ERIC ED437132: UNICEF Annual Report, 1996.

104 Pages·1996·5.4 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
PS 024 528
ED 437 132
UNICEF Annual Report, 1996.
TITLE
United Nations Children's Fund, New York, NY.
INSTITUTION
1996-00-00
PUB DATE
103p.; Photographs may not copy adequately. For 1995 Annual
NOTE
Report, see PS 025 015.
Descriptive (141)
Reports
PUB TYPE
MF01/PC05 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Annual Reports; *Child Health; *Child Welfare; *Children;
DESCRIPTORS
*Childrens Rights; Developing Nations; Disadvantaged
Environment; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign
Countries; Human Capital; *International Programs;
Nutrition; Poverty; Program Descriptions; Social Work; Well
Being
*Unicef; United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
At this time, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF)
is
commemorating its 50th anniversary, under the slogan "children first." This
annual UNICEF report reviews the organization's activities during 1995. An
introduction by the executive director states that the report will give
readers a sense of what UNICEF is doing with partners to rise to the
(1) the U.N. Convention
program's challenges. Topics in the report include:
on the Rights of the Child--a powerful and wide-ranging legal instrument to
(2) regional developments;
promote and protect the human rights of children;
(3) emergency countries (those suffering recent natural disasters or war);
(7) safe environment;
(6) nutrition;
(4) child protection;
(5) health;
(8)
(11) communication;
(10) girls and women;
(9) basic education;
urban issues;
(12) working together (national committees, non-governmental organizations,
(14) UNICEF
(13) resources and management;
and inter-agency cooperation;
income, donors, and expenditures (tables and charts); and 15 profiles of
individual efforts to improve conditions for children. Descriptions are given
for regional developments in West and Central Africa, the Middle East and
North Africa; East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, the Americas and the
Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States
(former Soviet Union), and the Baltic states. The report concludes with an
annex describing major decisions made by UNICEF's executive board during
1995.
(WJC)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
uniceF
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Office of Educational Fleseamh and Improvement
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CENTER (ERIC)
Ai This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
United Nations Children's Fund
Jost
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improve reproduction quality.
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Points of view or opinions stated in this
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
document do not necessarily represent
1
official OERI position or policy.
21
IBE-4601PfAVAILABLE
UNICEF Executive Board
1 January to 31 December 1996
OFFICERS FOR 1996:
PRESIDENT
H.E. Mr. Ion Gorita (Romania)
VICE-PRESIDENTS
Ms. Lyda Aponte de Zack lin (Venezuela)
Mr. Jan Top Christensen (Denmark)
Mr. John Aggrey (Ghana)
Mrs. Mitra Vasisht (India)
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD:
TERM OF OFFICE EXPIRING ON
31 DECEMBER 1996
31 DECEMBER 1997
31 DECEMBER 1998
Brazil
Angola
Canada
Burkina Faso
Azerbaijan
China
France
Burundi
Cuba
Ghana
India
Denmark
Indonesia
Japan
Namibia
Italy
Kenya
Russian Federation
Jamaica
Morocco
Suriname
Lebanon
Netherlands
Switzerland
Romania
Norway
Turkey
United Kingdom of
Pakistan
Ukraine
Great Britain and
Republic of Korea
Viet Nam
Northern Ireland
Sweden
United States
Uganda
of America
Venezuela
Cover photographs
Upper left: UNICEF/94-1223/Pirozzi
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
Upper right: UNICEF/92-0134/Maines
Lower left: UNICEF/C-I I6/9/Maines
Lower right: UNICEF/94.0789(Toutounji
3
® Printed on recycled
paper
CONTENTS
BASIC EDUCATION
FOREWORD
58
3
BY UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL
GIRLS AND WOMEN
61
OVERVIEW
COMMUNICATION
64
BY UNICEF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
4
COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL MOBILIZATION 64
CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS
66
EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT
OF THE CHILD
6
INTERNATIONAL CHILD
67
DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
8
68
PUBLICATIONS
8
EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA
70
TELEVISION AND RADIO
WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA
11
WORKING TOGETHER
73
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
13
73
NATIONAL COMMITTEES
EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
15
75
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
