SUPPORTS WATER • SANITATION • HYGIENE
supports Water • Sanitation • Hygiene
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UNICEF - Supports Water // Sanitation // Hygiene
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Supervisor // Luis Moreira Cover design // Carlos Trancoso Layout // Carlos Trancoso Pagination // Carlos Trancoso Texts // UNICEF Cover image // JosĂŠ Ferreira Images // UNICEF // JosĂŠ Ferreira - www.joseferreira-photographer.com // Jason Wallis - www.jasonwallis.com Printed in Portugal:
2011
// Contents
Introduction 5 Global acess to water and sanitation
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Good Hygiene is critical to good health
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Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy
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A Toilet in Every Household
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Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools
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WASH in Emergencies
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WASH, Environment and Climate Change
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Scaling up WASH
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Leading the UN mission for children!
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Celebrating 20 years of advancements in children’s rights
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Making The best investment in human development
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Life free from aids
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Emergency Response Operations
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Timely data making a difference to child survival
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Index
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Introduction UNICEF’s long-standing support to improving water supply, sanitation and hygiene stems from a firm conviction, based on evidence, that these are central to ensuring the rights of children to survive, grow and develop into healthy and fulfilled citizens of the world. In the broader context, UNICEF’s activities in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While progress in water supply and sanitation is generally tracked through MDG target 7c – to halve, by 2015, the roportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation – the contribution WASH makes to other MDG targets, particularly related to child mortality, disease reduction, primary education, environmental sustainability, gender equality and poverty reduction, is clearly recognized. The strong link with child mortality in particular is one reason why UNICEF, in its Medium Term Strategic Plan, has included WASH as a key component of a cross-sectoral package of high-impact interventions, ogether with health, nutrition, and HIV/AIDS, to achieve rapid progress in child survival and development. This strong focus on child survival and development is an organizational priority and, as such, has led to the strengthening of the WASH component of UNICEF country programmes and renewed advocacy on intersectoral linkages with Governments and other partners.
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GLOBAL ACCESS TO WATER AND SANITATION Since 1990, 1.6 billion people have gained access to safe drinking water and 1.1 billion have gained access to improved sanitation facilities. There has been a great deal of investment and notable progress has been made. However, the global community is still unlikely to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target; to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water1 and basic sanitation. The number of people who continue to suffer from a lack of access to improved water and sanitation is still far too high. The figures are well known: More than 2.5 billion people, or 38 per cent of the world’s population, lack adequate sanitation facilities. Almost one billion people still use unsafe drinking water sources.
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UNICEF’s long history of practical support to water supply in particular, dating back to the early 1960’s, has given us a unique position of trust with our government partners in the countries in which we work. Our partners know that they can rely on UNICEF to work with them in a pragmatic and supportive manner.
Sources of Drinking Water The JMP also reports marked improvements in water supply coverage between 1990 and 2006, resulting from improved advocacy and increased commitment from the global community during that timeframe. However, rural access to improved drinking water sources remains low. Of the global population using unimproved sources of drinking water, 84 per cent are rural inhabitants (746 million people). In urban areas there is some concern that coverage is not keeping pace with urban population growth. From 1990 to 2006 the world’s urban population grew by 956 million people, whereas use of an improved water supply in urban areas grew by only 926 million, i.e. 30 million fewer. No Water supply // Sudan. Photographed by Jason Wallis.
GLOBAL ACCESS TO WATER AND SANITATION
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Good Hygiene is Critical to Good Health Access to improved water and sanitation facilities does not, on its own, necessarily lead to improved health. Evidence shows that handwashing with soap is the single most effective WASH intervention for reducing diarrhoea, the second leading cause of death amongst children under five years old. Good handwashing practices have also been shown to reduce the incidence2 of other diseases, notably pneumonia and other respiratory diseases, trachoma, scabies, and skin and eye infections. The promotion of hand-washing with soap is also a key strategy for controlling the spread of Avian Influenza. Community awareness of the importance of handwashing can be quite high, however the challenge is to establish handwashing as a routine practice performed in homes, schools and communities worldwide. The key to increasing handwashing with soap is to motivate behavioural change through a variety of processes.
2 Handwashing with Soap is among the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrhoeal diseases and pneumonia, which together account for 3.5 million child deaths annually.
Moรงambique // Maputo. Photographed by Jose Ferreira.
Multi-media campaigns, community participation and facilitation, peer-to-peer education techniques, life skills based hygiene lessons for school children, and the encouragement of children to demonstrate good hygiene to their families and communities are some of the components of UNICEF’s hygiene promotion programmes. Involvement in hygiene promotion activities can provide basic life skills that help women and children build their confidence and become empowered in other areas of their lives.
prevent diseases
3.5 million deaths
GOOD HyGIENE IS CRITICAL TO GOOD HEALTH
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Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy In its work in water, sanitation and hygiene, UNICEF delivers longterm results by working closely with developing country governments, bilateral agencies, NGOs, the private sector, communities and households. Our global WASH strategy aims to maximize the impact and sustainability of our own interventions and the efforts of the sector as a whole. UNICEF’s WASH Strategy was approved in 2006 and is valid up to 2015, the target year of the MDGs. The Strategy has two key targets: achievement of the MDG targets for water supply and sanitation, and ensuring all schools have adequate water and sanitation facilities and hygiene education programmes. The Strategy sets out three key areas of intervention, which together lead to the achievement of enhanced child survival and development, namely: • Enabling Environments: ensuring policy, capacity, a viable private sector, partnerships and decentralized management are all in place to facilitate sustainable access to water and sanitatio. • Behaviour Change: supporting the improvement of sustained hygiene, water safety and environmental sanitation practices by users. • Water and Sanitation Services: greater choice and use of safe and reliable water supplies and clean, private sanitation facilities in households, communities and schools.
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UNICEF is putting a high priority on building up its WASH programmes in 60 countries with high child mortality and low WASH coverage. These countries are mainly in Africa, South Asia and East Asia. WASH activities also continue to take place in another 36 countries, for a total of 96 country WASH programmes.
Partnerships Within the United Nations system, UNICEF works with sister agencies on a variety of programming collaborations. The UN Water inter-agency mechanism is promoting more coherent approaches particularly at the global level. At the country level, UNICEF programming takes place within the context of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and, increasingly, the ‘One UN’ initiative. UNICEF also collaborates particularly closely with the Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP), the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
No Water supply // Sudan. Photographed by Jason Wallis.
WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE STRATEGY
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A toILEt In EvEry HouSEHoLd In recent years, a number of organizations have introduced various community-based approaches to achieving sanitation improvement. These include the Total Sanitation approach led by the Government in India, School-Led Total Sanitation (SLTS) in Nepal, and Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in several countries, including India, Bangladesh and Zambia. These approaches focus on the elimination of open defecation in the community, developing an understanding in the community that poor sanitation affects everyone, and that a collective approach is required. Through such initiatives, communities have been able to achieve remarkable progress with very limited external support, including the elimination of direct hardware subsidies to households. UNICEF believes that the best approach to achieve open-defecation-free communities will vary from country to country, depending on the conditions and culture. Based on the experiences to-date with the various communitybased approaches, UNICEF has developed a set of basic principles for Community Approaches to Total Sanitation (CATS). Using these principles, sanitation programmes can be tailored to the specific context in a particular country. UNICEF is using this approach to support sanitation programmes in some 30 countries続 in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Worldwide application of these community approaches has the potential to transform the rate of progress in sanitation and bring the MDG sanitation target within reach. UNICEF is now working closely with governments and other partners in many countries to mainstream the approach and make real impact at scale. To stimulate a rapid but sustainable expansion in national sanitation programmes, UNICEF helps government partners establish appropriate enabling environments including progressive poli-
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how it is
possible...
