You made a great leap forward you said at the 60-year celebrations of UNICEF last year. You UNICEF organized many summits and helped women and children in developing countries through government-assisted programs since 1946. Does it mean that the end of UNICEF is near?
UNICEF’s success does not mean that UNICEF has no room to improve. Every organization always has to improve, as the world is not standing still. UNICEF has to improve its procedures by ceasing upon opportunities of new technology and new breakthroughs in management and social programming. Just consider how technology has altered the landscape of commerce. Hitachi has just announced plans to deliver a hard drive that stores a trillion bytes of data (known as a terabyte) that has capacity equal to 250 hours of high-definition video. This is a big jump over the current capacity of 750 billion bytes (750 gigabytes). The recent electronic show in Las Vegas showed the leaps and bounds in gadgetry since last year. Apples Inc. I-Pod phone may change the way people communicate all together.
The personal computer is the controller of the information age. When you think of the websites, the blogs, Goggle, Yahoo, EBay, Amazon.com and the thousands of others – the web drives so much of information dissemination and serves as a productivity tool of almost all commercial transactions for the corporate and government sector (includes the UN and non-profit systems). The computer has decentralized work and altered the structure of many an organization. Yet, the UN lags the corporate sector in capturing the full potential of web-based technology; so presumably, there is a lot of work in this area. Getting information at real time and using the web to process information should be the ambition of the UN system, what a challenge that can be for UNICEF. ITD ought to be on the top charts of the organization.
On the programming side, the focus is on the millennium declarations to end poverty. On this score, I sometimes watch on TV how schools constructed in Afghanistan simply reduce to rubble by a terrorist bomb. In the same way, all the good work that UNICEF does for women, children, and other UN agencies diminishes in some countries due to bad government policies and political systems that destroy good ideas and social and physical infrastructure. Perhaps measuring the millennium development goals will only point to progress to some parts of planet earth but unless government policy points in the right direction, the best of intentions will produce negative results and show no progress of planned goals. Often social development failure points to stupid government policy. Without a good point what is the point?
When leaders can elect themselves for life and do whatever they please with the people of a country and the people are powerless to change the leader, social development is in peril – what a shame for the 21st century. What a shame for the 21st century that women in many parts of the world are victimized and discriminated in inhuman ways, not allowed to work, not even allowed to walk on the street unaccustomed by a man after dusk. Of course, you know it, but it is a continuous lament and a sorry state of human affairs. Dealing with natural disasters is one thing, and then human-made disasters are another thing. The best gift that the UN can give the developing world is best practices of political and administrative systems; without it, it is a prescription for poverty and good money in aid goes down the drain. It is a chicken and egg issue of which comes first, good institutions in the country or good aid money. Good constitutions were key to the success of Europe and North America. Politics and Economics strings together because bad politics ruins good economics.
We live in a dangerous world now. Not only that terrorism is an issue but also the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Development specialists do say that we must have a safe world for future generations. What are future generations? They are children of today and the unborn children (children of the future). Perhaps, UNICEF is also pushing the slogan for a world free of nuclear weapons for the benefit and safety of the children of the future. As some countries forcibly produce nuclear weapons then other countries also follow suit leading to another cold war amass with destructive nuclear weaponry. World leaders were talking just a few years ago how when less money spends on defense then more translates to social development, but now that wish is in reverse gear. As long as the weapons are not used, there will be a cold war. If nuclear weapons are used, it will be a hot war killing millions of people, it will end life on earth. As countries start spending on the nuclear arsenal, that means there is less money available to produce goods and services that benefit humankind; it is the same guns and bread story learned in 101 economics, spend more on guns then less bread for the people. Nuclear power, promise or peril – we all must stay tuned.
No doubt, AIDS, bird flu, malaria, infectious diseases. lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation and other medical issues that the world has to combat for which UNICEF, WHO and other UN agencies plays a leading role. This year UNICEF and the rest of the UN will also face the Christian Evangelists farming out to Africa to help in the AIDS epidemic claiming to speak more languages than the United Nations. However, the Evangelical strength is that they go right to the grass roots like NGO’s. UNICEF may well want to evaluate (and expand) its use of NGO’s. Using already established NGO’s can be less expensive and less committal than establishing an entire structure to handle certain near-term social program issues. Using NGO’s can also be mutually reinforcing.
