The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund

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Written by: Samuel Camilleri Brancaleone

Introduction

The United Nations is one of the most prominent International Institutions present on the global stage today. Under its preview are many other agencies, one of the more prominent ones being The United Nations Children’s Fund also known as UNICEF.

For one to Understand the many different aspects of the Organisation, as well to gain a holistic understanding of the operations and practices of the same institution, it is best to start from its history. After having seen the history, one can understand what the goals of the organisation are and then delve into the workings of the organisation viewing its operations both from the legal aspect as well as the ‘de facto’ aspect.  After having done that one can provide an analysis of the organisation citing its victories and failings as benchmarks of which one can provide criticism on how the organisation can improve.

History of the Organisation

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund was founded on the 11th of December 1946 in the aftermath of the Second World War. It was established through a vote of the United Nations general Assembly with the Aim of providing relief and support to children living in countries devastated by the war.1

UNICEF divides its history spanning 75 years into 4 periods: Emerging from the ashes of war (1946–1979), Moving with the times (1980–1988), Bringing the world together (1989–2005) and Becoming the leading voice (2006–2020).2

Emerging from the Ashes of War3

During this period one sees UNICEF become more than just an idea on paper but rather, a fully fledged organisation. This is attributed to Maurice Pate who during his 18 years (1947 to 1965) as Executive director, expanded UNICEF’s operations in order to meet the needs of children in a more holistic way. He also strengthened consensus that the needs of children surpass politics an idea which is still felt today. Other notable milestones within this period occur in 1947, just a year after the organisation’s inception. Here, UNICEF received its first private contribution. In the same year, the first UNICEF National Committee is established in the United States. In 1949, in a bid to increase funding, the organisation began issuing and selling UNICEF Greeting Cards. This fundraising activity proved fruitful as to this day it is the organisation’s largest fundraising activities.

The next major and key development for the organisation came in 1950 where due to the “necessity for continued action to relieve the sufferings of children” the United Nations General Assembly extended UNICEF’s mandate placing a great emphasis the organization’s support for children outside Europe. This development was followed up by UNICEF becoming of the United Nation’s Permanent Agencies in 1953. To that effect the words ‘International’ and ‘Emergency’ are omitted from the official name, but the acronym is retained.

In the Years 1957 and 1961 UNICEF, committed to its goal of helping children launched new nutrition programmes. In these programmes, Communities are educated in vegetable gardening, fishpond management, poultry and livestock breeding, as well as receive an education regarding nutrition. In 1961, UNICEF takes the bold move of including children’s education into its scope, this comes two years after the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child which defined children’s rights to include protection, education, healthcare, shelter and good nutrition, in 1959.

In 1964, UNICEF shifted its methods of operation from being a relief fund to an international development agency with technical expertise in all issues concerning children. This move comes after The International Round Table on Children and Youth in Development Planning, otherwise known as the Bellagio Conference held in Bellagio, Italy.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to UNICEF in 1965 for the “promotion of brotherhood among nations”. This is perhaps considered to be its first and primary recognition of its work as an organisation. This perhaps further bolstered the organisations drive and initiative to increase it’s reach and depth. This becomes abundantly evident in 1971where The UNICEF Executive Board expands its aid work to include services “benefiting children in urban slums and shantytowns,”.

The Alma-Ata Conference in 1978 is the first instance of UNICEF joining forces with other organisations, in this case the World Health Organisation, whereby the two organisations jointly convened the conference with the aim of bring the world to attention on primary healthcare.  Emphasis was also placed on community-based approaches to family health as being keys to achieving an acceptable level of health throughout the world. The final mayor milestone in this era can be seen in 1979 when UNICEF took charge in leading both the United Nations as well as the Red Cross in a series of major operations across in Kampuchea, now Cambodia. Its ability to take role is accredited partly to UNICEF being a non-Political Organisation.

Moving with the Times4

In 1982 UNICEF launched the GOBI Programme as part of the Child Survival and Development Revolution, this is a drive to save the lives of millions of children each year. The GOBI programme targets four low-cost measures: Growth monitoring, Oral rehydration therapy, promotion of Breastfeeding, and Immunization. In the following year, 1983, UNICEF partners with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in endorsing a joint primary education and literacy programme, in a bid to accelerate advances in Education.

UNICEF once again took charge in 1985 whereby through the concepts of “children as a zone of peace” and “periods of tranquillity” for humanitarian assistance, it pushed for and achieved a cease fire in El Salvador’s civil war which amounted to three days of mass immunization of children. These same concepts were applied again in Lebanon (1987), Sudan (1989), Iraq (1991), and elsewhere with increasing frequency into the 1990s. In 1988, in an effort to further research children The International Child Development Centre is established at the historic Innocenti building in Florence, Italy.