続 Improved sanitation will contribute to the prevention of the 1.75 million child deaths due to diarrhoea each year. Sanitation also contributes to reducing malnutrition in children, improves the quality of life anddignity of girls and women, protects the environment, and generates economic benefits for communities and nations.
cies, strategies, funding mechanisms and enhanced institutional capacity. Our advocacy work is based on documented evidence that sanitation programmes can be successfully implemented, can be scaled-up and can make a difference in people’s lives. Building up the evidence base is being done in partnership with key sector institutions, in a variety of country studies and applied research initiatives. For example, in South Asia we are studying how water and sanitation in schools impacts the inclusion of children who belong to groups perceived as being socially ‘unclean’, including menstruating girls, and children with communicable diseases. Moçambique // Maputo. Large dumps transmit serious diseases. Photographed by Jose Ferreira.
Technological Innovation Many toilets are too small to be easily used by disabled people, who often require an attendant to assist them. Further, as many disabled people cannot stand, the standard squat plates used in many countries pose significant hygiene problems, as there is no clean area for the person to sit. UNICEF works with governments, NGOs, schools and communities to address the challenges faced by the disabled. During the reconstruction following the Yogyakarta earthquake in Indonesia, UNICEF worked with German NGO Arche noVa to build 90 wheelchair-accessible latrines. Currently in India, UNICEF is developing a practical manual for the construction of disabled-friendly toilets for schools, which will be adopted by state governments.
A TOILET IN EVERY HOUSEHOLD
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Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools Inadequate water supply and sanitation facilities in schools, not only are a health hazard, but also affect school attendance, retention and educational performance. Reliable data showing the global coverage of water supply and sanitation facilities in schools is not available. However the limited data collected in a few countries in Africa and Asia has found that adequate facilities exist in maybe less than one third of schools4. Field experience in most UNICEF programmes tends to support this view. The target of ensuring that all schools have adequate child-friendly water supply and sanitation facilities and hygiene education programmes by 2015 is the second key target of UNICEF’s Global WASH Strategy. The target has also been endorsed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development and by the Commission forSustainable Development.
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4 In some of the world’s most forgotten and chronic humanitarian crises, UNICEF continues to provide support both for reconstruction of physical WASH facilities as well as the rebuilding of national sector institutions and scarce human resource capacity.
By the end of 2007, UNICEF was supporting WASH-inschools activities in 86 countries in all regions where we work, double the number of countries in 2002. In 2007 alone, we helped to equip a total of 12,588 schools with water and/or sanitation facilities, benefiting an estimated 3.6 million school children. Together with our partners, and with the participation of children themselves, we also help to develop locallyappropriate child-friendly toilet and handwashing facility designs that incorporate key criteria such as privacy and security for girls and user-friendliness for smaller children. In particular, in Malawi and Kenya, UNICEF is working with school girls on the design of appropriate urinals. These can be a cheap and effective way of increasing the number of facilities available to girls during recess. UNICEF supports the strengthening of WASH-in-schools, though provision of facilities, planning and development of operation and maintenance systems with school management committees and local communities, training of teachers, and hygiene promotion for teachers and children.
IS vEry ImportAnt In ScHooL hygiene, for a good study
WATER, SANITATION AND HyGIENE IN SCHOOLS
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WASH in Emergencies Humanitarian emergencies, be they rapid onset, chronic, natural or man-made, inevitably cause disruption to basic services. People are less likely to be able to drinksafe water, use basic sanitation facilities and maintain improved hygiene practices. In recent times this has been experienced even in developed countries, for example during the 2007 floods in England and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, USA. Children, especially those under the age of five, are particularly vulnerable to the diseases which can result during emergencies. These diseases include diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid, respiratory infections, skin and eyeinfections, which are all likely to occur when water supplies and sanitation services are disrupted. UNICEF has a major role to play in responding to emergencies. Our focus is on protecting and assisting children and women, ensuring that their rights arefulfilled even under emergency conditions. In its Core Commitments for Children in Emergencies, UNICEF has set out minimum standards of response for any emergency situation. These describe the life-saving actions which UNICEF will take within the first six-to-eight weeks ofan emergency, along with the longer-term role in the subsequent weeks and months. Responding to water supply, sanitation and hygiene needs is a key component of the Commitments. Given our long-standing presence in a large number of countries in the world, together with our long experience of supporting water, sanitation and hygiene activities, UNICEF is uniquely placed to support the WASH sector response to any emergency.
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In recent years UNICEF has seen the number and scale of emergency WASH interventions increase significantly, to a point where the expenditure on emergency response makes up more than 40% of UNICEF’s total global expenditure on WASH. Recent responses have included the 2004 Tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the South Asia floods of 2007, as well as chronic emergencies in Darfur, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In North Sudan, UNICEF has worked closely with sector partners to tackle the recurring problem of cholera and acute watery diarrhoea (AWD). The partnership instituted a programme of improved chlorination of water supplies, hygiene education and ensuring availability of supplies and capacity to respond quickly to any outbreak. As a result, the number of cholera/AWD cases significantly reduced from 9,973 cases in 2006 to 335 cases in 2008 and number of deaths from 362 to 16 in the same period. The results have been even better in Darfur, where no cholera or acute watery diarrhoea cases were reported in 2007 and 2008, despite the difficult working conditions. This result has been made possible through continuous advocacy with the government, a coordinated response by all sector partners, coordination between health and WASH sectors, and timely funding from donors and government.
WASH IN EMERGENCIES
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WASH, Environment and Climate Change Enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the right of children to have access to a safe physical environment. Ensuring environmental sustainability is one of the Millennium Development. UNICEF works to ensure its activities are implemented in an environmentally sustainable manner, and we are committed to integrating environmental considerations in both our development and emergency programming. Climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the global community, and will have a worldwide effect on water sustainability, which in turn will impact child health and wellbeing. Water stress and water scarcity will occur due to changes in the seasonal rain and snow patterns, coupled with increased demand due to continued population growth. There is emerging evidence that climate-induced changes in temperature and precipitation patterns will increase water-related infectious diseases, especially diarrhoeal diseases. In addition, there is already evidence that climate change is resulting in rising sea levels, increased cyclonic activity, and increased intensity and frequency of floods and droughts. These outcomes add urgency to UNICEF’s mandate to address the water, sanitation and hygiene needs of the vulnerable. We see our actions falling into several categories: Control of diarrhoeal diseases – already a foundation of UNICEF’s work in WASH, this takes on even more significance in the face of predictions that diarrhoeal disease may become more widespread. Safe water, adequate sanitation and good hygiene practices will be vital to protect communities.
