"Children are always the most vulnerable group in emergencies, facing a high risk of violence, exploitation, disease and neglect," said Ted Chaiban, head of emergency operations at the UN children's agency.
The appeal outstripped the call for $1.4 billion made by Unicef at the beginning of 2013, and which was revised to $1.7 billion in October.
Unicef, whose European regional office is based in Geneva, said that 40 percent of the money it was asking for would be destined to tackle the impact of Syria's civil war.
Children make up a major proportion of the millions of Syrians driven from their homes by the vicious conflict, and who have either headed to other parts of the country or flooded across the borders to neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
All told, Unicef said it aims to provide humanitarian aid to 59 million children in 50 war- and disaster-stricken countries this year, as well as 26 million adults.
Chaiban has just returned from South Sudan — the world's youngest country and one of its poorest — where fighting broke out between government and rebel forces in December.
Over 400,000 children and their families have been displaced by the conflict there.
"The rainy season is coming and we need to pre-position supplies and reinforce essential services, for which we need urgent funding to prevent a catastrophe," said Chaiban.
"The children of South Sudan join millions of others affected by conflict in the Central African Republic and Syria," he added.
"But while today's headlines focus on these complex, under-funded crises, many other desperate situations also require immediate funding and urgent humanitarian assistance," he said, citing Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Somalia and Yemen.
UN
Syrian woes fuel Unicef’s record aid appeal
Unicef launched a record $2.2 billion aid appeal in Geneva on Friday to help tens of millions of children around the world, saying the lion's share was to deal with the Syria war.
UN
‘The war must end now’: UN Sec-Gen meets Swedish PM in Stockholm
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres met Sweden's Prime Minister in Stockholm on Wednesday, ahead of the conference marking the 50th anniversary of the city's historic environment summit .
After a bilateral meeting with Magdalena Andersson on the security situation in Europe, Guterres warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to a global food crisis that would hurt some of the world’s most vulnerable people.
“It is causing immense suffering, destruction and devastation of the country. But it also inflames a three-dimensional global crisis in food, energy and finance that is pummelling the most vulnerable people, countries and economies,” the Portuguese diplomat told a joint press conference with Andersson.
He stressed the need for “quick and decisive action to ensure a steady flow of food and energy,” including “lifting export restrictions, allocating surpluses and reserves to vulnerable populations and addressing food price increases to calm market volatility.”
Between the two, Russia and Ukraine produce around 30 percent of the global wheat supply.
Guterres was in Stockholm to take part in the Stockholm 50+ conference, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.
The conference, which was held on the suggestion of the Swedish government in 1972 was the first UN meeting to discuss human impacts on the global environment, and led to the establishment of the UN Environment Program (UNEP).
At the joint press conference, Andersson said that discussions continued between Sweden and Turkey over the country’s continuing opposition to Sweden’s application to join the Nato security alliance.
“We have held discussions with Turkey and I’m looking forward to continuing the constructive meetings with Turkey in the near future,” she said, while refusing to go into detail on Turkey’s demands.
“We are going to take the demands which have been made of Sweden directly with them, and the same goes for any misunderstandings which have arisen,” she said.
At the press conference, Guterres condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine as “a violation of its territorial integrity and a violation of the UN Charter”.
“The war must end now,” he said.
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