Bringing the World Together5

The year 1989 marked a big shift in the operations of UNICEF as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most universally approved human rights treaty for the protection of children was adopted by 159 United Nations Member States.

A year later in 1990, UNICEF once again took initiative and convened The World Summit for Children. This brought together an unprecedented number of heads of state to rally around the cause of children and adopt the Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children. Similar to previous years UNICEF again Partnered with UNESCO in order to create and launch the School-in-a-Box initiative with the aim of supporting uninterrupted education for children in humanitarian crises. UNICEF once again engages in a partnership, this time with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in 1999 in order to intervene and deliver vaccines and other urgent health services to children in conflict. UNICEF then takes lead and along with its partners organizes a rapid humanitarian response to a devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004.

A year later in 2005 UNICEF launches perhaps its biggest project; “Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS” which is a campaign to mobilise resources and accelerate action for children vulnerable to HIV and AIDS. This campaign goes on until 2010.

Becoming the Leading Voice6

In 2010 UNICEF lead the international response to a magnitude 7 earthquake in Haiti. This is followed up in 2012 by UNICEF setting the standard in terms of transparency by joining the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), UNICEF commits to greater transparency in all its work, so that its methods can be understood. In the same year UNICEF also took the initiate and hosted the first Forum of the Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities.

Two years later in 2014, UNICEF launched the first version of RapidPro – an open-source platform for sharing real-time data across health, education and youth engagement platforms. In 2019, UNICEF brought safe water and sanitation kits, vaccinations, screening for malnutrition, as well as psychosocial support for the more than 1.5 million children in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe after Cyclone Idai. In the same year UNICEF also celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and began supporting young petitioners to file complaints with the Committee on the Rights of the Child to address the climate crisis. Just last year 2021 as well as in 2020, UNICEF played a key role in the United Nations’ global response to the crisis and as part of the global vaccine distribution plan.

Goals of the Organisation

If one was to look at the mission statement of UNICEF, it is made explicitly clear that:

“UNICEF is committed to ensuring special protection for the most disadvantaged children – victims of war, disasters, extreme poverty, all forms of violence and exploitation, and those with disabilities. UNICEF responds in emergencies to protect the rights of children.”7

UNICEF Mission Statement

It must be said however that the organisation has done things which are not explicitly related to the goal stated in the excerpt but rather something which is ancillary there to. An example of this would be when UNICEF worked with the local government in Bayankhongor city in order to set the ambitious goal of transforming Bayankhongor into the first smog-free city in Mongolia by 2022. This may be a result of the organisation the adopting a human rights-based approach to programming, placing human rights principles at the centre of its work in 1988.

Workings of the Organisation

Operation De Jure

UNICEF owes its legal existence to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution which was unanimously voted on, on the 11th of December 1946. Particularly article 57(1) which calls for the “Establishment of an International Children’s Emergency Fund”. Ever since then UNICEF has signed on to other different legal documents each effecting the operations and procedures within the organisation. One such recent example would be when it signed onto the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), whereby in doing so UNICEF has bound itself to publicly disclose its information on programmes and operations and effectively make it easier for all its stakeholders to find, use and compare standardised data.

When conducting research UNICEF has also bound itself by the principles outlined in the Belmont Report on Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research (1979) as well as the Strategic Guidance Note on Institutionalizing Ethical Practice for UNICEF Research and the Evaluation Technical Note No. 1, Children Participating in Research, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) — Ethics and Your Responsibilities as a Manager. UNICEF has bound itself with these documents as they focus particularly on research with children, an activity which UNICEF often engages in, in order to improve on the effectiveness of their missions.

It must also be noted that when conducting research, all of this is done in a manner consistent with the UNICEF Procedure for Quality Assurance in Research and the quality assurance guidance for evaluation: Evaluation “Step by Step”. Through this document UNCEFT has bout itself to explicitly review ethical considerations as part of broader quality assurance processes within the originating office of the organisation.

UNICEF has gone out of its way to set high standards in order to recognise and reflect on the spirit and intention of the Declaration of Helsinki (1964) as well as its subsequent amendments, emphasizing the importance of respect for and protection of human rights. More specifically, as it relates to the involvement and focus on children in research, evaluation and data collection and analysis, these standards attempt to reflect the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’s (UNCRC) principles of the best interests of the child, non-discrimination and participation. The latter document being something which is at the core of UNICEF’s fundamental ideas.