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Emergency preparedness and response – will become even more important in the light of increasing occurrences and greater severity of natural disasters, such as floods and cyclones. Attention to water sustainability issues – water extraction must consider current and potential water stress, and sanitation must be planned to protect water bodies from contamination. UNICEF is developing ways to include these considerations in all WASH programming. This has particular significance for UNICEF, as much of our programming has, in the past, been based on groundwater. We must be especially sensitive to the sustainable use of this resource. Adaptation strategies – predictions of increased rainfall variability open up new opportunities for costeffective, efficient and sustainable water technologies, such as rainwater harvesting and storage through roof catchment and artificial recharge of aquifers. Reducing carbon footprint – long term mitigation will mean adoption of new solutions in the water sector to reduce environmental impact and energy dependency on water resources. Water lifting technology such as solar and wind pumps offer new options which UNICEF is investigating.
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Water is not available for all; bad Water kills more children than war.
Scaling up WASH
5 UNICEF’s long-term position as a trusted partner of government gives us a unique position to support scaling up WASH.
Despite the real progress made, the world is still likely to miss the MDG target for sanitation. Sub Saharan Africa is off-track for both the MDG water and sanitation targets. And even if the targets are met, millions of people will still be without access to improved facilities in 2015. Thus it is imperative that progress is made more quickly, and on a larger scale, than is currently being achieved. UNICEF’s long-term5 position as a trusted partner of government gives us a unique position to influence the adoption of policies and strategies which lead to sustainable solutions for WASH at scale. With the right blend of internal capacity and vibrant partnerships, UNICEF programmes can make a difference to the pace of progress.
Accelerating and Scaling up Coverage The WASH sector is vast with numerous government, NGO, multilateral, donor and private sector actors. Our strategy emphasises cooperation – working to create partners out of stakeholders. Only when we work together in a coordinated manner, utilizing all comparative advantages, can we comprehensively address the problems at hand and at the scale necessary. Thus, in all our country programmes we engage in sector-wide processes and aim to work in accordance with the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. UNICEF also places particular importance on coordination with our UN sister agencies, through processes such as the UNDAF (United Nations Development Assistance Framework) and the ‘One UN’ initiative.
SCALING UP WASH
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Tailoring Programmes to the Needs of Each Country The translation of the UNICEF Global WASH Strategy into action-oriented WASH programmes in the countries in which UNICEF works depends on the individual national context, including recognition of sub-national variations and disparities. In each country UNICEF goes through a country programme planning process with government partners and key sector stakeholders, to determine how best UNICEF can bring added value to the sector. In some countries, especially where government capacity is limited, UNICEF might take more of a role in management of implementation of major water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion programmes. In other cases, UNICEF’s focus might be more towards the facilitation of sectorwide approaches and sector policy development.
Providing the Required Capacity UNICEF employs over 400 WASH professionals worldwide. The vast majority – over 90 percent – are based in country offices. They are supported by a network of regional and headquarters senior WASH staff who provide advice and direction on policy and strategy. WASH staff are also guided by country office management teams who help to ensure that WASH programmes are in line with the overall strategic direction of UNICEF and contribute effectively to country programmes of support for children. To respond to the changing nature of the WASH sector, and UNICEF’s role within it, we need to ensure that we have the right staff with the right skills at all levels. We are responding to this challenge by carefully planning external recruitment, training existing staff in new approaches, improving career pathways for national staff, and exploring partnerships with relevant organisations to access staff with particular expertise.
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Funding our WASH Programmes We are working in more countries than ever before, our programmes within countries are expanding and our expenditure levels are increasing. In 2007, we supported WASH activities in 96 countries, the most ever. WASH expenditure has grown steadily over the years and now exceeds US$300 million annually. The bulk of these funds come from our donor partners (including bilateral agencies, UNICEF national committees and others). Despite the recent significant increase in overall funding to UNICEF WASH programmes, about half the priority countries are unable to implement the full strategy due to inadequate funding. Our efforts continue to obtain the financial resources needed to support the necessary WASH programmes in all our priority countries.
SCALING UP WASH
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Leading the UN mission for children! In 2009, celebrations around the world marked the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Ratified by more nations than any other human rights treaty in history, this landmark international agreement sets forth commitments to children that have transformed a generation of policies and programmes. Marked advances in child survival, development, protection and participation have been the result. Since its adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations, the CRC has guided UNICEF’s mission for children. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is the other essential reference point. As the only UN development and humanitarian agency wholly dedicated to children – assisting more than 150 countries and territories – UNICEF works closely with national and international stakeholders to mobilize broad support for the realization of all children’s rights, as embodied in these two treaties. The achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is central to this process. The MDGs encapsulate the basic building blocks of human development. They aim to ensure that young children survive and develop through adequate health care and nutrition; that quality education is available to all; that prevention and care limit the spread of HIV and AIDS; that people can access clean water and basic sanitation; and that partnerships are forged to advance development and benefit the lives of children.
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As the international community approached the 10-year review of progress towards the MDGs, advances could be seen through 2009 in reducing child mortality, increasing the number of children in school and expanding supplies of clean water. Progress has been slower for extending sanitation services to rural areas and reducing the number of women who die in childbirth. Investments in health continue to be fragmented and ineffective in parts of the world. And there are still gaping disparities in progress across and within countries. UNICEF’s human rights approach shines consistent light on disparities, and it is reflected in campaigns to provide immunizations for all children, end pockets of child malnutrition and ensure that quality education starts from preschool. Collecting and analysing information on the situation of children is a part of these efforts, and UNICEF has become one of the largest sources of data for measuring MDG progress and shortfalls.
The global downturn is a call for action The importance of UNICEF’s mission for children was underscored in 2009, as the insidious effects of food insecurity and the economic downturn spread, while conflict and natural disasters devastated many parts of the globe. Hardest hit by economic fallout have been poor households and children in the low- and middle-income countries in which UNICEF operates. The World Bank estimates that 130 million people were pushed into extreme poverty; another 64 million more people than would be expected without the economic shocks could join their ranks in 2010. The downturn is putting enormous pressure on public and private resources, which may lead to reduced foreign aid from developed countries. Many developing countries may likewise be forced to
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tighten spending on human development investments, including for health care and education, which are fundamental to children’s rights. Household budgets for food and other necessities have shrunk, forcing some parents to send their children to work instead of school. Some evidence suggests, moreover, that social and economic disparities could widen along the lines of income, gender and geographical location, increasing inequality and undermining stability. While economic growth rates are expected to improve in 2010, the unusual depth of the recession is predicted to continue to depress employment and government revenues in poor countries. These challenges have arisen in already difficult times. Climate change poses threats to children and development, as natural disasters increase, global food security falters and access to water becomes more precarious. Rapid urbanization has brought half the world’s population into cities and strained basic services. Demographic shifts are producing the largest cohort of young people in history. According to the World Bank, in 2007, 1.3 billion of the world’s 1.5 billion people 12–24 years old were living in developing countries. These trends come when the world could be building on decades of accomplishment for children and development; the strides being made towards achieving the MDGs are a recent example. Policymakers – whether working on legislation, social investments, macroeconomic strategies or budget allocations – are increasingly recognizing the centrality of children’s rights to sustainable human development planning. New and accessible technologies are making a difference in everything from better vaccines to rapid data collection, which adds value to social services.
LEADING THE UN MISSION FOR CHILDREN!
