United Nations Children's Fund

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The United Nations Children's Fund (or UNICEF) General Assembly was created on December 11, 1946. In 1953, its name was shortened from United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, but is still known by the popular acronym based on this old name. Headquartered in New York City, UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.

A voluntarily funded agency, UNICEF relies on contributions from governments and private donors. Its programmes emphasize developing community-level services to promote the health and well-being of children. UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 and Prince of Asturias Award of Concord in 2006. In the United States, Canada and some other countries, UNICEF is known for its "Trick-Or-Treat for UNICEF" program in which children collect money for UNICEF from the houses they trick-or-treat at, sometimes instead of candy.

Following the reaching of term limits by Executive Director of UNICEF Carol Bellamy, former United States Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman took control of the organization in May 2005 with an agenda to increase the organization's focus on the Millennium Development Goals.

Contents 1 Priorities 1.1 Education 1.2 Immunization plus 1.3 Child protection 1.4 HIV/AIDS 1.5 Early childhood 2 Public perception 2.1 Employment policy 2.2 Sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona 2.3 Trick-or-Treat UNICEF box 2.4 Art in All of Us 3 See also 4 External links 5 References and notes

[edit] Priorities

UNICEF mainly helps out in the poorer regions of Africa although it has done charity work all over the world.

UNICEF is currently focused on 5 primary priorities: Child Survival and Development, Basic Education and Gender Equality (including Girls Education), Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse, HIV/AIDS, and children, and Policy advocacy and partnerships for children’s rights. Related areas of UNICEF action include early childhood development, adolescence development and participation, life skills based education.

UNICEF work to improve the status of their priorities through 14 methods {?} ranging from direct and legal interventions to education and beyond to research and census data collection.

[edit] Education

Education is a proven intervention for improving the lives of all people, including children. Educating young women yields spectacular benefits for the current and future generations, and specifically affects a range of UNICEF priorities including child survival, children in family, immunization, and child protection.

UNICEF’s aim is to get more girls into school, ensure that they stay in school and that they are equipped with the basic tools they need to succeed in later life. As part of its on-going efforts to ensure every girl and boy their right to an education, UNICEF’s acceleration strategy is speeding progress in girls’ enrollment in 25 selected countries during the 2002–2005 period. Period. ^[1]

[edit] Immunization plus

Immunization is a direct intervention method which has made great improvements in the health of children world-wide over the past 20 years. But every year, more than 2 million children die from diseases that could have been prevented by inexpensive vaccines.

The plus in the programme is the additional immunizations made possible during interventions. Ranging from client education to nutritional supplements to insecticide-treated mosquito netting, these life-saving services make immunization programmes a powerful tool for child health. ^[2]

[edit] Child protection

UNICEF uses the term ‘child protection’ to refer to preventing and responding to violence, exploitation and abuse against children – including commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, child labour and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage. UNICEF’s child protection programmes also target children who are uniquely vulnerable to these abuses, such as when living without parental care, in conflict with the law and in armed conflict. Violations of the child’s right to protection take place in every country and are massive, under-recognized and under-reported barriers to child survival and development, in addition to being human rights violations. Children subjected to violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect are at risk of death, poor physical and mental health, HIV/AIDS infection, educational problems, displacement, homelessness, vagrancy and poor parenting skills later in life. ^[3] Among many other programmes, UNICEF supports the international Child Rights Information Network.

[edit] HIV/AIDS

15 million children are now orphaned due to AIDS. It is estimated that by the year 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 18 million children, will have lost at least one parent to AIDS. Half of all new infections are people under the age of 25, with girls being hit harder and younger than boys. Working to protect and support orphaned children, to prevent parent-child transmission, and to give young people gender-sensitive and youth-friendly services, UNICEF also advocates for a protective familial, social and legal environment. UNICEF is also running several programmes dedicated to controlling both online and offline child pornography. ^[4]

[edit] Early childhood

Every child must be ensured the best start in life – their future, and indeed the future of their communities, nations and the whole world depends on it. ^[5]

UNICEF applies a holistic, evidence-based approach to Early childhood, including the following principles:

• Preventive and curative health care including immunization, adequate nutrition, and safe water and basic sanitation must be provided for children, their caregivers, and their communities.
• Children must have birth registration, protection from abuse and neglect, and be provided with love and psycho-social care as well as support for early education.
• Girls and women, especially, should have good nutrition and health care, education, family support, and their rights must be respected. They need to be informed of the health and survival risks, to themselves and their babies, regarding early repeat pregnancy, as well as breast feeding. The health and survival of mothers is directly related to the health and survival of their children.

