEF’s key priorities to ensure that children living in conflict situations or experiencing natural disasters enjoy the same rights as children everywhere else. And the Middle East and North Africa region has, unfortunately, no shortage of such crises.
Adolescents and youth
In the Middle East and North Africa region, there are 83 million adolescents (10-19 year olds), representing 20 per cent of the population. The highest proportions are found in Yemen and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (25 per cent each) followed by Djibouti, Iraq, Jordan and Sudan (23 per cent).


Social policy
Disparities among countries are very significant in the Middle East and North Africa region: Qatar’s GDP, for example, is more than 73 times higher than Yemen’s, which is less than 1,000 kilometers away and has the second highest rate of chronic child malnutrition in the world at 58 per cent.



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