SOUTH ASIA
17
77
GOODWILL AMBASSADORS AND CELEBRITIES
19
THE AMERICAS AND CARIBBEAN
78
INTER-AGENCY COOPERATION
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE,
COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES,
79
COOPERATION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
AND BALTIC STATES
21
RESOURCES AND MANAGEMENT
80
EMERGENCY COUNTRIES
23
80
UNICEF FINANCES
25
COUNTRIES AFFECT ED BY ARMED CONFLICT
85
GREETING CARD AND RELATED OPERATIONS
COUNTRIES AFFECTED BY NATURAL DISASTERS 31
86
INFORMATION RESOURCES
86
INTERNAL AUDIT
CHILD PROTECTION
32
87
SUPPLY MANAGEMENT
33
CHILD LABOUR
87
HUMAN RESOURCES
33
CHILDREN AND WAR
89
MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE PROGRAMME
34
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
36
CHILDHOOD DISABILITY
TABLES AND CHARTS
36
JUVENILE JUSTICE
UNICEF income by source 1995
81
UNICEF income 1993-1995
81
HEALTH
37
Top 20 donors to UNICEF
82
38
YOUTH HEALTH
Programmes funded from general resources
83
38
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
UNICEF expenditure on programmes
39
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES AI+E(. I ED BY AIDS
by sector 1991-1995
84
THE BAMAKO INITIATIVE
41
Governmental and private sector
42
IMMUNIZATION
contributions to UNICEF, 1995
90
44
ACUTE RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS
PROFILES
46
CONTROL OF DIARRHOEAL DISEASES
Teen report: Transforming the pain of war
27
NUTRITION
48
Giving voice to sexual abuse: Naira's story
35
49
MICRONUTRIENTS
The salt 'miners' of western Sudan
45
51
HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY
Passive no more, Niger's women
fight malnutrition
50
51
INFANT FEEDING AND CARE
Clean water, long life!
54
SAFE ENVIRONMENT
Buying children back from bondage
52
60
Building a refuge from female genital mutilation...63
53
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
53
WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE
97
ANNEX: EXECUTIVE BOARD
URBAN ISSUES
56
101
GLOSSARY
Foreword
The world has few more effective measures of its overall progress than those that chart the
health and well-being of children. Nations that nurture, protect and invest in their chil-
dren's potential also tend to thrive economically. When nations have their priorities in
order, the conditions of and chances for children, even in the poorest of countries, also
tend to improve.
As we celebrate UNICEF's 50th anniversary this year, we reflect on the progress made
so far on the major tasks that remain, and on the lessons we have learned so far.
The average life expectancy of a child has increased in just three decades from 37 to
67 years. As recently as the 1960s, fewer than half of the world's children had a primary
education. Ten years later, fewer than 10 per cent were immunized against the main child-
hood diseases. By 1995, almost 80 per cent of children were in school, and an equal per-
centage were protected by vaccines. Child mortality rates were reduced by more than half
between 1960 and 1995.
Despite these positive developments, safety nets for children are still inadequate.
More than twelve million children will die this year from illnesses that it would cost pen-
nies to prevent. Too many children still become victims of war, exploitation and neglect.
And no country can yet claim to be able to offer girls and women equal opportunity with
boys and men.
What I have found encouraging in my discussions with world leaders, however, is
that common ground can almost always be found when children's interests are at stake.
The most tangible expressions of this harmony are the 'corridors of peace' that UNICEF has
been able to negotiate in the midst of conflicts in order to bring relief to children caught
in the crossfire. It is also evident in the near-universal ratification of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, which has revolutionized our approach to human development.
Virtually all countries now agree that the needs of children, including their survival,
protection, good health, education and freedom of self-expression, are basic human rights
that should be enjoyed -equally by girls and boys, regardless of their national, cultural, reli-
gious or ethnic heritage. That is the central message of this report. It should be our aim to
ensure that it becomes reality, soon.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
United Nations Secretary-General
5
OVERVIEW
4
In its 50th year, UNICEF
continues to put
helping
children first
to reduce barriers,
including gender
discrimination, to the
realization of their
potential.
in large parts of the world. Today, that aura of
AS UNICEF COMMEMORATES ITS 50TH
anniversary, we also celebrate the fact
inevitability has been largely dispelled, and the
that the past 50 years have witnessed
child death rate has fallen by half.