Operation De Facto

Having seen how the organisation operates in terms of the law and its other guiding documents, it would be good for one to analyse how UNICEF operates on a day to day basis in terms of leadership, structure, funding, politics, and influence.

Organisational Structure of UNICEF

The organisational structure of UNICEF is fairly simple and may be seen to be akin to that of a corporation. At the top of the corporation one may find the Executive Board, this is the governing body of UNICEF and deal with the establishment of policies, approval of programmes as well as other budgetary matters such as but not limited to intergovernmental support. The Executive board is comprised of 36 members elected for a period of three years by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The members in turn elect a Chairperson who leads the board for a duration of a term. The work of the executive board is coordinated by the Bureau, comprising the President and four Vice-Presidents, each officer representing one of the five regional groups of the United Nations. The Executive Board meets three times each calendar year, in a first regular session (February), annual session (June) and second regular session (September). Executive Board sessions are held at the United Nations headquarters in New York.8

Below the executive board is the Executive Office, which is composed of the Executive Director, a set of Deputy executive Directors as well as a Chief of Staff. The most important member of the Executive office is The Executive Director. S/He oversees administering the policies set up by the Executive Board. The Executive Director is appointed for a 5 year mandate by the United Nations Secretary General after Consulting with the Executive Board. The Current Executive Director is Catherine Russell.9

It must be noted that the structure of UNICEF then splinters into many different offices and programmes each with their own distinct task and prevue. One such example would be the Office of Emergency Programmes. This office coordinates the organization’s global support for humanitarian action, mainly through a security team and a 24/7 Operations Centre (OPSCEN). The OPSCEN monitors humanitarian crises, political events and security-related incidents around the world with a view to ensuring the safety of staff and providing both field offices and senior decision-makers with critical information related to humanitarian emergencies. The division is located in both New York and Geneva.

It must also be noted that below these offices are the Regional Offices of which there are 7 each operating in different parts of the planet. Separate from these Regional Offices are National Committees which are a supportive network of independent charities that raise funds to promote UNICEF’s work around the globe. The National Committees are an integral part of UNICEF’s global organisation and a unique feature of UNICEF. Currently there are 33 National Committees in the world, each established as an independent local non-governmental organisation. These Committees serve as the public face and dedicated voice of UNICEF. The job of these National Committees is to raise funds from the private sector, promote children’s rights and secure worldwide visibility for children threatened by poverty, disasters and the many other forms of abuse and exploitation. These Committees are particularly useful when it comes to the sale of UNICEF Greeting Cards, which over the several decades of UNICEF’s existence has managed to sell over billions of cards.

Funding of UNICEF10

UNICEF is quite a large organisation. This can be seen in terms of its structure, but also in terms of funding. In 2021, the total income for UNICEF was $8,122 million. This translates to an increase of 13 per cent, or, $903 million when compared to 2020. UNICEF splits its funding into three categories: Regular Resources (RR); these are unearmarked funds that integral when it comes to the delivery of results across the Strategic Plan; Other Resources (regular): these are funds for specific, non-emergency programme purpose and strategic priorities; Other Resources (emergency): these are earmarked funds for specific humanitarian action and post-crisis recovery activities.

The Majority of UNICEF’s Funding comes from the public sector which comprises 73 per cent of the total income. This means that UNICEF is mainly funded by governments.  Income coming from the Private sector income constituted 26 per cent of the total budget and mail came from National Committees, UNICEF Country Office private sector fundraising, and non-governmental organizations. Other Income amounts to 1 per cent of the total budget and mainly comes from interest, procurement services and other minor sources.

Looking at the top donors of UNICEF it is certain that the Largest Contributor to the organisation is the United States of America with it investing 884 million US Dollars, the majority of which going into Emergency resources. The Second Largest Donor is the Federal Republic of Germany Donating 868 million US Dollars, the majority going into other regular resources. The European Union is the Third largest donor donating 585 million US Dollars which are evenly split between Other Regular and Emergency Resources.

Politics and Influence of UNICEF

Having seen the way the Organisation is structured and the way it gathers its funding it would be reasonable to say that UNICEF has a large influence on the international community. This, partnered with the fact that UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and territories would lead one to believe that UNICEF has a great influence on politics. This however, is not really correct. When describing itself, UNICEF holds that it is “Non-political and impartial, we are never neutral when it comes to defending children’s rights and safeguarding their lives and futures.”11 Being an influence in the political sphere is not really in line with its goals either.

