United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is the UN agency entrusted with ensuring the welfare and protection of children around the world. UNICEF has its headquarters in New York but conducts many of its affairs through its numerous country offices. Unlike UNESCO, it is not an autonomous agency and does not have a permanent U.N. budget, instead relying on donations from governments and the public. The importance of its work was recognized in 1965 with a Nobel Peace Prize.

While the organization has maintained continuity in relation to its focus on the young, there have been significant changes of direction over the years. It was founded in 1946 as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (from which the acronym UNICEF comes) to respond to the suffering of children in the aftermath of World War II. Since then, in addition to providing rapid responses in times of crisis, it has expanded its mandate to attend to longer-term issues of child health, nutrition, education, and psychological well-being, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Under the influential leadership of James P. Grant from 1979 to 1995, an approach known as GOBI—growth monitoring, oral rehydration, breast-feeding, and immunization—was adopted. In this period, UNICEF expanded its educational work and became one of the key proponents of the Education for All movement, launched in Jomtien, Thailand, in March 1990. The World Summit for Children in the same year, along with the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child the year before, significantly raised the profile of children's issues and strengthened the organization's mandate.

In 2006, UNICEF was working in 191 countries. The main lines of its current work are early childhood care, primary education (particularly for girls), HIV/AIDS, protection of children from exploitation and abuse, and ensuring their effective voice and participation. Particular attention is paid to the most vulnerable children and young people: for example, those with disabilities, street children, and those engaged as child soldiers and sex workers. In addition to its [Page 1415]activities on the ground, it also engages in advocacy work and produces a number of publications, such as the annual State of the World's Children. UNICEF's total income in 2005 was $2.76 million.

UNICEF is one of the most widely recognized and respected of the U.N. agencies, on account of its high-impact, practical interventions and the universal acceptance of its fundamental aims. In contrast to other U.N. agencies, it is highly decentralized and has particularly strong links with NGOs. There have, however, been some criticisms of the organization for its occasional unwillingness to take a stand on human-rights violations, because of the jeopardy to its nonpartisan status. Since the leadership of Carol Bellamy from 1995 to 2005, there has been increasing emphasis on the rights of children, although tensions still exist between rights-based approaches and those based on basic needs or development. Nevertheless, UNICEF continues to bring essential support to children and teenagers around the world, ensuring their survival and safety, and promoting their voice in decision making and their participation in society.

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