In just over one decade, from the early
more progress for the world's children than did
1980s to the 1990s, immunization coverage
the previous 2,000 years of human history. The
lessons of development over this half century all
against the six main killer diseases of childhood
point to the need to invest in children today
increased from 10 per cent to over 80 per cent
to overcome poverty and
to put children first
worldwide.
ensure future prosperity for all. Concrete actions
Fifty years ago, large-scale hunger and even
to improve the lives of children have brought
periodic famines killing millions of people were
regarded as 'facts of life', at least for the poor.
advances in all facets of their lives. To highlight
just the most dramatic examples:
During the 1980s, nutritional status improved in
every region of the world except sub-Saharan
When UNICEF was created in 1946, mass
deaths of children were still considered inevitable
Africa.
6
BEST COPY AVALABLE
1996 UNICEF ANNUAL REPORT
UNICEF Executive
Thanks in large part to increased child sur-
Director Carol Bellamy
4c
1
vival, human beings are living on average 20
looks at a girl's
notebook while visiting
years longer than 50 years ago.
a primary school
In spite of record population growth, pri-
during a 1995 trip to
mary school enrolment in developing countries
Liberia.
has gone up from 48 per cent to 77 per cent since
1960.
Fifty years ago, the idea of world leaders
gathering to discuss the welfare of children
would have been dismissed out of hand. In
1990, improving children's lives was the sole
topic of discussion at the world's first-ever glob-
al summit.
Long regarded as the property of their par-
le
ents, children have come to be seen as individu-
als with fundamental human rights that adult
Mir
society must respect and essential needs that must
be fulfilled. When this report went to press in
Knowing what needs to be done to better chil-
May, all but six countries of the world had ratified
dren's lives and how to do it are not enough
the Convention on the Rights of the Child
we have to recommit ourselves to put the needs
making it the fastest and most widely ratified
of our young before all others, no matter how
human rights convention in history.
These are among the greatest achievements
pressing.
of the 20th century. In a period of doubt and
This year, under the slogan 'children first', we
are commemorating UNICEF's 50th anniversary.
scepticism about development, foreign aid and
We are taking stock of what has been accom-
the United Nations itself, they tell a very impor-
plished for children, where UNICEF is today and
tant 'success story' about international coopera-
what we must do to meet the tremendous chal-
tion that needs to be told and heard. Quietly
that confront children
almost never in the media spot-
lenges that confront us
and steadily
on the threshold of the 21st
and their families
communities and governments, NGOs
light
and international agencies are demonstrating
century.
This Annual Report, which reviews our activi-
what can be accomplished in the name of chil-
ties in 1995, will give readers a sense of what
dren. Development, long defined simply as eco-
together with a broad range
UNICEF is doing
nomic growth, has become more human-centred,
to rise to these and other chal-
of partners
with children increasingly at its cutting edge.
lenges. During the year, in consultation with our
Despite these miraculous advances for chil-
staff, Executive Board, National Committees and
dren, UNICEF is working harder than ever and in
other partners, we also developed a Mission
more countries than ever. Why haven't we yet
Statement to remind the world what we stand
worked ourselves out of a job?
for. We begin our second half century with a
The answer to that question is that, despite
renewed determination to help build a bridge to
these great strides, extreme poverty and the vio-
the 21st century that all children will have a
lation of children's human rights continue to
kill over 12 million children each year, three
chance to cross.
quarters of them from preventable causes. One
hundred and forty-three million children still do
not attend school. Childhood is still denied to
millions of children in sweatshops, on battle-
fields and in the streets. Girls still face discrim-
ination that begins before birth and lasts into
adulthood, depriving them of the chance to ful-
Carol Bellamy
fil their potential and depriving their communi-
Executive Director
ties of their contributions. Chaotic urbanization
is rapidly crowding half of humanity into
unhealthy cities that are ill-equipped to meet
people's basic needs.
