UNICEF Chief: Financial Disaster Cannot Rationalize Letting Children Die

Painful cuts to the Spanish development budget must not unswervingly impact vital life-saving overseas aid, Marta Arias, the director of UNICEF-Spain’s social awareness campaigns, has told EurActiv.es.

No crisis can justify the death of a single child anywhere in the world, she supposed, in an exclusive interview. Industrialised countries still have resources to maintain their cooperation as an essential policy and they must do so.

As Madrid battles to decrease its deficit, the country’s generosity has also shrunk. Between 2010 and 2012, its budget for development and cooperation aid plummeted by 67%. Such cuts could jeopardize the continuity of Spanish flagship projects like one in the center of Manhiça Investigaçao em Saúde, which is presently developing a new malaria vaccine.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government has committed itself to returning to the levels of pre-crisis cooperation if the situation in the country’s economy improves in 2015 or 2016. Spanish cooperation spending has had a tangible effect. According to UNICEF, in Mauritania Spanish aid saved nearly 90,000 children from malnutrition in 2012.

In Bolivia, more than 230,000 children are alive today, thanks to better access to health services and sanitation. And in Mozambique, some 1.6 million children have received life-saving vaccination programs funded by Madrid over the last 20 years.

UNICEF wants to elevate awareness about the benefits of this kind of international cooperation and is calling for a return to pre-crisis levels of spending as soon as possible.  

The scope of the new UNICEF campaign was to emphasize that development aid was not theoretical or intangible but had a direct positive impact on thousands of people in the Third World.

UNICEF Praises - Youth Advocate Bill

The United Nations children’s welfare agency, UNICEF, supposed it applauds the Government of Nunavut’s efforts to advance the well-being of kids Sept. 18.

That admire came after Nunavut’s Bill 40 received assent Sept. 17 by Commissioner Edna Elias to make a Representative for Children and Youth for the territory. The new law’s optimistic aspects cited by UNICEF include frequent references to recognizing and applying Inuit culture and Inuit societal morals.

The self-governing representative for children and youth will work to ensure that the rights and interests of children and youth are predictable and protected and that their views are heard and considered in the actions of the government.

UNICEF supposed the new act recognizes that Inuit societal values will inform a holistic understanding of the best interests of children and youth within healthy families and build on the strengths of Inuit families and communities.

UNICEF also noted this value would need the representative to, among other things; make sure that government considers the views and best interests of kids and youth in all government decisions regarding them.

UNICEF’s Story in 2012 - Unremitting Efforts for World's Most Susceptible Children

According to UNICEFs Annual Report 2012.n spite of financial concerns in much of the world and complex emergencies affecting children in nearly 80 countries in 2012, global progress was still made for millions of children last year. Emergencies conquered headlines in 2012 and the report notes that the association and its partners responded to 286 humanitarian situations in 79 countries.

Therapeutic feeding programmers for more than 2.1 million severely underfed children under the age of five. Measles immunization for nearly 44 million children up to the age of 15. In April 2012, UNICEF launched an international social media campaign, Sahel. NOW, that drove consciousness and coverage to the awaiting nutrition crisis in the region.

The horrific disagreement in Syria demanded a particular effort; UNICEF helped give access to uninterrupted education for nearly 80,000 children affected by the conflict, supported measles vaccination for more than 1.4 million children and provided psychosocial care for an estimated 47,000 children.

Don't marginalize children with disabilities: Unicef

State of the world's children report highlights alarming link between disability and undernourishment ahead of UK hunger apex. Michael Hosea, a Tanzanian who was born in 1995 with albinism, provides a stark instance of the prejudices people with disabilities face. In Tanzania, practitioners of witchcraft chase and kill albino public to use their hair, body parts and organs. 

Still it is illegal to kill people with albinoism, it still happens. Hosea's family had to flee their home, travelling more than 500km after they were warned that he and his two albino siblings were to be killed. 

After finding out that the family had fled, the people who came looking for them went to their next-door neighbor, a local albino envoy, and cut off his arms, departure him to die. The report said there is little precise data on the number of children with disabilities, what disabilities these children have, and how disabilities influence their lives.

UNICEF Ranks Canada 17th Out of 29 Rich Countries in Child Well-Being Guide

17th out of 29 so-called rich countries when it comes to the well-being According to a new study from UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency, Canada ranks of children. The UN agency located Canada 14th in educational well-being, 15th in material well-being, 16th in behavior and risks and a low 27th in health and safety.

Canada scored third-best on smoking, with UNICEF saying only four per cent of brood aged 11, 13 and 15 reported smoking at least once a week. When it comes to fatness, Canada is third from the bottom, with 20.24 per cent of children aged 11, 13 and 15 deemed overweight based on the body mass index.

Canada ranked 21st in maltreatment, with 35 per cent of children aged 11, 13 and 15 report being bullied at school at least once in the past couple of months. The Netherlands leftovers the overall leader in the study and is the only country ranked with the top five in all extent of child well-being.