Working on the theory that the promotion of better standards of living is their main goal, it would not really concern itself with the beliefs of the government, provided that, they do not go against the goal of UNICEF. This can be inferred from the fact that UNICEF many a time works with local governments of various policies and political beliefs to do one main thing help children. This can be seen In Senegal, UNICEF also supported the development of budgets within 52 municipalities that include activities ranging from birth registration to youth empowerment and employability as well as climate change. Looking at the most recent example, in the Executive Director Catherine Russell’s  brief to the United Nations Security Council on Ukraine, at no point does she condemn the cause of the war or use more politically charged words such as ‘invasion’ but rather, employs ‘softer more neutral’ words such as “conflict” and “escalation”.12

Having said this while the actions of UNICEF are not politically motivated, this does not mean that they do not have political repercussions. The classic example of this would be when the United Kingdom’s government was heavily criticised after UNICEF had to launch its first ever emergency response within the country. Here one would also like to take the opportunity to once again point out how UNICEF does not criticise local policy or cast blame comparing the statement made by Anna Kettley, Director of Programmes at Unicef UK;

“This is UNICEF’s first ever emergency response within the UK, introduced to tackle the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus crisis and reach the families most in need,”

Anna Kettley, Director of Programmes at UNICEF UK

To the statement issued by the Labour Party deputy leader Angela Rayner;

“We are one of the richest countries in the world. Our children should not have to rely on humanitarian charities that are used to operating in war zones and in response to natural disasters to feed them this Christmas. Boris Johnson should be ashamed.”

Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader of the UK Labour Party

One can see a stark difference in tone as well as the casting of blame.13

Analysis of the Organisation

American Philosopher John Dewey holds that “Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.”14 Therefore, when analysing and recommending changes to improve an organisation such as UNICEF it is best to go through its success and failures. 

It is without a doubt that through out the several decades UNICEF has had multiple successes stories in fact, by the end of 1993, the life expectancy in the developing world had increased by about a third since the end of the Second World War. Infant and child death rates had all but halved, the proportion of children starting school had risen from 50 per cent to 75 per cent, and the number of rural families with access to safe drinking water had risen from 10 per cent to 60 per cent. These statistics were no doubt caused partly by the activities and workings of UNICEF. UNICEF, as seen in its history, has worked in multiple conflict areas many times to the benefit of the local inhabitants. UNICEF has also set numerous global benchmarks, such as in the development of Iodised Salt by UNICEF India. UNICEF has worked in many African nations to slow, stop and prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS and has also greatly contributed in taking care of infected individuals by making anti-retroviral drugs more accessible. In 2021 alone UNICEF has had multiple first; namely the creation of the first Ebola vaccine stockpile, the installation of the first Oxygen Plant-in-a-Box in Soroti, Uganda, the launch of the first Malaria Vaccine tender. UNICEF has also continued to carry out its work despite the many difficulties it is presented with, a prime example would be that despite the numerous freight and cargo delays which plagued 2021, UNICEF managed to coordinate efforts in order to efficiently deliver items ranging from COVID-19 vaccines, syringes and oxygen concentrators to educational supplies around the world, including to emergency settings such as Syria and Yemen.15

When it comes to failures, the track record shows that these are few and far between. The most recent ‘scandal’ that can be found was from 2018 whereby the Swedish Television programme Uppdrag Granskning (Mission Investigate) revealed that some of the children supposedly in UNICEF’s custody were homeless and fending for themselves. Despite assurances by the Organisation that they were protected. There was also the issue where several boys in the care of UNICEF were assaulted by French soldiers while a 14 year old girl, also in UNICEF’s Care was impregnated and given HIV by a Congolese soldier. UNICEF has however admitted fault, as can be seen through the statements made by UNICEF Netherlands and has however followed up on the situations and rectified the situation where appropriate.16 Another failure of UNICEF would be when a program in West Africa which spent $27 million US Dollars in an attempt to decrease child deaths from disease had created a situation where by areas outside the program has a lower death rate than those within the programme. As seen in Benin where child deaths fell by 13 per cent after the UNICEF program started, but fell by 25 per cent in the areas outside of the programme. The similar thing happened in Mali where child deaths fell by 24 per cent in districts where the UNICEF program was set up, and by 31 per cent in districts out of the programme.17

Recommendations

Having seen both the successes and failures of the organisation one can now recommend on areas of improvement. The first area which I believe should be worked on is to Prioritize and scale up the institutional capacity building component so to enable local actors to move from short-term project-based approach to long-term sustainability by building up capacity in terms finance, logistics, administration, fundraising and reporting. I say this as seen in one of UNICEF’s failures the reason why the death rate was not decreased was because, in the words of Philip Stevens, of the London think-tank International Policy Network “UNICEF’s strategy was blindly optimistic.“18 In other words, UNICEF threw a lot of money at the problem without having the basic infrastructure necessary to adequately tackle the problem.

