United Nations Children's Fund is
a United Nations Programme headquartered in New York City that provides long-term humanitarian and
developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. It is
one of the members of the United Nations Development Group and its Executive
Committee.
UNICEF was created by the United
Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and
healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II.
In 1954, UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations System and its
name was shortened from the original United Nations International Children's
Emergency Fund but it has continued to be known by the popular acronym based on
this old name. Head of The UNESCO is Anthony
Lake.
UNICEF's programs emphasize
developing community-level services to promote the health and well-being of
children. UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 and the Prince of
Asturias Award of Concord in 2006.
There are National Committees in
36 industrialized countries worldwide, each established as an independent local
non-governmental organization. The National Committees raise funds from the
private sector.
UNICEF is funded exclusively by
voluntary contributions, and the National Committee collectively raise around
one-third of UNICEF's annual income. This comes through contributions from
corporations, civil society organizations and more than 6 million individual
donors worldwide. They also rally many different partners – including the
media, national and local government officials, NGOs, specialists such as
doctors and lawyers, corporations, schools, young people and the general public
– on issues related to children’s rights.
UNICEF is present in 191 countries and territories around
the world. UNICEF designated 1979 as the "Year of the Child" and many
celebrities including David Gordon, David Essex, Alun Davies and Cat Stevens
gave a performance at a benefit concert celebrating the Year of the Child
Concert in December 1979.
Many people in developed
countries first hear about UNICEF's work through the activities of 36 National
Committees for UNICEF. These non-governmental organizations (NGO) are primarily
responsible for fundraising, selling UNICEF greeting cards and products,
creating private and public partnerships, advocating for children’s rights, and
providing other invaluable support. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is the oldest of
the National Committees, founded in 1947.
New Zealand appointed, in 2005,
18-year-old Hayley Westenra, a talented, world famous opera and pop singer as
their Ambassador to UNICEF, in an effort to enlist the youth of the world in
supporting UNICEF. Westenra has made several trips to visit underprivileged
children in developing countries on behalf of UNICEF, in an effort to publicize
their plight, and has engaged in fund-raising activities in support of the
UNICEF mission.
On 19 April 2007, Grand Duchess
Maria Teresa of Luxembourg was appointed UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children,
in which role she has visited Brazil (2007), China (2008), and Burundi (2009).
In 2009, the British retailer
Tesco used “Change for Good” as advertising, which is trade marked by Unicef
for charity usage but is not trademarked for commercial or retail use. This
prompted the agency to say, "it is the first time in Unicef’s history that
a commercial entity has purposely set out to capitalise on one of our campaigns
and subsequently damage an income stream which several of our programmes for
children are dependent on”. They went on to call on the public “who have children’s
welfare at heart, to consider carefully who they support when making consumer
choices”.
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