Unicef

United Nations Children’s Fund

1. Facts and figures

Type of organisation: Fund financed through voluntary contributions

Established in: 1946

Headquarters: New York

Number of country offices: 161

Head of organisation: Executive Director Anthony Lake (USA)

Dates of Board meetings in 2013: 5–8 February, 18–21 June and 3–6 September

Norway’s representation on Board: 2012–2014

Number of Norwegian staff: 19

Competent ministry: Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Website: www.unicef.org

Mandate and areas of activity

The mandate of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
and the organisation therefore adopts a broad approach in its efforts to protect the interests of children, including children’s right to health, clean water, nutrition, education and protection. In light of this mandate, UNICEF is one of the UN’s largest development and humanitarian agencies. The organisation fulfils an important task in protecting children in war, conflicts and disaster situations, and delivers basic emergency relief at both national and local level. Through its role as global spokesman for children, UNICEF is also an important global actor in efforts to mobilise political will and resources for promoting children’s rights.

UNICEF’s new Strategic Plan for 2014 – 2017 was approved by the Executive Board in September 2013.

The vision in UNICEF’s Strategic Plan for 2014 – 2017 is to realise the rights of all children, especially disadvantaged children. The Plan defines seven main outcomes:

■ Improved and equitable use of high-impact maternal, newborn and child health interventions

■ Improved and equitable use of proven HIV prevention and treatment interventions

■ Improved and equitable use of safe drinking water, sanitation and healthy environments, and improved hygiene practices

■ Improved and equitable use of nutritional support and improved nutrition and care practices

■ Improved learning outcomes and equitable and inclusive education

■ Improved and equitable prevention of and response to violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect of children

■ Improved policy environment and systems for disadvan-taged and excluded children, guided by improved knowledge and data

Results achieved in 2012

UNICEF’s results reporting is still not satisfactory. The reporting on the new Strategic Plan is expected to highlight more clearly the results of the organisation’s efforts.

Within the focus area Child survival and development, UNICEF supported community-based management of acute malnutrition in over 65 countries in 2012, reaching over 1.9 million children under the age of five with life-saving treatment. As another result of UNICEF-supported activities, more than 24 million people now have access to toilets, thereby avoiding the risk to health posed by open sewage. Through broad-based cooperation, UNICEF continued to support
efforts to vaccinate more than 100 million children against measles in 2012. UNICEF also played a leading role in reaching a further 10 million women of reproductive age in high-risk countries with tetanus vaccines.

As part of its efforts in the focus area Basic education and gender equality, UNICEF continued to head the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative. On the first International Day of the Girl on 11 October 2012, UNICEF, UNFPA and UN Women jointly organised a high-level meeting to combat child marriages. In 2012, UNICEF joined the UN Secretary-General’s initiative Global Education First. UNICEF’s own work was strengthened through the evaluation of life-skills education in 40 countries, which better prepared the organisation to meet challenges regarding access and the learning needs of disadvantaged children.

In the focus area HIV and AIDS and children, UNICEF contributed in 2012 to the development of a toolkit to help in planning interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. UNICEF also implemented mechanisms to strengthen national monitoring and evaluation systems, and to measure progress towards mitigating the impact of AIDS.

Efforts in the last two focus areas, Child protection from violence, exploitation and abuse, and Policy advocacy and partnerships for children’s rights vary and target different levels. For example:

UNICEF reported on an increase from 78 in 2011 to 87 in 2012 of the organisation’s programme countries which have judicial or policy frameworks to prevent and respond to sexual violence, in accordance with international norms and stand-ards. In 2012, UNICEF contributed to the engagement of over 30 countries in developing child-friendly courts and legal-aid systems. UNICEF supported activities in 2012 to promote protection of children in 104 countries, and with support from the organisation, around 29.5 million children in 80 countries were registered at birth.

In 2012, UNICEF also contributed to the release of over 6,400 children associated with armed forces or groups and to their reintegration into their families and communities in nine countries. As a result of UNFPA-UNICEF’s Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), 1,775 local communities in Africa declared that they were abandoning the practice in 2012. Inclusive education for children with disabilities was a priority task for UNICEF, which worked to meet the needs of children with disabilities in 40 countries in 2012.

UNICEF is engaged in wide-ranging humanitarian efforts, and in 2012 contributed to responses to 286 emergencies of varying magnitude in 79 countries. As a result of this work, more than 18.8 million people in crisis situations gained access to clean water, and 7.78 million people were provided with access to sanitation facilities. Moreover, UNICEF helped to provide over 3.5 million school-age children with access to formal and non-formal basic education, and to reunite over 19,800 unaccompanied minors with family members.

2. Assessments: Results, effectiveness and monitoring

The organisation’s results-related work

UNICEF carries out a great deal of important, relevant work. However, the results framework in the organisation’s Strategic Plan 2006 – 2013 did not provide a sufficient basis for results-oriented management and reporting for the overall organisation on UNICEF’s contributions to development outcomes and on the extent to which the organisation has implemented plans. An extensive consultation process was carried out as part of the preparation of a new strategic plan and new results framework (2014 – 2017). UNICEF’s new Strategic Plan 2014 – 2017 was approved by the Executive Board in September 2013. The new results framework, which is to be finalised by June 2014, is anticipated to be of higher quality than the previous framework, and will strengthen UNICEF’s ability to show results and progress towards achieving the goals of the Strategic Plan. The Executive Board also asked UNICEF to prepare a supplementary document that elaborates on how UNICEF will contribute to achieving development results and to make this document available to the public.