Another recommendation I would put forward focuses on the idea that prevention is better than cure, so, creating UNICEF preparedness strategies at a regional and country level as well as investing in a pre-crisis operation which strengthens local actors will have some of the groundwork set up should a crisis occur. This followed up with raising awareness and sensitising the UNICEF staff on the principles of partnership, especially, in relation with local actors will assure that, should a crisis occur, UNICEF staff can work with more efficiently and effectively with a bolstered set of local actors. Furthering on this idea, one would recommend UNICEF to shift capacity strengthening models to focus more on coaching, mentoring and the secondment of key staff to local actors instead of focusing on stand-alone trainings, and develop appropriate guidance to support UNICEF regional and country offices in that regard.

As previously established, UNICEF also has a habit of setting benchmarks and one is of the opinion that developing a global localisation policy/strategy as well as localization strategies in regional/country offices may enable UNICEF to better institutionalise localisation, the setting of benchmarks, monitoring and documenting its advancement on a local level better helping it catalogue what made its projects so effective.

A final recommendation would be to cut the off unnecessary bureaucracy. This can be achieved by giving UNICEF field offices the authority and capacity to engage in local and meaningful partnership processes with local and community actors in order to strengthen field monitoring, supervision and coaching of local actors in their respective geographical areas.

Conclusion

Having gone through the History, Goals, Structure and operations of UNICEF one is of the opinion that despite there being some failings in its history UNICEF is an Institution with nothing short of a stellar reputation. One is convinced that should UNICEF remain on the path it is currently in, and possibly adopt the aforementioned recommendations, one believes that UNICEF will be closer to being there, as stated in their banner, “for every child” in their time of need.

  1. “This Day In History / December 11” (History December 9, 2020) <https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/unicef-founded> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  2. “UNICEF History” (UNICEF ) <https://www.unicef.org/history> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  3. “Emerging from the Ashes of War: 1946–1979” (UNICEF) <https://www.unicef.org/stories/learning-experience-19461979> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  4. “Moving with the Times: 1980–1988” (UNICEF) <https://www.unicef.org/stories/learning-experience-19801988> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  5. “Bringing the World Together: 1989–2005” (UNICEF) <https://www.unicef.org/stories/learning-experience-19892005> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  6. “Becoming the Leading Voice: 2006–2020” (UNICEF) <https://www.unicef.org/stories/learning-experience-20062015> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  7. “UNICEF Mission Statement” (UNICEF) <https://www.unicef.org/about-us/mission-statement#:~:text=UNICEF%20is%20committed%20to%20ensuring,protect%20the%20rights%20of%20children> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  8. “About The UNICEF Executive Board” (UNICEF) <https://www.unicef.org/executiveboard/about> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  9. “About Our Executive Director, Catherine Russell” (unicef) <https://www.unicef.org/about-unicef/executive-director#:~:text=Catherine%20Russell%20serves%20as%20UNICEF’s,over%20190%20countries%20and%20territories> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  10. Funding Compendium 2021 (UNICEF 2024) ↩︎
  11. “About UNICEF” (UNICEF) <https://www.unicef.org/about-unicef> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  12. Executive Director Catherine Russell Briefs UN Security Council on Ukraine | UNICEF (UNICEF 2024) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw4XP9ChRrM>accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  13. “Wealthy Britain Faces Criticism after UNICEF Feeds Children There” TRT World <https://www.trtworld.com/europe/wealthy-britain-faces-criticism-after-unicef-feeds-children-there-42439> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  14. (Good Reads) <https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/learning-from-mistakes>accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  15. “Six Supply Achievements You May Have Missed in 2021” (UNICEF) <https://www.unicef.org/supply/stories/six-supply-achievements-you-may-have-missed-2021#:~:text=In%20total%20in%202021%2C%20UNICEF,and%20support%20future%20health%20needs.> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  16. McVeigh K, “Unicef Admits Failings with Child Victims of Alleged Sex Abuse by Peacekeepers” The Guardian <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/feb/13/unicef-admits-failings-with-child-victims-of-alleged-sex-abuse-by-peacekeepers> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  17. The Associated Press, “UNICEF Program Failed to Save Children: Study” (CBCJanuary 12, 2010) <https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/unicef-program-failed-to-save-children-study-1.939386#:~:text=UNICEF%20chose%20districts%20with%20high,those%20where%20it%20wasn’t> accessed June 29, 2024 ↩︎
  18. Ibid ↩︎
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