UNICEF Africa

About us

Across Africa, UNICEF works to help children survive and thrive. UNICEF supports health & nutrition, good water & sanitation and quality basic education.

Africa will experience a sharp rise in its child and youth populations over the next few decades – a demographic transition that offers a huge opportunity for growth and poverty reduction.

Africa’s prosperity will depend on whether children – particularly the most disadvantaged children – are prioritised in policy decisions being taken today. The policy and investment choices being made now will impact the well-being of Africa’s children and shape the continent’s future.  

Children now account for almost half of all Africa’s population, and by 2055 Africa will be home to one billion children.

By the end of the century, it is projected that Africa will be home to nearly half of the world's children.

In West and Central Africa, UNICEF works with partners across the region to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of global goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

We act at crucial moments in a child’s life, starting where a child’s lifecycle begins, in pregnancy all the way to adulthood.