New Challenges for UNICEF

Do the world’s children need UNICEF? The care for children is, or should be, a natural concern for all parents and relatives, and for the local community. At the national level, governments should ensure that children receive proper health care, adequate nutrition, and basic education and training, and that they are safeguarded from violence, exploitation, poverty and discrimination. The problems faced by families and nations in providing adequate care and protection to children in certain areas and particularly in times of conflict have caused, in the twentieth century, the creation of international organizations needed to complement or even assume entirely these tasks, generally on a temporary basis. Some of the organizations which preceded UNICEF were either fully dedicated to children’s welfare or included children as beneficiaries, together with their family, in their relief action. Some organizations were (and some still are) non-governmental — the Commission for Relief in Belgium, the Save the Children Fund — some were intergovernmental — the League of Nations and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. The latter’s demise led directly to the difficult birth of UNICEF, with the determining influence of such individuals as Dr Ludwig Rajchman and delegates of ‘like-minded’ countries against the opposition of the USA and the other western countries and of the UN specialized agencies fearing the competition of an intruder in their domain.

The 1946 resolution of the UN General Assembly which created UNICEF denned its beneficiaries as ‘children and adolescents of countries which were victims of aggression’ and of countries receiving assistance from UNRRA. The assistance of the new institution would consist of the provision of supplies, material, services and technical assistance on a nondiscrimination basis. Its mandate would include the rehabilitation of children and child health generally. The 1950 resolution, which extended UNICEF’s life for three years, approved the geographic expansion of its programmes ‘outside Europe⁷ and placed the Fund in the category of the UN development agencies: it was to support national programmes designed to aid children within the framework of existing UN activities for promoting the economic and social development of underdeveloped areas. In addition to emergency work and the provision of supplies, UNICEF was to provide training and advice, meet the long-range needs of children particularly in underdeveloped countries and strengthen the permanent child health and child welfare programmes of the countries receiving assistance. The 1953 resolution, which made UNICEF permanent, also linked its activities to the long-range economic and social programmes of the UN.

UNICEF is linked to the UN and to the UN General Assembly through its creation: UNICEF was created in 1946 by a resolution of the UN General Assembly in accordance with Article 55 of the UN Charter. Other resolutions have extended the duration of the agency, and then made it permanent. The agency’s mandate, structure and the composition of its Executive Board were also denned in resolutions of the General Assembly. Periodical resolutions may approve the agency’s policies, give it policy guidance or praise UNICEF, among other UN organizations, for its contribution to programmes related to children. Another link with the UN lies in the fact that the Executive Director of the Fund is appointed by the Secretary-General of the UN, in consultation with the Executive Board.

One of the reasons for the establishment of UNICEF, in 1946, was that the Fund’s resources be used, in part, ‘for child health purposes generally’.¹

Among UNICEF’s many other programmes, this chapter has selected three that are important: food aid and nutrition, education, and water supply and sanitation. In the same way as UNICEF is playing in the same public health field as WHO, these programmes involve UNICEF and other organizations to varying degrees. The main issue is to identify and assess the role of UNICEF in relation to that of other organizations in the same field.

According to a UN report issued in 1999, the world experienced three times as many natural emergencies in the 1990s as in the 1960s. The year 1998 was the worst on record for weather-related natural disasters. In the Caribbean, hurricanes Georges and Mitch killed more than 13 000 people; a June cyclone in India caused an estimated 10 000 deaths. Major floods hit Bangladesh, India, Nepal and much of East Asia, with thousands killed. Two-thirds of Bangladesh was inundated for months, making millions homeless. More than 3000 died in China’s Yangtze flood, millions were displaced and the financial cost was estimated at $30 billion. Fires ravaged tens of thousands of square kilometres of forest in Brazil, Indonesia and Siberia, with devastating consequences for human health and local economies. In Afghanistan, earthquakes killed more than 9000 people. In August 1999, Turkey suffered one of the most devastating earthquakes in recent history.¹

For UNICEF, advocacy means not only informing donors and the public about what UNICEF is doing but, more importantly, sending public messages on its policies in an effort to influence national and international decision-makers and obtain the support of public opinion for policies, some of which may, at times, be controversial or opposed by large segments of populations or countries. These policies are either initiated by the agency itself, or are part of a UN interagency campaign, or are the result of campaigns by NGOs. Effective advocacy requires communications and marketing expertise, an area in which UNICEF has long proved its skills. Advocacy is an essential part of all UNICEF programmes: in some cases, the programme is limited to advocacy when the causes are too broad to generate specific operations, or when resources are lacking, or when other organizations, in particular NGOs, assume the operational activities.

UNICEF, as well as WHO, has long enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most effective and professional UN agencies. As WHO was losing this credit in the 1980s but regained some lustre with a new Director-General in 1998, UNICEF cannot take for granted that its mission will forever protect it from fair or unfair allegations of poor management or ill-use of its resources. UN organizations are particularly at risk, in view of the charges of politicization, bureaucratization, inefficiency and even corruption levelled against some of them by conservative groups in the US and by press reports in western countries over the last 30 years.

UNICEF is usually considered as both the best-managed and the better-known and appreciated UN agency, not only because of its humanitarian mandate for children and women, but because of the drive of its leaders and the visibility of most of its activities.