7
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
I
6
The Convention calls
for children to be
brought up in the spirit
of peace, dignity,
tolerance, freedom,
equality and solidarity.
with legal rights of their own; from 'object' to
THE 20TH CENTURY WILL BE RECORDED AS
an era of extraordinary change for chil-
`subject' of the law; from chattel to personhood.
dren, and among those changes, the
Emblematic of this sea-change in perception
Convention on the Rights of the Child holds
was the 1990 World Summit for Children, at
perhaps the greatest potential. This singularly
which 71 Heads of State or Government adopt-
ed specific goals to substantively improve the
powerful and wide-ranging legal instrument pro-
motes and protects the full spectrum of human
lives of children by the year 2000. That such a
rights for children.
high-level summit came together around the sub-
The Convention, which entered into force in
ject of children would have been unthinkable
1990, reflects a watershed in the way our world
even a few years before.
looks at children. The work of a few decades has
As of December 1995, all but eight countries
overturned traditions that date back millennia:
in the world had ratified this treaty
propelling
children have been transformed in the realm of
it towards becoming the first universal law in his-
tory. Already its ratification by 185 nations at
justice from powerless charges into human beings
UNICEF ANNUAL REPORT
1996
A boy in Nepal roasts
peanuts all day to
earn 50 cents. The
Convention requires
that children be
protected from work
that is hazardous or
interferes with their
education.
Further, it protects equally girls as well as boys,
year-end has surpassed the record for any other
the poor and the affluent, minorities and the
human rights treaty.
Such dramatic changes at the threshold of the
disabled.
Underpinning this universal character is the
new century have opened new opportunities for
conviction that, in recognizing the rights of all
UNICEF to fulfil its mandate for children. The
its children, a country will begin to address the
Executive Board has adopted the Convention as
problem of its least privileged with a new energy.
a framework for all programmatic activities. The
reasoning behind this move is simple and
At the organizational level, the rights frame-
work mandates a holistic approach to the chil-
straightforward. For the first time, governments
dren's agenda that will involve and link every
whose countries are home to more than 90 per
sector of UNICEF. Many country offices have
cent of the world's children are legally bound to
uphold a full range of rights on many levels
already seized upon the Convention as a basis for
advocacy on behalf of social and legal reform.
civil, cultural, economic, political and social.
Others are moving towards making the
Economist Amartya Sen has accurately termed
Convention the supporting structure of pro-
this package of rights "a cross-cultural moral
grammes and policies.
minimum."
The means of reaching such a minimum
As UNICEF has learned in its efforts for child
survival, setting goals can prove a powerful cata-
appeared in the 1980s, with the successful use of
lyst for change and an efficient tool for imple-
effective, scientifically sound, low-cost measures
to enhance child survival and development.
menting rights. The promises made by the inter-
national community at the World Summit for
These measures enabled concrete global goals to
Children have been strengthened by commit-
be framed more clearly in support of some of the
ments made to fulfil the obligations of the
rights in the Convention.
Convention.
Among child rights, survival and development
The ratification of the Convention by each
rights have been given greater attention, while
government adds the force of law to the principle
protection and participation rights have been rel-
that States have a requirement to act in the best
atively neglected. During 1995, UNICEF therefore
interests of children. So, in pursuing its agenda
began to prepare a review of policies and strate-
gies on child protection that will be presented to
for children, UNICEF has a stronger tool in its kit:
the ability to remind countries that putting chil-
the Executive Board in 1996.
dren first is now a legal obligation, not simply a
The Convention establishes that children fac-
such as the street
ing difficult circumstances matter of charity and compassion.
children, the bonded labourers and under-age sol-
diers, the sex workers and the children in con-
flict with the law
require special protection.
AVAILABLE
EST COPY
8
t
;
In Botswana, a mother
feeds her children
Although disparities
between countries
remain, broad
improvements in
the prospects for
children in Eastern
and Southern Africa
were evident during
the year.
Major political developments during the year
included national multiparty elections in
EASTERN AND SOUTHERN
Ethiopia, Mauritius and Tanzania and local elec-
AFRICA
tions in South Africa. United Nations peace-
keeping forces arrived in Angola, accompanied
by the acceleration of mine clearing and the ini-
A,. ER THE 1994 DRAMA OF SOUTH AFRICA'S
democratic transition and the trauma of
tial demobilization of combatants.
genocide in Rwanda, 1995 was a year of recov-
However, serious drought caused severe short-
ery and momentum-building for many of the
ages of drinking water as well as disease outbreaks
countries of the Eastern and Southern Africa
and malnutrition in Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland,
Zambia and Zimbabwe. UNICEF supported
region. Southern Africa overall was at peace for
the first time in generations, but deep uncertain-
drought relief efforts in these countries through
ty continued to surround the future of Burundi
its Emergency Programme Fund.
Despite these set-backs, overall economic
and Rwanda in eastern Africa.
10