[edit] Public perception

UNICEF is the world's leading children's organization. Over the 60 years of its history it has become a primary reference for governments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), collecting and disseminating more research on children than any other organization, writing position papers on various aspects of the health and environments of children. UNICEF has also organised world-wide fundraising drives, to fund interventions which directly benefit children.

But many groups, governments, and individuals have criticised UNICEF over the years for failing to meet the needs of their particular group or interest. Recent examples include criticism of its perceived failure to hold the Government of Sudan adequately accountable for the practice of slavery in southern Sudan, its policy against the marketing of breast-milk substitutes in developing world hospitals, and its adherence to the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by every member state in the United Nations except for the United States (which is a signatory to the convention) and Somalia.

Unlike NGOs, UNICEF is an inter-governmental organisation and thus is accountable to governments. This gives it unique reach and access in every country in the world, but also sometimes hampers its ability to speak out on rights violations.

UNICEF has also been criticised for having political bias; while UNICEF aims to fund only non-political organisations, NGO Monitor (published by former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dore Gold) criticises the UNICEF-funded "Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation" (PYALARA), a student-run Palestinian NGO, for what NGO Monitor alleges is its covert political agenda justifying suicide bombings and demonising Israel. ^[6]

The Catholic Church has also been critical of UNICEF, with the Vatican even withdrawing donations, because of reports by the American Life League that parts of the funding pay for sterilizations, abortions, and contraceptives. For more on American Life League's view of Unicef, see http://www.all.org/article.php?id=10105&search=unicef

[edit] Employment policy

In recent years UNICEF HQ in New York City has ceased hiring full time employees, preferring instead to hire disposable contractors. These contractors work full time without any legal benefits, while UNICEF staff receive medical benefits, paid vacation, sick time, and access to assorted UN benefits such as a living stipend, an education stipend, paid travel and full access to the UN Secretariat grounds. In order to get around fair labor laws, so-called consultants, many of whom in reality work full time, are required to take one month off unpaid for every eleven worked. This cycle is permitted for four years before the consultant must either incorporate and 'hire her or himself' or discontinue their consultancy with UNICEF.

[edit] Sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona

On 7 September 2006, an agreement between UNICEF and the Catalan club FC Barcelona was reached whereby the club would donate 0.7% of its total yearly revenue to the organization for five years. As part of the agreement, FC Barcelona will wear the UNICEF logo on the front of their shirts, which will be the first time the organization would have such a sponsorship deal with a sports club. Despite popular misconception, this is not the first time in club history that the logo of another organization (except for the logos of the athletic manufacturers of the shirts) will be present on the Barcelona shirt, as in fact the logo of TV3 has been visible on the sleeve of the team's kit for two years now. ^[7]

[edit] Trick-or-Treat UNICEF box

Since 1950 when a group of children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania donated $17 they got on Halloween to help post-World War II victims, the Trick-or-Treat UNICEF box has become a tradition in North America during the haunting season. These small orange boxes are handed to children at schools and at various locations (such as Hallmark Gold Crown Stores) prior to October 31. To date, the box has collected approximately $91 million dollars (CAD) in Canada and over $132 million (US) in the USA.

[edit] Art in All of Us

UNICEF sponsors the Art in All of Us [[1]] initiative founded and organised by Anthony Asael (Belgium) and Stephanie Rabemiafara (Madagascar). The mission of Art in All of Us is to promote creative cultural exchange throughout the UN listed countries, using universal art elements such as photography and poetry. The AiA World Art Book Program of Art in All of Us will present in one book each and every of the 192 UN-listed countries through a single portrait of a resident, a drawing and a poetry done by a local child.

[edit] See also

• Afghan New Beginnings Programme
• Facts for Life
• List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
• Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, stastical monitoring program of UNICEF
• Music for UNICEF Concert
• Street children

[edit] External links

• UNICEF
• Identity Foundation- Working for deprived children in Pune, India
• Pune Street Children Project by Identity Foundation- Global volunteering initiative on Nabuur.com
• UNICEF Snowflake Lighting with Clay Aiken

[edit] References and notes

1. ^ http://www.unicef.org/media/media_21851.html
2. ^ www.unicef.org/immunization
3. ^ http://www.unicef.org/protection
4. ^ www.unicef.org/aids
5. ^ www.unicef.org/earlychildhood
6. ^ ngo-monitor.org/editions/v1n05/v1n05-1.htm
7. ^ UNICEF, Futbol Club Barcelona kick off partnership for kids in developing world