United Nations International Children Emergency Fund

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) organization founded by the United Nations in 1946 to provide food, clothing, and rehabilitative programs to European children brutalized by World War II (1939-1945). In 1950 the United Nations made UNICEF responsible for improving the welfare of all children worldwide. The organization’s mission is threefold: (1) to ensure that basic nutrition, health, and education needs of children are met, (2) to give children the opportunity to expand their potential, and (3) to create an international ethical standard of behavior toward children.

Since 1950 UNICEF has focused primarily on promoting “sustainable development” in more than 140 developing nations. By providing community-based services to teach community leaders to build wells and sewage disposal systems, UNICEF has helped provide millions of children with clean drinking water and sanitary living conditions. By training educators to develop effective school programs, the agency has enabled children around the world to benefit from a primary school education. In recognition of its efforts, UNICEF received the 1965 Nobel Prize for International Peace.

UNICEF also provides a relief network for children and their parents or other caregivers in the aftermath of disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, and droughts. It has worked extensively with children from war-torn countries to help alleviate their suffering. In the United States, UNICEF has focused its work on inner-city children victimized by random violence and gang warfare.

In 1990 representatives from 158 countries, including 71 heads of state, attended UNICEF’s World Summit for Children in New York City. The summit’s action plan established worldwide goals for the health and well-being of children, to be achieved by the year 2000. These goals are: (1) to reduce by one-third the number of deaths among children under the age of 5 (more than 14 million such deaths occurred in 1990), (2) to reduce malnutrition in children under age 5 by one-half, (3) to create universal access to safe drinking water and sanitary disposal of human waste, and (4) to provide universal access to basic education.

Since the 1990 summit UNICEF has immunized millions of children against potentially fatal diseases, such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, polio, and tuberculosis. In 1996 about 80 percent of the world’s children received vaccinations, up from 20 percent in 1990. UNICEF’s promotion of basic health-care delivery systems and treatments, such as rehydration therapy for children suffering from diarrhea, has also contributed to dramatic reductions in child mortality.

UNICEF receives financial support from more than 150 national governments. Like many international aid organizations, however, UNICEF faces shrinking government subsidies for the work it performs. UNICEF’s challenge in the years ahead is to attract a greater percentage of its funding from foundations, corporations, and individuals to ensure its programs can continue.