The UN Children’s Fund said on Friday that recovering from COVID-19’s impact on child poverty will take seven to eight years.

Henrietta Fore, UNICEF’s Executive Director, remarked this during her speech commemorating the agency’s 75th anniversary.

While detailing UNICEF’s accomplishments, Fore criticized the impact of COVID-19 on their earlier gains.

She said, “But in the last 20 months, the pandemic has upended families, communities, and countries the world over. COVID-19 constitutes the most significant global crisis for children in our 75-year history.

“It is already rolling back virtually every measure of progress for children. A staggering 100 million more children have been plunged into poverty,” she added.

“Even in a best-case scenario, it will take seven to eight years to recover and return to pre-COVID child poverty levels.”

She also lamented the agency’s efforts being harmed by violence and climate change.

“This is in addition to a spate of protracted and worsening conflicts and the global climate crisis. Globally, 426 million children live in conflict zones,” she said.

“Meanwhile, an estimated 1 billion children – nearly half of the world’s children – live in countries that are at an ‘extremely high-risk’ from the impacts of climate change.”

After that, the Executive Director called for a united effort to halt the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges.

She said, “Through collective action, we can end the pandemic and reverse the alarming rollback in child health and nutrition. We can work with governments and partners to ensure critical investments for an inclusive and resilient recovery.

“We can build back stronger by ensuring quality education, protection, and good mental health for every child. And we can strengthen systems to better prevent, respond to, and protect children from crises – including new approaches to end famines, to predict and protect children from climate change,” Fore added.