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Coordinated responses to complex challenges For UNICEF, the challenges and opportunities in the world today are a clarion call to renew and extend commitments to children. As is evident in this Annual Report, the organization has done much during the past year to strengthen its capacities to achieve results for children. It has sharpened its programmes and streamlined the business processes that underpin them. It has drawn on UN General Assembly guidelines and the Paris Declaration6 on Aid Effectiveness to most effectively marshal human and financial resources and better assist countries in making sustainable, far-reaching development gains. Tackling today’s complex development concerns requires people and organizations to work together. The UN system, with its rich reserves of experience in all aspects of development, has made systematic progress throughout the past several years in integrating and coordinating the efforts of its different branches. Towards this end, UNICEF has played a leading role in increasing coordination among UN development and humanitarian organizations, starting with its active involvement in the One UN pilot country programmes in eight countries.
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6 Working together, UNICEF and these organizations have finalized a system to monitor and report on education and begun focused advocacy to urge countries to sign and implement the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. With only five years left to achieve the MDGs, coordinated partnerships mean that people can act fast and act large.
As the most comprehensive form of UN coordination, the pilots cover all UN activities in a given country (see panel), while adhering to the principle that “no one size fits all.� Each pilot is closely tailored to the priorities of individual nations. In 2009, 85 per cent of UNICEF country programmes were aligned with a United Nations Development Assistance Framework, up from 76 per cent the previous year. The Framework, decided in each country in close consultation with national partners, outlines a set of common development results that UN agencies seek to achieve in their individual programmes. A growing number of country offices have also embarked on UN joint programmes targeting specific development issues. UNICEF country offices took part in 231 of these initiatives in 2009, an increase from the total 190 joint programmes reported in 2008.
Good hygiene is critical to health! The conditions of some civilizations.
LEADING THE UN MISSION FOR CHILDREN!
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UNICEF also advanced UN harmonization on the global level in 2009 by extending its medium-term strategic plan to correspond with time frames at two sister UN agencies, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). A further extension to 2013 was made to coincide with changes in the timeline for the review of all UN development agencies reporting to the UN General Assembly. New programming guidelines for UN Country Teams stressed alignment with national systems and links to the MDGs. Interagency work on simplifying and harmonizing business practices established common information technology platforms, strengthened staff security, defined management standards and agreed on common procurement guidelines. Globally, more than 80 per cent of UNICEF supplies are now procured in collaboration with other UN agencies. In more than 100 countries, UN offices share at least one common service, such as banking. The imperative of protecting investments in women and children in the face of the global economic downturn led UNICEF, in 2009, to coordinate responses with two other multilateral partners – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. UNICEF and IMF set up channels for closer engagement on monetary and fiscal policies with implications for children around the globe. Collaboration with the World Bank on health, education and social protection schemes brings UNICEF expertise to decisions on scaling up bank resources to confront economic crisis. An agreement on procurement services for bank projects is under way to channel up to $400 million in additional resources to support children in 14 countries. Regional multilateral organizations are also important collaborators. In Africa, the UNICEF Liaison Office to the African Union and The suffering of children.
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the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa was formally established in 2009. Working together, UNICEF and these organizations have finalized a system to monitor and report on education and begun focused advocacy to urge countries to sign and implement the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. With only five years left to achieve the MDGs, coordinated partnerships mean that people can act fast and act large. For children, who face lifelong consequences if their rights are not realized, this can make a world of difference.
LEADING THE UN MISSION FOR CHILDREN!
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Celebrating 20 years of advancements in children’s rights Even as, in November 2009, the international children’s rights movement looked back across 20 years, the continued power of the CRC’s core principles to motivate far-reaching commitments was evident. The anniversary served as a platform for Angola to incorporate child rights in a review of its Constitution; UNICEF also assisted a special session of Parliament by bringing in an expert from the Brazilian Parliament to advise on child-friendly provisions. In Rwanda, at the Fifth Children’s Summit, President Paul Kagame announced the creation of a Children’s Commission to stop violence against children. The Summit is a UNICEF-supported innovation that, each year, allows hundreds of children from across Rwanda to express their ideas to the highest national officials. In Georgia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, parliaments chose to partner with UNICEF in creating child rights councils to monitor implementation of the CRC. UNICEF worked with the Government of Nicaragua to establish a national strategy to combat violence against children and supported efforts in Mauritania on child rights (see panel on page 8). To reinforce the messages of the Convention to a global audience, UNICEF’s flagship report, The State of the World’s Children, was devoted to examining the CRC’s evolution and demonstrating how its promise can be extended to touch the lives of all children. The report underscored the timeless relevance and profound influence of the most widely endorsed human rights treaty in history.
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The influence of the Convention’s two Optional Protocols was also felt in 2009. Nearly 140 countries are a Party to the Optional Protocol on stopping the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. The Philippines, by early 2009, had not completely fulfilled its obligation to bring domestic legislation into compliance, particularly on child pornography. Building on widely disseminated research that revealed a lack of social awareness of the threat of child pornography, UNICEF joined government, nongovernmental and corporate partners in launching two campaigns advocating legislation against child pornography: ‘Silence Is Acceptance’ and ‘Action Speaks Louder than Words’. Media coverage drove home the campaigns’ messages to the general public. These efforts bore fruit in November when the Philippines passed its first Anti-Child-Pornography Act.
trAffIc of cHILdrEn
Trafficking of children for forced labor and pornography.
CELEBRATING 20 yEARS OF ADVANCEMENTS IN CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
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The law takes an important stand against abuses fuelled by the Internet and the growth of child pornography rings across the world. Further international support for the other Optional Protocol, on children in armed conflict, came in 2009 through UN Security Council Resolution 1882. The resolution tightens monitoring of violations of children’s rights in conflict and establishes triggers for actions to stop them. UNICEF provided technical expertise to Council members as part of its advocacy for the resolution, which was unanimously adopted. An existing mechanism to track grave violations against children in armed conflict, set up under an earlier Security Council resolution, will be expanded, having already been applied in 14 countries. Advocacy has led to the release of children from armed groups – more than 12,600 children in 9 countries have been freed. Extended criteria will now be used to track violations by revealing incidences of maiming, killing, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children.
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Translating principles into practice The CRC is based on four guiding principles: nondiscrimination; best interests of the child; right to life, survival and development; and respect for children’s views. In 2009, UNICEF continued its mission to advance the application of these principles in children’s lives. Ecuador moved to correct disparities stemming from discrimination in its education system, for example, by finalizing the first part of its intercultural bilingual education programme, sponsored by the Government of Finland. UNICEF worked with researchers and teachers from indigenous communities to develop curricula, educational materials and guides for teachers that fully reflect the diverse languages and cultural norms of the nine distinct indigenous communities of the country’s Amazon region. These activities will reach children previously excluded from the formal education system. To respond to the specific needs of children with disabilities – who are less likely to be in school than other children – UNICEF, in partnership with the Government of Australia, developed a special module for the Child-Friendly Schools programme, now established in all seven regions in which UNICEF supports programmes. The module will help make education for this group of children more accessible and of higher quality. In Ukraine, the Government is using the DevInfo data system devised with UNICEF assistance to monitor a major new national plan for children that significantly boosts health-care funds for children with disabilities. A strong commitment to children being able to develop was made when, with UNICEF support, five municipalities in Morocco became Child-Friendly Cities in 2009. The global Child-Friendly Cities initiative puts the CRC at the centre of local governance. Participating municipalities integrate children’s rights in policies, laws,
Celebrating 20 years OF ADVANCEMENTS IN CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
37
programmes and budgets, and actively invite youth to be part of public policy decisions. Morocco became the first African country to join the initiative. Encouraging more people to consider the best interests of children often starts with communication and knowledge to improve understanding. In Turkey, UNICEF directed its attention to a formative source of social attitudes – journalists – by working with seven universities in 2009 to integrate a child rights syllabus into their communications studies curricula. Developed through a partnership between the Dublin Institute of Technology and UNICEF, with input from the BBC, the syllabus represents one of the first opportunities for communications students to study human rights. As part of the training, students work directly with children on reporting stories. This approach has already caught on in neighbouring countries: universities in Georgia and Romania have plans to introduce the syllabus in 2010.
