Translating Unicef Publications - Progress for Children. A Report Card on Water and Sanitation

CHAPTER 1 – UNICEF: ORIGINS, PRIORITIES AND 
ORGANIZATION 
1.1 UNICEF ORIGINS AND PRIORITIES. 
At the beginning of this work it is perhaps useful to start by introducing 
UNICEF, one of the largest and most important international organizations. 
UNICEF (pronounced /yuː.nɔː.sɛf/,) is the acronym of United Nations 
International Children's Emergency Fund, a fund created by the United 
Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food 
and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II. 
In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations System and its 
name was shortened as United Nations Children's Fund but it has continued to 
be known by the popular acronym based on the old name. UNICEF is the driving 
force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. It was 
indeed created with the purpose of promoting cooperation to overcome such 
obstacles as poverty, violence, disease and discrimination. It is present to relieve 
suffering during emergencies, and wherever children are threatened, because no 
child should be exposed to violence, abuse or exploitation. It is part of the Global 
Movement for Children – a broad coalition dedicated to improving the life of 
every child, and upholds the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  UNICEF 
works in 190 countries through country programmes and National Committees. 
Headquartered in New York City, UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and 
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developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. 
UNICEF works for the Millennium Development Goals and for the progress 
promised in the United Nations Charter, and its programs emphasize developing 
community-level services to promote the health and well-being of children. In 
1956 UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 and in 2006 the 
Prince of Asturias Award of Concord in 2006.UNICEF is currently focused on 
five main 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 and child rights all over the world. UNICEF works to improve 
the status of their priorities through different methods
 
ranging from direct and 
legal interventions to education and beyond to research and census data 
collection. 
 
1.2 STRUCTURE OF THE ORGANIZATION AND STAFF 
UNICEF staff is present in over 190 countries and territories. More than 120 
country offices carry out UNICEF's mission through a unique program of 
cooperation developed with host governments. Seven regional offices guide their 
work and provide technical assistance to country offices as needed. Overall 
management and administration of the organization takes place at its 
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headquarters in New York while UNICEF's Supply Division is based in 
Copenhagen and serves as the primary point of distribution for such essential 
items as lifesaving vaccines, antiretroviral medicines for children and mothers 
with HIV, nutritional supplements, emergency shelters, educational supplies,and 
more.  A 36 member Executive Board guides and monitors all of UNICEF's work 
and establishes policies, approves programs and oversees administrative and 
financial plans. The Executive Board is made up of government representatives 
who are elected by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, usually for 
three-year terms. The National Committees serve as the public face and 
dedicated voice of UNICEF, it raises funds from the private sector, promotes 
children’s rights, and secures worldwide visibility for children threatened by 
poverty, disasters, armed conflict, abuse and exploitation. UNICEF is funded 
exclusively by voluntary contributions, and the National Committees collectively 
raise around one-third of UNICEF's annual income. This comes through 
contributions from corporations, civil society organizations and more than 6 
million individual donors worldwide. They also rally many different partners – 
including the media, national and local government officials, NGOs, specialists 
such as doctors and lawyers, corporations, schools, young people and the general 
public – on issues related to children’s rights. This big organization relies on 
contributions from governments and private donors and its total income for 2006 
was $2,781,000,000. Governments contribute two thirds of the organization's 
resources; private groups and some 6 million individuals contribute the rest 
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through the National Committees. A further contribution is given by Goodwill 
Ambassadors so that celebrities which put their imagine for UNICEF. They are 
VIP (very important person) promoting and supporting UNICEF and of course 
the rights of children. In this case celebrities attract attention, so they are in a 
position to focus the world’s eyes on the needs of children. UNICEF was the first 
among the International Organizations to ask the help of celebrities. Italy for 
example has the well-known Lino Banfi actor and the football player Francesco 
Totti as Goodwill Ambassadors. So if the Goodwill ambassadors are essential for 
the promotion of UNICEF and about children problems, the partnerships with 
athletes or sport’s teams seem to be great not only for UNICEF promotion but 
also for raising funds. Recently, UNICEF has begun partnerships with world- 
class athletes and teams to promote the organization’s work and to raise funds. 
On 7 September 2006, an agreement between UNICEF and the Catalan 
association football club FC Barcelona was reached whereby the club would 
donate 0.7% of its total yearly revenue to the organization for five years. That’s a 
rare agreement considering that the sponsor usually pays for the publicity the 
team but in this case it ‘s the opposite because it s the team to pay in some way 
the sponsor. In fact as part of the agreement, FC Barcelona will wear the 
UNICEF logo on the front of their shirts, which will be the first time a football 
club sponsored an organization rather than the other way around. It is also the 
first time in FC Barcelona's history that they have had another organization's 
name across the front of their shirts. Among the problems around UNICEF it is 
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that many groups, governments, and individuals have criticized UNICEF over 
the years for issues related to meet the needs of their particular group or interest. 
Recent examples include criticism of its perceived failure to fight 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. UNICEF is not an NGO, but it is an inter-governmental organization 
and so it is accountable to governments. This gives it unique with access in every 
country in the world, but may also sometimes obstacle its ability to speak out 
publicly on right violations, or to openly criticise the policies and actions of 
governments. The Catholic Church has also been critical of UNICEF, with the 
Vatican at times withdrawing its donations, because of reports by the American 
Life League and others that UNICEF has used some of those funds to finance 
sterilizations and abortions. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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1.3 WHAT UNICEF DOES 
 
