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Statement

Veneman recaps year of increased humanitarian relief work for UNICEF

Remarks of Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director, UNICEF
UNICEF Executive Board, First Regular Session
16 January 2006  •  New York, NY

Mr. President, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen: Good morning, and thank you for being here today.
It is a pleasure to address the First Regular Session of the UNICEF Executive Board for 2006, and I wish all of you a very happy and prosperous New Year.

Mr. President, my congratulations on your election.  It has been a pleasure to work with you as a Board member, and I look forward to a positive and productive working relationship with you in your new capacity as President.

Let me also praise our outgoing President, Ambassador Danesh-Yazdi, for his excellent stewardship of the Board during his term.  His leadership during a critical and transitional time for UNICEF was strong, and his commitment to the world’s children has been unwavering. 

My deepest thanks, Mr. Ambassador, for your service and for your friendship.

As UNICEF enters its 60th anniversary year, we look back at a long record of successes for the world’s children.  But we also look to the future of an organization that must continue to make bold change if it is to meet current needs and new realities.

Your agenda this week is a busy and important one.

In just a few moments, we will discuss UNICEF’s Annual Report to the Economic and Social Council.

You will also consider revised country program documents, the biennial support budget for 2006 to 2007, and proposals regarding intercountry programs.

A report on thematic funding should generate important dialogue.

You have heard me talk about partnerships and how UNICEF can be an effective partner in a changing global environment.  UNICEF has faced difficulties in working with some nontraditional donors, such as global funds, due in part to UNICEF’s current recovery policy. 

Harmonization within the UN system has brought common principles and terminology to cost recovery, but it has not resulted in uniform rates or practices.

I have asked my staff for an urgent review of UNICEF’s cost-recovery policy to present to the Annual Session of the Executive Board in June 2006.  We ask for the Board’s concurrence on this timing.

Your agenda this week also includes consideration of sector strategies in health and nutrition; water, sanitation and hygiene; as well as a report on humanitarian response.

And finally, you will also consider the work plan and budget for the Private Sector Division and will take part in a critical pledging event, which I will discuss more when we reach that item on the agenda.

Since the Board last met, much has transpired.

A major Earthquake in Pakistan and other crises have added to UNICEF’s important humanitarian-relief work.  I traveled to Pakistan as the first UN head-of-agency to see the response firsthand.

Recently in Geneva, I was briefed on a new early-warning system that will help enhance UNICEF’s preparedness for disasters and emergencies and link us better to the systems of different partners.

One potential threat against which we must be vigilant and prepared is bird flu.  UNICEF has worked closely in recent months with the UN system coordinator, Dr. David Nabarro, and others to mobilize resources as well as plan for adequate control and response.

A historic meeting focusing on children was held by the Organization of the Islamic Conference with the support of UNICEF.

And other partnerships were launched and re-energized, representing the emergence of a strong agenda for global health.

Of course, one of these partnerships is the “Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS” campaign, which was formally launched in October.

UNICEF also participated in the Time Global Health Summit and the fifth “Roll Back Malaria” Global Partners’ Forum.

In December, I assumed the chair of the GAVI Alliance at its board meeting in India, a meeting that strengthened UNICEF’s relationship with GAVI and its partners.  It also helped position GAVI as a greater contributor to child survival and the Millennium Development Goals.

A few days later, I was in London for the “Countdown to 2015” conference, which was held to take stock of child-survival progress two years after the 2003 Lancet series.

The message in London was that progress toward increasing child survival around the world has been – in a word – unacceptable.

Out of the 60 countries highlighted in the Lancet series, only seven countries are on target to reach the Millennium Development Goal related to child mortality; 39 countries have made either insufficient progress or no progress at all; and 14 countries have actually sustained increases in their under-5 mortality rates.

In my remarks, I challenged the Countdown participants to focus on three broad areas to accelerate child-survival progress:

First, integration of service delivery, which also includes integrated plans, budgets and mechanisms at country level.

Proven successes such as the 11-country Accelerated Child Survival and Development program in West Africa should be quickly scaled up, hand-in-hand with longer-term strengthening of national health systems.

Next is a renewed commitment to partnerships.  Child survival and many other issues related to children are too big for anyone to address single-handedly.  Working together allows partners to maximize resources and draw upon each other’s relative strengths.

But above all else, there must be a focus on measurable results.  Much of the work on health issues, in particular, has been driven too heavily by process, without a clear view to the outcomes of those processes.  And the Millennium Declaration and Development Goals provide a roadmap for achieving meaningful results for children over the next 10 years.

Also in London, just days after UNICEF’s 59th anniversary, I launched the 2006 State of the World’s Children report.  As the world strives to meet the targets of the MDGs, we must also be mindful of those who are being left behind: the vulnerable, the deprived.

This year’s report focuses on excluded and invisible children, those who live at the margins of society and are most at risk of abuse and exploitation.

We were honored to be joined by two courageous young women: one from India, who has lived a life of unspeakable poverty and deprivation, and one from Romania, who was trafficked into Ireland and forced into prostitution.  Those very real human faces help to keep the work of UNICEF in perspective.

We often talk about goals and targets and indicators, about surveys, strategies and plans.  But when we talk about results, we are really talking about children.  As we begin our work this week, let us keep their faces in our minds and in our hearts.  Thank you very much, Mr. President.