Children heard in 2009 Children’s right to have their views heard and to participate in decisions that affect them took on new urgency in 2009 through events galvanized by the economic and financial crises as well as international climate change negotiations (see panel on page 10). At the fifth Junior 8 meeting, supported by UNICEF to coincide with the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Italy, 14 of the 54 young people attending gathered to address Heads of State and Government. Their presence underscored the accountability of states in upholding human rights, which includes listening and responding to the diverse perspectives of their citizens. Youth representatives came from the G8 developed countries, plus Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico and South Africa. Together, they developed recommenda-
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7
Advocate for the protection of children’s rights, help meet their basic needs and expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.
tions for actions by leaders on climate change, the financial crisis, African development and education. One key message was that a time of crisis is not an excuse to overlook children’s rights – since children will live with the consequences of any decisions made for decades to come. Compiled in the Rome Declaration, the recommendations were presented to leaders of the G8 as a whole. Other initiatives brought young people into national political processes. The first ‘Adolescents and Youth Forum’ held in Kazakhstan was the result of collaboration between the Government and UNICEF. More than 2,500 young people, Government officials and representatives of civil society, the private sector and media gathered to consider actions on eight priority concerns, as identified by young people. These pertained to education, health services, healthy lifestyles, employment, psychosocial issues, stigma and discrimination, and leisure. In Namibia, the ‘Listen Loud’ campaign supported by UNICEF captured the ‘votes’ of youth through mobile phones – a low-cost, easily accessible method of communication. Votes were collected through free calls made to an interactive voice response7 system, tailored with three different language options. For five weeks before the national elections in 2009, and coinciding with the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Convention, 20,000 young people defined their priorities in health, education and child protection, attracting wide media coverage. Children in Namibia have typically found limited opportunities to express themselves. ‘Listen Loud’ confirmed that they have much to say – and that adults will listen. The results of the campaign are being compiled into recommendations on child-friendly policies to be taken up by newly elected parliamentarians.
Celebrating 20 years OF ADVANCEMENTS IN CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
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MAKING The best investment in human development Children’s rights are integral to UNICEF’s mandate and the broader achievement of human development. Vibrant, thriving societies emerge when people have unfettered capacities to pursue long, healthy and creative lives. Children are the foundation of this vision of development – investing in them produces some of the highest economic and social returns. Around the world, the programmes supported by UNICEF help countries ensure that all girls and boys are nourished, healthy, educated, protected from harm and empowered to contribute to making choices that affect their lives. In 2009, the organization made progress on all of these fronts, despite the global economic situation.
Thriving in the earliest years A pillar of UNICEF’s work is fostering the survival and development of young children, from a mother’s pregnancy through the first years of childhood. This is the time when deficiencies in health and nutrition pose particular dangers, given the potential for lasting mental and physical harm. UNICEF contributes to interventions aimed at reducing under-five mortality rates through proper nutrition, immunizations, quality health care, and clean water and sanitation to curb diseases. Improving health systems and services is central to enhancing child and maternal health. Partnering with Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population, UNICEF supports a programme operating in four underprivileged governorates to strengthen the paediatric and neonatal skills of local health providers and establish community information systems on child health and nutrition. According to data from local health facilities, between 2007 and 2009 better knowledge and higher service quality have increased the use of these facilities by 27 per cent, while
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under-five child mortality rates have declined. In addition, changes in family feeding practices have contributed to a sharp drop in the number of malnourished children. In India, where stunting afflicts almost half of all children under age 5, UNICEF has assisted with the rollout of national standards that guide efforts to reduce the prevalence of this condition, especially among children from socially excluded groups. In the state of Madhya Pradesh, almost all relevant local officials have been trained in the standards. The tracking and weighing of children – crucial to the detection of stunting – have increased in the state of Maharashtra, from 65 per cent in 2008 to 85 per cent in 2009.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
MAKING The best INVESTMENT IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
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A healthy start UNICEF helps national partners conduct child health weeks that reach large numbers of children, including in rural areas where they otherwise have little access to health services. At one go, children typically receive immunizations, nutritional screening and supplements, and deworming. Their caregivers may also learn about hygiene and be offered HIV testing and counselling. In 2009, UNICEF supported South Africa in holding its first National Child Health Week for providing a combination of vitamin A supplementation, deworming, catch-up immunizations and growth monitoring. In all, 3.3 million children were reached – 81 per cent of children between 1 through 4 years of age. Previously, only 39 per cent of children this age received vitamin A supplements, according to the Department of Health. UNICEF is a major partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and actively contributes to programmes in the four countries where polio remains endemic: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. In Afghanistan, UNICEF worked with the Ministry of Public Health and WHO in 2009 to deploy locally recruited staff and health workers in a successful push to provide around 7.5 million children with polio vaccines. Training groups of local women to inform other women in their communities about the importance of polio immunization contributed to high turnout during the campaign. Sustained advocacy among traditional and religious leaders in Nigeria led to 3 million immunizations among children in 2009.
The number of polio cases in Nigeria’s northern states, which are most affected by the disease, was the lowest ever reported. Other vaccines are also essential. After the measles and rubella vaccine was introduced into the national immunization schedule in Tajikistan, UNICEF supported a mass immunization campaign in 2009, reaching more than 2.2 million children between the ages of 1 and 14. The Government agreed to a 30 per cent boost in public funds for vaccines; immunization coverage reached record levels. In Iraq, UNICEF helped conduct an emergency vaccination campaign to stop a severe measles outbreak that had spiralled into 30,000 cases. In four provinces, more than 600,000 children under five were immunized in 10 days, with only two cases subsequently reported. In Burundi, where UNICEF had provided vaccines and supported immunization, a survey conducted by the organization in 2008 and 2009 found no new cases of neonatal or maternal tetanus, which were then declared to have been eliminated.
Life free from AIDS UNICEF advocacy has contributed to driving children’s issues towards the centre of national and international efforts to combat HIV and AIDS (see panel on page 14). A generation of children living free from AIDS is now possible to imagine, as noted in the 2009 Children and AIDS: Fourth stocktaking report produced by UNICEF. Throughout the year, considerable international attention was given to preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Collaboration with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) led to a boost in funding for accelerated actions in the 10 countries with the highest burden of HIV among pregnant women. In Mozambique, by the end of 2009, UNICEF was supporting nearly half of the 744 service sites equipped to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In four regions of Russia, UNICEF assisted in establishing a model of comprehensive medical and social services for those pregnant women and new mothers most vulnerable to HIV; transmission rates subsequently dropped below the national average. Diagnosing infections as early as possible can save the lives of infants. In Eastern and Southern Africa, UNICEF is helping to intensify efforts to improve follow- up care for infants exposed to HIV. Collaboration between UNICEF and national partners in Swaziland to address early infant diagnosis led to conducting local laboratory tests for the first time in 2009. This involved training for health-care workers on how to manage paediatric AIDS.
