The United Nations Children’s Fund
Introduction
The United Nations Children’s Fund, which is commonly abbreviated as UNICEF is one of the programs that is sponsored by the United Nations. It is headquartered in the New York City and its chief mandate is to provide humanitarian aid as well as offering assistance especially to children and mothers who experiences developmental problems in the developing countries. It forms part of the members of the larger United Nation Development Group (UNICEF, 2014).
Historically, the United Nations General Assembly formulated UNICEF in the year 1946. It was formed purposefully to provide humanitarian assistance in the form of food together with healthcare to the destitute children in countries that were heavily hit by World War II. In addition, the first chairperson of UNICEF, Ludwick Rajchman is regarded as its founder. He was a polish bacteriologist and worked as the UNICEF chairperson between 1946 and 1950 (UNICEF, 2014).
Mission statement of UNICEF
Under the mandate of the United Nation general assembly, UNICEF had the mandate of advocating and protecting f the rights of the children. As a result, they had the responsibility of meeting their primary needs and motivating them so that they can fully utilize their potential. Furthermore, they are guided by the Convention of the Children Rights where they focus on coming up with the rights of the children to act as relentless ethical principles. Furthermore, it had the mandate of instilling the universal acknowledgement to embrace and appreciate the children. Even better, UNICEF had a mission of ensuring that children had normal development and were protected from harmful objects and behaviors (United Nation, 1999).
Politically, UNICEF had a mission of lobbying for the good political will together with seeking for both material and financial resources for helping children in the developing countries. Additionally, UNICEF also has the mandate of building the capacity of formulating policies to ensure appropriate delivery of services to both the children and their families. The other mission of UNICEF is to offer appropriate protection for the most unfortunate children, such as war victims, disease, disabled, victims of violence, and disasters. Moreover, UNICEF also responds to the cases of emergencies especially when the victims are children. They do this with the assistance from the humanitarian agencies together with the United Nations in order to achieve rapid response to the children as well as to those who take care of them (Rogers, 2013).
To achieve these missions, UNICEF is expected to be a nonpartisan and discrimination free body where countries with the most disadvantaged children are given priority. Apart from promoting the rights of the children, UNICEF also has the mandate of fighting for both the rights of women and girls. In this case, they ensure that the girls and the women contribute actively in economic development, political, as well as social events in their respective communities. In totality, UNICEF strives at holistic approach of achieving the sustainable development of the underprivileged of the world. In doing these, they hope at realizing the world vision of peace and social development in accordance with the united nation charter (UNICEF, 2014).
Values of the UNICEF
The key value of UNICEF is collaborating with likeminded organizations to identify and respond to emergencies especially when children are the victims. As a result, they ensure that the community experiences some level of resilience in the event that a disaster befalls a destitute society. Another value of UNICEF is compassion. This value has been the main force that has driven the organization ever since it was formulated. By being compassionate, UNICEF has been able to respond promptly to emergency cases that have called for their attention. Another value that UNICEF has instilled in their organization is integrity, where the organization expects its officials and member countries to uphold integrity in their operations (Rosenberg, 2011).
Goals of the UNICEF
The main goal that has ever underlined the purpose of UNICEF is relieving pain and suffering especially for children living in the developing countries. In this case, the children under consideration were the victims of poverty, wars, oppressions, and even disability. In addition to the children, UNICEF also targets girls and children that experience high degree of suffering because of the oppressive society. Furthermore, UNICEF also has a greater goal of achieving equitable development in the society in all fronts such as economic, social, and economic fronts (Rogers, 2013).
Moreover, UNICEF also has the vision of fostering peace and harmony in the world. Another goal that is provided by UNICEF is provision of healthcare especially to the disadvantage population of the society. The most common situations where UNICEF can contribute towards provision of healthcare services are during wars and during severe malnutrition (UNICEF, 2012).