UNICEF cannot go over its mandate. However, unless UNICEF is a coordinating party to other aspects of social well-being, that part of UNICEF’s inputs will be like pushing a cart full of social development inputs uphill, meaning the constraints in the way will slower the push to deliver social development and the pull to receive social development is much lesser than the push. Unless people are very free, social development stagnates. Where is that honest dictator?
One would think that the United Nations must campaign for democracy throughout the world so that people will be free in all aspects of life. Without this freedom, social development will stall. If there is such an organization in the UN system then UNICEF should be part of that coordinating body. In some respects, it is a shame that some countries are not shamed on the UN agenda for bad governance and blocking freedoms of its people. That is the price of diplomacy, diplomacy pays a terrible cost for not telling it as it should be, or not talking straight.
UNICEF (and the rest of the UN too) knows that any pressure on countries to do what is morally correct towards women and children will sooner or later translate into domestic legislation in democratic countries rather than those run by a dictator (or those countries that have misunderstood religious teachings). Indeed, UNICEF has been successful in having domestic legislation from its summits on the rights of the child, however, I doubt UNICEF has been too successful in modifying domestic legislation on the rights of women or such legislation remains ignored.
If my neighbor is beating his wife I may have to respond immediately and if I have the physical ability to stop it I will do so right away. However, if I get to the front door and inform the woman that she can call 911 once the government approves the 911 program that may too late. What we need is an UN 911, so that there could be rapid response to save innocent lives from torture bestowed from those in power, whether terrorist or government. I do not have an answer and I know that many people in the world including the UN are grappling to find answers to this and other difficult questions. But such inability of the UN system affects the work of UNICEF. You cannot send innocent people into a lions den; a country must be safe for UN staff.
The other aspects that hurts poverty in the developing world is the agricultural subsidies that industrialized countries give their farmers that put the poor farmers in developing countries out of business. For instance, if industrialized countries eliminate farm subsidies then farmers in developing countries can compete on a level playing field. Of course, this is an issue with WTO, but UNICEF may be well in the circle of the discussions, hopefully, it is yes. UNICEF well knows that whatever puts people in poverty also put women at peril. Poverty force women into prostitution and sexual slavery. Parents force children into industrial labor than send them to school when there is poverty.
From my almost 25-years in the UN system, I see plenty of energy going towards program conceptualization, preparation and formulation but less to review and monitoring. Of course, the arrangement is that developing country governments are responsible for implementation of programs/projects and thus should evaluate and monitor as well. However, as multilateral aid banker UNICEF may want to ensure that whatever aid (cash, supplies or technical assistance) the government gets utilizes as intended (Working for UNICEF - The Personal Experiences). Program audits are good and necessary, but they may fish out financial prudence rather than programmatic prudence. In addition, audit reports are too late for correction, analogous to opening the door after the horse has bolted. Thus, UNICEF may want to strengthen its evaluation and monitoring capacity by transfer of resources from program conceptualization and formulation (program preparation, etc.).
The public is critical of non-profits that must have a continuous life. Apparently, most non-profits form to tackle a problem but exist on a continuous basis with an existence ad infinitum. Why must an organization continue to exist and why cannot it solve the problems before it finally. If the problem yet persists then either the organization is not doing a good job at it or the problems appear at a faster rate. On the other hand, why must an organization keep expanding? UNICEF/UN agencies may have these questions as a welcome answer. Alternatively, is it that a leader’s work is never done!
UNICEF may want a new beginning, a beginning that places women, Africa and agriculture and education as some its top items. You cannot talk to a hungry person on anything but how to get him or her food. Once hunger is satisfied, then you can take it from there.
Good reading: The United Nations Mission Impossible. Also see Wall Street Journal, January 11, 2007, page A7 - 'Why Economists are Still Grasping for A Cure to Global Poverty.'
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