In order to focus on what UNICEF does for children, I have chosen this picture 
because I think that these eyes can explain more than words can do. The main 
topics moving UNICEF in its engagement for the rights of children concern 
Protecting Children from any kind of violence, the early childhood, the child 
survival, HIV/AIDS,  the education and the Immunization. The first and the most 
important aim for UNICEF is Protecting children from violence, exploitation and 
abuse. As far as this aim is concerned UNICEF’s commitment to protect children 
is underlined in the Medium Term Strategic Plan and Child Protection Strategy. 
According to data reported in articles on child protection on the UNICEF official 
website nearly 300 million children worldwide are subjected to violence, 
exploitation and abuse including child labour in communities, schools, 
institutions and in armed conflict; moreover a large number is subjected to 
harmful practises such as female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage. In 
fact as far as conflicts are concerned there is the problem of the child soldier – 
that is any child of an army or a political cocked group, under the age of 18. As I 
read in a booklet I was given during my UNICEF course in Bari, at the moment 
there are more than 250.000 children under the age of 18 used in armed battles. 
In the last decade hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers are embedded 
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in the hostilities and used both by government armies and armed groups of 
opposition. The most of children are among 15 and 18 years old, but there are 
also a few just 10 years old and the trend is toward a lowering of age.      
Furthermore in the last years young girls are more and more in the armed battles 
taking part to the hostilities. We are talking about young girls so vulnerable  who 
are often orphans of both parents, killed during the battles,  or kidnapped during 
the incursions of rebel groups. Orphan girls tend to look for a refuge and 
protection in the armies to avoid the hard conditions of road life., but once 
enlisted, they are reduced to slavery, forced to satisfy the wishes, and also sexual 
desires, of the fighters. 
The causes of such phenomenon must be researched in the change of the war 
character because you do not attend anymore to armed conflicts among states, 
but to an explosion of internal crises in which the political and/or religious 
groups meet themselves. In this context, teenagers and children become 
powerless: they learn soon to use light arms, they obey to orders more easily than 
an adult soldier and they especially rebel less. In some cases teenagers join the 
army as volunteers; they do it to survive or to recover an identity. Boys and girls 
surviving war, besides reporting damages or mutilations , are in bad health 
conditions (aids, malnutrition, skin diseases etc.). Moreover there are 
psychological repercussions due to the fact to have been witness of, or have even 
committed, atrocities. 
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Furthermore there are social consequences: difficulty to reintegrate themselves in 
families and to start again studies often  is such an obstacle that they can t deal 
with it. Here the issue is very delicate so Unicef advocates and supports the 
creation of a protective environment for children in partnership with 
governments, national and international partner including the private sector, and 
civil society but International Community should engage and mobilize itself so 
that the military forces and the armed groups set children and teenagers under the 
age of 18 free so that they can have the opportunity to take part to specific 
programmes of social readjustment (cfr. Francesco Bottalico, Unicef booklet by 
Regional Committee _- Bari, April 2009). 
 The second aim moving UNICEF is related to early childhood, according to 
which 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. If 
children have a good start in their life, they are more likely to grow healthily, 
develop their language and learning capacities, go to school and lead a 
productive life. Yet millions of children around the world are still being denied 
the right to reach their full potential. So what UNICEF seeks to do is to give love 
, care, nutrition and protection helping them to survive, grow and develop 
considering that nearly 10 million children die before their fifth birthday each 
year and over 200 million children are not developing to their full potential. 
Another topic is Child Survival , considering that in 2007, an estimated 9.2 
million children worldwide under the age of five died from largely preventable 
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causes. Some deaths are directly caused by illness such as pneumonia, 
diarrhoea and malaria, but malnutrition, poor hygiene and lack of access to safe 
water and adequate sanitation contribute to more than half of these deaths. Two 
thirds of both neonatal and young child deaths — over 6 million deaths every 
year —  therefore are preventable.  
 UNICEF’s Medium Term Strategic Plan for 2006-2009 identifies Young Child 
Survival and Development as the first right of the child.  UNICEF works with 
governments, national and international agencies, and civil society to support 
effective and essential actions at each phase of the life cycle of the child, 
including in pregnancy, early childhood, preschool and school-going years, and 
in adolescence. (unicef/childsurvival/).  Also fundamental is UNICEF’s 
commitment for the solution of problems related to HIV/AIDS. UNICEF seeks 
to make a difference in the lives of children affected by HIV and AIDS in four 
priority areas known as the ‘Four Ps’: (1) preventing mother-to-child 
transmission (PMTCT) of HIV; (2) providing paediatric treatment; (3) preventing 
infection among adolescents and young people; and (4) protecting and supporting 
children affected by AIDS. By packaging services and implementing at scale, 
high impact and evidence-based maternal, newborn and child survival 
interventions, UNICEF can save millions of lives. By ensuring that all children 
have access to basic education and by focusing on children marginalized by 
poverty, HIV/AIDS, conflict and discrimination, UNICEF can break the cycle of 
poverty that keeps children on the brink of survival. Then Immunization 
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