Past success and failure of UNICEF
The main goal of UNICEF formation by the United Nations was to minimize suffering and wars. However, ever since its formation, there have been wars and thousands of the world populations have suffered and died. This is approving that UNICEF have failed to achieve one of its primary goals. In addition, it is one of the mandates of the UNICEF to fight for human rights of populations worldwide. Instead, there have been gross violations of human rights both in developed and developing countries all over the world. In this case, UNICEF has failed to meet its objective. UNICEF operates under many bureaucracies that have always been a barrier to the quick decision making (Barkawi & Laffey, 2006).
Therefore, response to emergencies has been very poor, which has made children to suffer in the events of wars, disasters or even when faced by adverse poverty. A good example is the genocide in Rwanda during the 1990s as well as the former Yugoslavia. Consequently, the critics have viewed this as a failure. There have been reported cases of corruption among the officials of UNICEF; as a result, some veto members have sidelined themselves from the organization hence weakening the organization. Therefore, the organization has failed to uphold one of its salient values of integrity (Barkawi & Laffey, 2006).
Apart from the failures that UNICEF has faced, there are a number of successes that can be attributed to this body. UNICEF has reduced suffering to children in most parts of the world that have been rocked by disasters. A classic example is the genocide experienced in Rwanda. Though UNICEF was blamed for not responding promptly, it really helped in preventing further sufferings to the innocent children. Additionally, UNICEF has succeeded in lowering the wars around the world. It is evident that ever since its establishment, there has never been any major war despite some civil wars. It is believed that UNICEF has greatly contributed to this peace fostering (Horton, 2004).
Moreover, UNICEF has fostered harmony among the different countries of the member states. It does this through creating a forum for them to come together with the aim of discussing the issues facing the world. As a result, the countries having differences are able to gather under the same umbrella of UNICEF making them to iron their differences so that they can bolster their understanding. Furthermore, UNICEF has achieved its objective in providing healthcare services to the destitute. This is evident in cases where UNICEF has supplied vaccines such as measles vaccines and polio vaccines. In addition, it has offered rehydration treatments in the cases where dehydration has taken place. In general, the UNICEF has been a success because it has assisted in preventing and reducing suffering around the world (UNICEF, 2012).
Lessons learnt
The following lessons have been learned from the successes and failures of UNICEF. First, the world is in need of an independent body that can assist the destitute in the event of war or disaster. Second, the fight for human rights requires a collective effort if a desirable result is expected. Third, corruption is one of the barriers that have hindered economic growth of countries together with the organization. Lastly, it is possible to realize peace and harmony in the countries around the world.
Future challenges and how to address them
In future, the following are the major challenges that are projected to be a major threat to the organization: corruption, inadequate finance, and lack of cooperation among the members state. In regards to the corruption, the best way to approach it is to select the organization officials who have high integrity values. In addition, the organization is supposed to have watchdogs whose primary function is to monitor and identify the corrupt officials. In the part of finance, the organization is supposed to identify potential sponsors and bolster the collection of the stipulated contributions from its member states. Lastly, the organization should come up with mechanisms of convincing its members to enhance their cooperation in regards to the organization activities (Horton,2004).
References
Barkawi, T., & Laffey (2006). Meeting the MDG drinking water and sanitation target: The
urban and rural challenge of the decade. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health
Organization.
Horton, Richard (2004). “UNICEF leadership 2005–2015: a call for strategic change”. The
Lancet 364 (9451): 2071–2074.
Rogers, Emma (2013). “Merck for Mothers contributes to UNICEF’s South African efforts”.
Vaccine News Daily. Retrieved 26 Feb 2015.
Rosenberg, M. (2011). A New Leadership For UNICEF: Do Values Matter? (2nd ed.). Upper
Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.1136-1137.
Smylie, James H. (2001). “Presbyterians initiated UNICEF’s ‘Trick-or-Treat’ program 50 years
ago”. The Presbyterian Outlook.
UNICEF (2012) Presentation – UNICEF’s Resource Development Architecture Key Trends and
Challenges. UNICEF. Retrieved on 2014-10-21.
United Nation. (1999). Proposal for a UNICEF mission statement. New York: UN.
UNICEF (2014). “International Charity Partner – UNICEF”. Rangers Charity Foundation. New
York: UN.