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Hong Kong, 24 August 2026 — Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF HK) today announced the appointment of Mr Siddharth Chatterjee, former United Nations Resident Coordinator in China, as its Honorary Advisor.

Mr Chatterjee brings nearly three decades of frontline humanitarian and development leadership to the role. But his relationship with UNICEF began long before his career did. At the age of three he contracted polio, and UNICEF-supported immunisation and nutrition programmes carried him through his recovery.

“UNICEF gave me my life back,” Mr Chatterjee said. “Every child I have worked for since — in Somalia, in Sudan, in Indonesia — I have seen through the eyes of that three-year-old. This is not a professional commitment for me. It is a personal debt.”

On 20 August, UNICEF HK Chairman Ms Judy Chen hosted Mr Chatterjee for a dialogue with representatives of Young Envoys PLUS and local youth, centred on the future of quality education and the vision of advancing Hong Kong as a “Child-Friendly City”.

Drawing on postings in some of the world’s most demanding environments, including Iraq, South Sudan, Sudan and Somalia, Mr Chatterjee spoke about the hard discipline of balancing emergency response against long-term development. He argued that converging global pressures — climate change, health inequality and widening development gaps — have made quality education and youth empowerment more urgent now than at any point in his career.

Ms Chen used the occasion to press the case that children’s well-being is a matter of the city’s competitiveness, not only its conscience. “A child-friendly city is not a soft ambition — it is economic strategy,” Ms Chen said. “Investing in children is investing in Hong Kong’s future prosperity. We need stronger collaboration across sectors and a closer partnership with the Government to build a Hong Kong that is safer, healthier and more inclusive, where every child can thrive and realise their full potential.”

In a subsequent media interview, Mr Chatterjee commended Ms Chen for her leadership in UNICEF HK for its work in advancing children’s rights and mobilising public support for children in Hong Kong and worldwide. He set out recommendations for the city’s development as a Child-Friendly City, calling on every sector of society to place children’s rights, well-being and best interests at the centre of policy-making. He stressed that Hong Kong could serve as a model as a child-friendly city for the rest of the world.

UNICEF HK Chairman Judy Chen (right) welcomed Mr Siddharth Chatterjee (left), former United Nations Resident Coordinator in China, to the UNICEF HK office and announced his appointment as UNICEF Hong Kong's Honorary Advisor.

UNICEF HK Chairman Ms Judy Chen and Mr Siddharth Chatterjee, joined Young Envoys PLUS representatives and local youth in a dialogue on quality education and building a Child-Friendly City in Hong Kong.

Mr Siddharth Chatterjee shared insights from his frontline experience in advancing quality education and youth empowerment.