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•numBEr of HiV vIctImS In AfrIcA •IS ALmoSt EQUAL to tHE BLaCK DeatH In mEdIEvAL EuropE!
South Africa: A mother’s gift of life, not HIV South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV prevalence in the world; AIDS is the leading cause of death among the country’s people. Without systematic interventions, a significant number of HIVpositive women transmit the virus to their children before, during or after birth. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), while HIV prevalence in adults has stabilized in South Africa, there is no evidence that infections among pregnant women accessing public health services are declining: More than 29 per cent tested HIV-positive in 2008. These troubling statistics fuelled UNICEF advocacy for expanding efforts to reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission during the formulation of South Africa’s 2007–2011 National Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS. The plan subsequently adopted the goal of universal prevention and care for women and children, aiming to bring mother-to-child transmission rates to below 5 per cent by 2011. National guidelines were also revised to encompass more comprehensive drug regimes, provider-initiated testing and early infant diagnosis. Since then, UNICEF has assisted the Government in implementing the plan by expanding services known to have immediate impact. Active monitoring of mother-baby pairs through community health centres has become routine and new laboratory equipment is S in place to detect HIV in infants. By 2009, all districts and hospitals and more than 90 per cent of primary health care facilities were also providing a full package of services to prevent mother-to-child transmission, either directly or by referral. With the additional support of the UK’s Department for International Development and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, UNICEF helped
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UNICEF - SUPPORTS WATER // SANITATION // HyGIENE
develop district plans targeted at curbing transmission rates in 16 districts, of which 14 are high-prevalence sites. Nationally, nearly three-quarters of pregnant women with HIV are now receiving medication to reduce transmission risks. Two-thirds of around 100,000 children under age 15 in need were receiving anti-retroviral therapy in 2009, according to a government mid-year estimate. Today, South Africa as a whole is on track to cut transmission rates in half to meet its 2010 target, as agreed at the UN’s landmark 2001 Special Session on HIV and AIDS. New policies announced in 2009 aim to further prevent transmission by lowering thresholds for access to medication. Another part of accelerating the uptake of new services has been convincing people to use them. To complement its other initiatives, UNICEF collaborated with advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi on a mass-media ad campaign that openly confronted stigmas surrounding HIV and AIDS and raised awareness of health-care options. It reached an estimated 19 million people nationwide. With more people coming to clinics, more young lives in South Africa can be saved. Children infected with HIV.
LIFE FREE FROM AIDS
47
There are opportunities to use proven prevention strategies in all epidemic contexts In countries with generalized epidemics (a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti and Papua New Guinea), there are opportunities to foster an environment that will encourage healthy attitudes and behaviours, ensure greater gender equality and allow protection against vulnerability to take root and become the new norm. This is particularly important8 for young women and girls, who in these countries are at greater risk of HIV infection than young men and boys. Here, the same social norms that tolerate domestic violence also prevent women from refusing unwanted sexual advances, negotiating safe sex or criticizing a male partner’s infi delity. The silence and complicity around this inequality must, and can, be broken. In low-level and concentrated epidemics (Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, East Asia and the Pacifi c, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia), where HIV infections among youth are driven by injecting drug use, sex work or male-to-male sex, there are opportunities to reshape a legal and social milieu that compounds vulnerability and marginalization and to reach out in a sustained, eff ective way to make young people aware of the risk factors and facilitate their access to protection and health care. Everywhere, young people themselves are central to the success of prevention eff orts. In the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa and in Kenya, adolescent boys and young men are participating in programmes that off er medical male circumcision. In Malawi, a small study has indicated that girls using cash transfers to stay in school are in the process also reducing their risk of HIV.
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UNICEF - Supports Water // Sanitation // Hygiene
8 UNICEF also backed the 2009 release of UNESCO’s first International Guidelines on Sexuality Education, an important new resource for preventing HIV in children. The guidelines specify what educators need to know to protect children from HIV. Long-running life skills programmes continue to foster HIV awareness among adolescents in a number of countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2009, with UNICEF assistance, nearly 6,600 peer educators under adult supervision provided life skills training to more than half a million adolescents in the country.
Communities are integral to successful HIV prevention Young people’s families, peers, elders, teachers and co-workers have a crucial role to play in advocating on their behalf for the services they need to stay healthy and thrive. This community also sets norms for acceptable behaviour and the tone of discussion around issues of sexuality. In Southern Africa, for example, sex with multiple partners and agedisparate relationships are fuelling HIV transmission among young people, and changes in cultural norms related to sexual partnering will be required to sustain people’s protection against HIV. Eff orts at changing community norms have been eff ective on a small scale in the United Republic of Tanzania, where the image of men seeking relations with younger women and girls was eff ectively turned into an image of ridicule, and in Zimbabwe, where the visibility of AIDS-related mortality appears to have been a decisive factor in large-scale behavioural and social change with respect to multiple partnerships. But many communities turn a blind eye to such common practices as multiple sexual partnerships and age-disparate relationships, and they may also ignore intimate partner violence that limits women’s ability to make eff ective choices for HIV prevention. A recent study in Swaziland documents the threat to young women and girls of a widespread practice of sexual violence: About one third of adolescent girls under the age of 18 had experienced sexual violence, with violence towards all young women, perpetrated by boyfriends, husbands and male relatives, taking place in their homes, in their neighbourhoods, and at school.
LIFE FREE FROM AIDS
49
Governments shape the legal and policy landscapes that can help prevent HIV Governments and parliaments are front-line actors for revising laws regarding the age of consent for HIV testing and care-seeking. South Africa’s Children’s Act, passed in 2005, lowered the age of consent for HIV testing and contraceptives to 12 years old, eff ectively opening up access to full sexual and reproductive health care for adolescents in a country where an estimated 11 per cent of young men and 6 per cent of young women become sexually active before the age of 15.11 A number of countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have recently passed laws lowering the age of consent for testing and treatment in response to extensive advocacy on the part of UNICEF and partners. The way governments and policymakers address education, training and employment needs in their countries infl uences young people’s ability to navigate HIV risks in their environment and shapes how they see their future. Yet, in many places government action is falling short. Strategies and plans are devised, but money is not allocated, or when it is, eff orts are not eff ectively coordinated, are not at suffi cient scale or are not of suffi cient quality to ensure the greatest impact from the investment. Donors must also step up to the challenge. They must work with governments to ensure that money is directed to where the problem is and spent eff ectively. It will take years before investments in social and behavioural change, systems improvement and community empowerment show results in terms of infections averted. Nonetheless, donors and governments must not shy away from making these investments.
