Global partners have successfully called on the United Nations to adopt an International Day of Play to champion and protect children’s right to play. The International Day of Play will be June 11th, with the inaugural celebration to take place in 2024.

Routine immunizations protect individuals, communities, countries, and even the world from outbreaks of deadly diseases and pandemics. While global immunization coverage has increased dramatically in the past two decades, this is driven largely by gains in stable contexts. Children in humanitarian settings, including conflict-affected, remote regions, and cross-border communities continue to disproportionately lack access to this foundational health service. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the education of more than one billion children and youth worldwide. Children in humanitarian settings are experiencing the compound crises of a public health emergency and additional barriers to their opportunities to learn, develop and thrive. School systems have responded in varying ways but children in crisis settings face unique challenges. In response, the IRC has responded in nimble and innovative ways to continue reaching the families we serve in the face of school closures and other disruptions

The report draws on the successes of the Ahlan Simsim initiative—the largest Early Childhood Development (ECD) intervention in the history of humanitarian response—reaching millions of children and caregivers across the Middle East with the support they need to learn, grow and thrive.