Unicef

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1946 to help children after World War II in Europe. As in many postwar situations affecting civilians, immediate needs included basic needs for survival such as health care, food, and shelter. Over the years, UNICEF's importance in these areas of welfare remains, but the organization has significantly broadened in scope in subsequent decades. In partnership with national governments, nongovernmental organizations, and other United Nations agencies, UNICEF monitors, assists, and facilitates state welfare provision, and is a powerful force for the protection of children's interests, including health and education, as well as those aspects of children's lives that might otherwise be overlooked such as spiritual or religious and cultural identity.

In 1953, UNICEF became a formal part of the United Nations system, with its humanitarian focus on children extended from Europe to the developing world. Its name was shortened to the United Nations Children's Fund, but the acronym UNICEF was somehow retained.

Based in New York City, UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org) defines its mission as “Changing the world with children,” emphasizing both that children are citizens, and therefore partners in the struggle for the fulfillment of their basic human rights. According to its self-defined mission, “UNICEF helps children get the care and stimulation they need in the early years of life and encourages families to educate girls as well as boys. It strives to reduce childhood death and illness and to protect children in the midst of war and natural disaster. UNICEF supports young people, wherever they are, in making informed decisions about their own lives, and strives to build a world in which all children live in dignity and security. Working with national governments, NGOs, other UN agencies and private-sector partners, UNICEF protects children and their rights by providing services and supplies and by helping shape policy agendas and budgets in the best interests of children.” The timeline summarized below indicates how this mission has developed since 1946.

The Summit for Children, with the World Declaration and Plan of Action, held 8–10 May 2002, was a meeting of the UN General Assembly dedicated to the children and adolescents of the world. Providing an opportunity to review progress in the lives of children in the decade since the 1990 World Conference on Children, it brought together government leaders and heads of state, NGOs, and representatives of major UN bodies, as well as children themselves, at the United Nations in New York.

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