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UNICEF - Supports Water // Sanitation // Hygiene
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
It is time to revitalize prevention for adolescents and young people The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Getting to Zero strategy highlights the need to revolutionize prevention, because progress to date has been inadequate to stop and reverse the epidemic. In order to contribute to a 30 per cent reduction of new infections in young people by 2015, the UN business case on preventing HIV in young people, developed in 2010, asks UN partners to work for three measurable results: In priority countries, at least 80 per cent of young people are to have comprehensive knowledge of HIV; the number of young people using condoms during their last sexual intercourse will have doubled; and the number of young people who know their status through counselling and testing services will also have doubled. The challenge in achieving these results is on both the supply and demand sides: making HIV prevention services and commodities available and accessible to young people and encouraging those at greatest risk to use the ones that are relevant to them. Using equity as a guidepost will help ensure that those hardest to reach are not last in line, that services are available to them and used by them. Realizing prevention gains among young people and sustaining them will be crucial to achieving “zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths�.
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Emergency Response Operations Major disasters in Haiti and Pakistan struck within six months of each other in 2010, eliciting an extraordinary global response that mobilized the full community of humanitarian organizations and partners. The scope of destruction and humanitarian need in these two countries alone, occurring in difficult geographical locations and affecting large populations (more than 22 million vulnerable people altogether), highlighted, once again, the need to strengthen humanitarian systems for a more effective response to major crises. On average, UNICEF responds to more than 200 emergencies every year, informing and shaping these interventions as a global leader for children. Ultimately, stronger and better adapted systems will result in a more efficient response and lead to greater fulfilment of children’s and women’s rights. For UNICEF, humanitarian action encompasses more than rapid response. It also involves reliable preparedness and calls for investment in early recovery from the very onset of a response. UNICEF increasingly recognizes the need for all its programmes (both development- and emergency- related) to build resilience and reduce risk. These aims are achieved in various ways that are fully reflected in the revised Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action (CCCs) and include supply and logistics, programming, human resources, policy and practice, communication and information technology. UNICEF brings the full range of support from all corners of the organization to meet the humanitarian needs of children and women. Headquarters in New York, Geneva, Copenhagen, Brussels and Tokyo are centres of global support for country offices that require additional assistance in staffing, supplies and logistics, and in identifying sources and mechanisms to better ac-
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cess financial resources to respond to emergencies. These offices mobilize external support and identify surge capacity from UNICEF offices worldwide. Supply hubs with strategic stocks in Copenhagen, Dubai, Panama and Shanghai enable quick delivery of life-saving supplies within the first few hours of a rapid-onset emergency as well as coordinated supply chain management for disaster- or conflict-affected areas. In addition, UNICEF’s seven regional offices provide leadership, advocacy, oversight, quality assurance and technical and operational support to country offices working to meet humanitarian needs.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE OPERATIONS
53
Humanitarian funding at work: Global Highlights from 2010 In April 2010 UNICEF adopted the third revision of the CCCs, its humanitarian policy for upholding the rights of children affected by crisis. The CCCs promote predictable, effective and timely collective humanitarian action, around which UNICEF engages with partners including host governments, Member States, operational and cluster partners, and staff. Key changes to the CCCs include the recognition that humanitarian action encompasses sound preparedness as well as an immediate emergency response, and an emphasis on the importance of applying an early recovery approach in the response. The policy now reflects UNICEF’s cluster accountabilities as a vital strategy to realize humanitarian results. It recognizes the importance of national capacity development, advocacy, partnerships and other key strategies throughout preparedness and response. Strong collaboration with non-governmental or gan izations (NGOs) is crucial to achieving results for children through humanitarian action. In 2010 UNICEF continued to expand the use of revised cooperation and small-scale funding agreements with NGOs. This expansion has created more flexible funding options, enhanced joint results, fostered capacity development of local institutions and better aligned UNICEF’s work with that of partners. Like other agencies with cluster leadership respon sibilities, UNICEF mobilized significant capac ity and support for timely and appropriate coordination in the face of unparalleled disasters in Haiti, Pakistan and 27 other countries where the cluster approach has been activated. UNICEF also strengthened gender and human
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rights programming in the context of humanitarian action through training, deployment of gender experts to advise clusters on mainstreaming, and dissemination of best practices. UNICEF headquarters provided guidance and on-demand advice to country and regional offices regarding the application of international humanitarian law and humanitarian principles in challenging operational environments and in complex emergencies such as Kyrgyzstan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Somalia. During the first six months of 2010, more than 400 surge capacity assignments were requested for the Haiti office. In comparison, during all of 2009, 259 internal and standby surge staff were deployed across the entire organization. For countries facing both large- and medium-scale emergencies in 2010, UNICEF mobilized a significant emergency staff surge to strengthen the capacity of country offices. This surge took the form of technical support, management and cluster coordination, and such operational support as human resources, supply and logistics, and information management. Emergency capacity from within the organization was complemented by expertise drawn from standby partners from government and private companies, as well as from 18 NGOs. These partnerships allowed UNICEF to deploy 185 personnel to 35 different offices, representing more than 23,000 days of deployment and an increase in standby deployments of more than 34 per cent. In 2010, global emergency supply needs more than doubled as compared to 2008 and 2009 combined. Through accelerated use of all its assets, the UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen met its commitment to pack and ship emergency supplies within 48 hours. Logistics networks in the field and at headquarters contributedto better information sharing between partners and bet-
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ter identification of what products were needed and where, as well as to renewed supply training and the release of crucial staff for temporary deployment. Competing demands for large quantities of similar supplies during simultaneous large- and medium-scale emergencies proved challenging, however, and ways to improve supply flow in such circumstances will be addressed during 2011. In the immediate aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, which also damaged UNICEF’s premises, emergency information technology and telecommunications response kits were shipped to PortauPrince from in-house stock piles and set up by emergency-trained experts from within UNICEF and standby partner organizations. While these kits enabled essential telecommunications links for the makeshift office, other key information technology services could not immediately be established on site. The office had to rely instead on a shadow office operating out of the Dominican Republic to host key UNICEF information systems which were accessed remotely from Port-au-Prince. In 2010 UNICEF made considerable investments in developing a programming approach that is more in tune with and informed by emergencyrelated risks. A key goal of this transformation is for all UNICEF country programmes to increase their attention to disaster and conflict prevention, mitigation and preparedness. The new approach provides a strong platform for engaging governments and other partners in sustainable strategies for reducing humanitarian risks, with long-term benefits to communities potentially affected by emergencies. Mainstreaming risk-informed programming and providing guidance to country offices on disaster risk reduction are essential to strengthening practice in this area.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE OPERATIONS
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Investing in national capacity development before, during and after crises can help national actors fulfil their obligations to uphold and promote children’s and women’s rights in humanitarian situations. While not new to UNICEF, capacity development has not been systematically applied in emergency settings and has often not been comprehensive enough to ensure real and lasting change. UNICEF is now developing technical guidance on capacity development in humanitarian settings and has provided direct support to Southern Sudan and to the Uganda country office in applying this approach, including in post-conflict and fragile settings. Headquarters further provided guidance to UNICEF staff on the purpose, principles and key management entry points for applying an early recovery approach in humanitarian action. Staff surge support on early recovery focused particularly on Haiti and Pakistan to strengthen planning and response. UNICEF remained very engaged in policy development and country-level initiatives to ensure enhanced United Nations coherence in the context of complex emergencies. A technical note on engaging integrated United Nations presences was developed to complement interagency guidance and a peer reference group was established for UNICEF staff working in countries with these missions. UNICEF staff participated in a number of inter-agency integrated strategy planning and assessment missions, including to Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Timor-Leste.
