|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
PrioritiesUNICEF 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 works 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. Education
Immunization plusImmunization 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] Child protection and well-beingUNICEF 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. In 2007, UNICEF published An Overview of child well-being in rich countries, which showed the UK and the USA at the bottom of a league of 21 economically advanced nations when it comes to overall child well-being. HIV/AIDS15 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] Early childhood
UNICEF applies a holistic, evidence-based approach to Early childhood, including the following principles:
Structure of the organizationThe heart of UNICEF's work is in the field, with staff in over 150 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 headquarters in New York. 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. Many people in industrialized countries first hear about UNICEF’s work through the activities of 37 National Committees for UNICEF. These non-governmental organizations are primarily responsible for fund raising, selling UNICEF greeting cards and products, creating private and public partnerships, advocating for children’s rights, and providing other invaluable support. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF [2] is the oldest of the National Committees, founded in 1947. UNICEF is supported entirely by voluntary funds. Governments contribute two thirds of the organization's resources; private groups and some 6 million individuals contribute the rest through the National Committees. Guiding and monitoring all of UNICEF's work is a 36-member Executive Board which 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 UNICEF Innocenti Research CentreUNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy, was established in 1988 to strengthen the research capability of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and to support its advocacy for children worldwide. The Centre, formally known as the International Child Development Centre, has as its prime objectives to improve international understanding of the issues relating to children's rights, to promote economic policies that advance the cause of children, and to help facilitate the full implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in industrialized and developing countries. The Programme for 2006-2008 was approved by UNICEF Executive Board in September 2005. It reaffirms the Centre's academic freedom and the focus of IRC's research on knowledge gaps, emerging questions and sensitive issues which are relevant to the realization of children's rights, in developing and industrialized countries. It capitalizes on IRC's role as an interface between UNICEF field experience, international experts, research networks and policy makers and is designed to strengthen the Centre's institutional collaboration with regional academic and policy institutions, pursuing the following four goals: - Generation and communication of strategic and influential knowledge on issues affecting children and the realization of their rights; - Knowledge exchange and brokering; - Support to UNICEF's advocacy, policy and programme development in support of the Millennium Agenda - Securing and strengthening the Centre's institutional and financial basis. Three interrelated strategies will guide the achievement of these goals: - Evidence-based analysis drawing on quantitative and qualitative information, the application of appropriate methodologies, and the development of recommendations to assess and inform advocacy and policy action. - Enhanced partnerships with research and policy institutions and development actors, globally and at regional level, in developing and industrialized countries. - Communication and leveraging of research findings and recommendations to support policy development and advocacy initiatives through strategic dissemination of studies and contribution to relevant events and fora.[6] Public perceptionUNICEF 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 organized world-wide fundraising drives, to fund interventions which directly benefit children. But many groups, governments, and individuals have criticized 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.[7] 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 Employment policyIn recent years UNICEF HQ in New York City has drastically decreased 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. Similar practices are found in the field. For actual staff, there are several class divisions. The "nationals" many of whom perform the same tasks as the "internationals" yet are paid drasticaly less and receive far fewer benefits. There is also a distinction between "General services" staff and "Profesional" staff which translates into a wide gap in salaries and benefits between the two groups. SponsorshipImage:Deco 21dec2006.jpg Deco wearing the shirt with the Unicef logo. 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.[8] UNICEF also struck a similar deal with Swedish club Hammarby on 4 April 2007 where the club will contribute with money and by raising funds at for example their home matches in exchange for the right to have the UNICEF logo on the front of their shirts. [9]. Hammarby and UNICEF has called it a unique partnership in Sweden which both parties are very proud of. In January 2007, UNICEF struck a partnership with Canada's national tent pegging team. The team was officially re-flagged as "UNICEF Team Canada", its riders wear UNICEF's logo in competition, and team members promote and raise funds for UNICEF's campaigns.[10] Trick-or-Treat UNICEF boxSince 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. Art in All of UsUNICEF sponsors the Art in All of Us [3] 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 poem done by a local child. See also
|
Sites |
Searched sites for "United Nations Children's Fund" |
|
No sites found. |
Sorry, no matching site records were found. |
Want your site listed here?
|
||||||||||||||
|
Submit
your site |
 |
|
Relevant quality search results and fast easy navigation throughout the
different sections of the site, make Americola.com |