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Timely data making a difference to child survival How many children need vaccines? Which food supplements are running low? In situations where communications networks are limited or non-existent – as is the case in many crisis zones and poorer rural areas – information for such questions is still often recorded on paper. They are then sent by mail or carried by individuals to central locations where decisions are made. The time frame can be days, weeks or months. In 2009, UNICEF moved to transform this laborious process with the touch of a button. It began broadening the use of RapidSMS, an innovative, open-source communications tool designed by UNICEF that relies on text messages. The system takes advantage of recent significant growth in active mobile phones in Africa, with almost 350 million subscriptions by 2008, noticeably higher than the figure for both the US and Canada. UNICEF first piloted the use of RapidSMS in Ethiopia in 2008, when field monitors responding to a famine caused by drought needed to quickly and accurately direct relief supplies to people most in need. Through RapidSMS, their reports immediately and simultaneously reached UNICEF country, regional, headquarters and supply offices, strengthening coordination along the chain of people with essential roles in alleviating the crisis. Text messaging proved more efficient than paper, transmitting precise data in seconds.
Timely data making A DIFFERENCE TO CHILD SURVIVAL
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Sustaining resources for children The tightening of public and private budgets due to the financial and economic crises made 2009 a difficult year for sustaining a trend of growth in resources through voluntary contributions. Total income was $3,256 million, a 4 per cent decline from 2008, with 102 governments contributing to UNICEF resources during the year. A strong resource mobilization strategy helped to limit the drop as donor governments continued to support the organization in the midst of the global economic downturn, testifying to the perennial value of UNICEF’s mandate for children and its proven capacity for achieving it. UNICEF resources fall in two broad categories. ‘Regular resources’ – the first category – are given without restriction and spent primarily on UNICEF-supported9 programmes, along with the operational functions that support them. These resources help support programmes in developing countries and enable UNICEF to carry out its mission to improve the lives of children and women. Regular resources accord most closely with the provisions of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, especially the principles of alignment with programme country priorities and the simplification of international aid transactions.
9 UNICEF’s funding comes from its traditional donors: governments, inter-governmental donors, national committees, NGOs, funds and foundations, the private sector, individuals and inter-organizational arrangements.
resources stored
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The second category of UNICEF funds, called ‘other resources’, are supplementary contributions to regular resources. Other resources go towards designated programmes or more general thematic issues, with varying restrictions on how funds may be used. A significant subset of other resources is targeted for emergencies. The global economic decline has affected development assistance in general. Contributions to UNICEF’s regular resources were down 2 per cent, to $1,066 million, in 2009 as compared to 2008. Other resources overall saw a decrease of 5 per cent to $2,190 million. Regular resources accounted for 33 per cent of total income in 2009, a slight increase from 32 per cent in 2008. Other resources received for regular, non-emergency programme purposes and strategic priorities were nearly 3 per cent below 2008, at just more than $1,527 million. Income from other resources for emergencies was down 10 per cent from 2008, at $663 million, reflecting a year when natural disasters were relatively few in number and limited in severity. Funds from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund covered rapid responses and underfunded emergencies for a number of other countries without appeals. The Fund remained the largest source of contributions to UNICEF’s other resources for emergencies in 2009, providing $94 million.
Timely data making A DIFFERENCE TO CHILD SURVIVAL
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// INDEX
// A
// C
// D
access
campaigns
deaths
5, 6, 7, 10, 18, 21
9, 26, 33
8, 9, 12, 17, 49
22, 24, 27, 40
child
development
45, 46, 48, 50
18, 24, 28, 31
3, 5, 10, 15, 18, 22, 24
achieve
33, 35, 40
27, 28, 29, 30, 35, 37,
5, 6, 12, 28, 29, 31
children
38,50, 52, 56, 59
advocacy
3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13
development
5, 7, 13, 17, 28, 31, 34
15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24
5, 6, 11, 14, 18, 21
40, 42, 44, 48, 51, 52
26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32
24, 29, 30, 44
african
33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38
diseases
11, 28, 30, 31, 36, 37
39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45
8, 9, 13, 16, 18, 38
AIDS 5, 24, 42, 44, 45, 47, 49
areas 7, 9, 10, 26, 40, 51, 57
Asia 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 46, 48
attention 20
AWD 17
// B bank 11, 26, 27, 30
billion
46,50, 52, 56, 57, 58
commission 14, 31, 32
commitment 7, 35, 54
community 6, 7, 9, 12, 18, 26 38, 44, 47, 48, 50
controlling
drinking 5, 6, 7
dumps 13
during 7, 15, 16, 28, 40, 44 49, 54, 55, 56, 58
// E
8
effective
coverage
8, 15, 50, 52
21
emergency 3, 20, 44, 50, 54, 59
equal 43
6, 27
black Death 43
63
// INDEX
// F
// I
// K
forced labor
improved
Katrina
33
6, 7, 8, 16, 17, 21
16
foundations
improvements
// L
58
7
// G
improving
low
5, 22
7, 11, 26, 37, 46, 57
global
increased
// M
6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 17, 18
7, 18, 20, 39
26, 27, 30, 32, 35
influenza
38, 50, 54, 58, 59
8
good
innovation
8, 29
13
// H
intervention 8, 10
health 5, 8, 14, 17, 18, 24, 26 27, 29, 30, 35, 37, 38 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48
history 6, 24, 27, 32
HIV 5, 24, 40, 42, 43, 44 45, 46, 47, 48, 49
humanitarian 16, 50, 52
introduction 3, 5
investment 3, 6, 38, 48, 50
// J Jason Wallis. 7, 11
Jose Ferreira. 8, 13
Maputo 8, 13
Moรงambique 8, 13
// N natural 16, 20, 26, 27, 59
// O organization 28, 38, 41, 50, 54, 58
organizational 5, 58
Orleans 16
// P
hygiene 5, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16
participation
17, 18, 22, 29, 40
9, 15, 24
64
// INDEX
particularly
// S
// T
safe drinking
traffic
5, 6
33
// U
5, 11, 16, 33, 46, 56
partners 5, 6, 12, 15, 17, 21, 22 23, 29, 30, 33, 40, 42, 47
sanitation
48, 49, 50, 52, 54, 55
3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13
partnerships
14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21
UNICEF
22, 24, 26, 38
2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
schools
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21
8, 10, 13, 14, 15
22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30
11
people 5, 6, 7, 13, 21, 24, 26, 27
31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37
28, 31, 36, 37, 38, 44, 45
soap
46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 57
8
photographed
strategic
7, 8, 11, 13
5, 44
processes
strategy
8, 21, 28, 37
8, 10, 21, 22, 23
progress
32, 49, 52, 56, 58
5, 6, 12, 21, 26, 28, 38, 49
Sudan
// R
7, 11, 17, 56
reducing
30
8, 12, 26, 38, 46, 55
supply
reports
5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 16, 22
7, 57
49, 50, 51, 54, 55, 57
resources
support
15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21
20, 23, 26, 28, 30, 50, 51
5, 6, 12, 14, 16, 21, 22
22, 24, 26, 27, 38
54, 58, 59
23, 24, 30, 34, 35, 44, 50 51, 52, 54, 56, 58
world bank
rights 18, 24, 28, 31
sustaining
suffering
58
38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59
unimproved 7
USA 16
// W WASH 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23
water 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14
11, 26, 27, 30
world’s 6, 7, 14, 27
65