As a follow-up of the intensified focus on results for vulnerable groups, UNICEF has developed a special monitoring mechanism, the Monitoring Results for Equity System (MoRES), to be able to report more rapidly and to identify constraints that hinder the achievement of results. UNICEF’s evaluation function helps to document the results that are achieved. In 2012, UNICEF was assessed by the Multilateral Organisation Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN). The assessment report showed, that UNICEF has set in motion constructive processes to promote desired improvements. It also showed that the results-reporting system must be further developed and that the organisation’s results-based budgeting had not been fully implemented.

Planning and budgeting systems

In 2009, the Executive Boards of UNDP/UNFPA and UNICEF adopted resolutions to introduce harmonised budgets based on their respective strategic plans and results frameworks for 2014-2017. The budget reform is intended to make the budget a more effective instrument for achieving priority goals and to improve the transparency of planning and use of funding in accordance with the Strategic Plan and the results framework. UNICEF’s Integrated Budget 2014 – 2017, which was adopted by the Executive Board in September 2013, ensures far better insight into the planned use of funding.

Oversight and anti-corruption

External audits are undertaken by the UN Board of Auditors. The Executive Board has adopted a resolution regarding publication of internal audit reports, and these reports have been available on UNICEF’s website since 2012. Norway attaches great importance to strengthening UNICEF’s internal audit function. In the Integrated Budget 2014 – 2017, there is an increase in funding allocated to the internal audit function which will be used to improve the investigations function.

Institution-building and national ownership

UNICEF seeks to build national capacity, advance institutional development and foster national ownership. Capacity development initiatives target both government authorities and civil society, but evaluations show that the interventions are often of a short-term nature. Country programmes are aligned with the partner country’s priorities. The organisation collaborates extensively with a wide range of partners and has a special strategy for these efforts. The national UNICEF commissions help to disseminate information on the organisation’s activities. Through inter-cluster cooperation, UNICEF plays a leading role as coordinator in humanitarian emergencies. UNICEF partners with other UN agencies under the Delivering as One initiative, but as a result of the individual organisations’ focus on their own “brand” of activities, follow-up has varied from country to country.

Willingness to learn and change

UNICEF’s evaluation function is instrumental in documenting results. On Norway’s initiative, global thematic evaluations have now been placed on the Executive Board agenda. However, the central evaluation function has had limited capacity and has largely been dependent on earmarked financing to be able to undertake global thematic evaluations. In June 2013, the Executive Board adopted a new evaluation policy. In the Integrated Budget 2014 – 2017, the Evaluation Office has been given its own budget and allocated substantial core funding. Norway has long focused attention on the Evaluation Office’s independence and capacity as an important issue in the Executive Board. The system for implementing and following up on evaluations carried out by country and regional offices has been strengthened in the past few years. However, UNICEF must continue its efforts to ensure the systematic, coherent follow-up of evaluations.

3. Norway’s policy towards UNICEF

The UN system is extremely important for Norway’s efforts to promote children’s rights, and UNICEF is one of Norway’s main partners. UNICEF’s broad-based presence in developing countries and its engagement through national committees in a total of 190 countries underscore the organisation’s global role. Norway expects UNICEF to maintain its unequivocal, ground-breaking stance in ensuring that children’s rights are placed high on the international agenda. In adopting a human rights approach, UNICEF must base its efforts not only on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but also on other relevant treaties, in particular the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and on treaty body recommendations (especially those of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Universal Periodic Reviews).

UNICEF is also one of Norway’s primary partners in efforts to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This applies in particular to MDG 2 (education), MDG 3 (gender equality), MDG 4 (child health) and MDG 5 (maternal health). UNICEF is strongly engaged in global health policy and participates actively in implementation of the UN Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. Among other things, UNICEF is the secretariat for efforts to implement the recommendations of the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children, which Norwegian Prime Minister Stoltenberg and the President of Nigeria, as Commission chairs, presented to the UN Secretary-General in the autumn of 2012. Through the programme cooperation agreement between UNICEF and Norway, support is provided for the focus areas in UNICEF’s Strategic Plan 2014 – 2017. The bulk of Norway’s support has been concentrated on the focus area of basic education and gender equality.

Norway expects the new Strategic Plan 2014 – 2017 and associated results framework to be an enhanced tool for strengthening UNICEF’s achievement of and reporting on results of activities for children, including by facilitating the effective integration of humanitarian activities. The annual report for 2014 will be the first test of whether these expectations are fulfilled. In the consultations on UNICEF’s new Strategic Plan, Norway has focused particular attention on ensuring that the emphasis on disadvantaged children is based on a human rights perspective. In accordance with the mandate enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Norway endorses UNICEF’s proposal to strengthen efforts for children and young people up to the age of 18. Norway appreciates the fact that UNICEF has strengthened its role in humanitarian situations, both as coordinator and through concrete measures to increase the organisation’s effectiveness.

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An evaluation report (2011) on UNICEF’s Early Childhood Development programme shows that a growing number of countries are including a focus on pre-school-age children in national policies and plans. In most countries, however, there is little information available on the effect of the interventions for children. Nevertheless, the report affirms that the programmes functioned best in countries where there was good cooperation across ministries, other competent institutions at national and local level and civil society. The report also points out that the generally poor quality of services is a problem and that the interventions seldom include children under the age of two.

UNICEF’s capacity development efforts have helped to ensure that the needs of small children are given higher priority on the political agenda in programme countries. The organisation’s strategies and activities were considered to be relevant and appropriate, but the report points out that UNICEF’s capacity development work is too random and short-term because the organisation is largely dependent on earmarked and short-term funding. Various types of information material produced with a view to building expertise and capacity are given good marks in the report. As a follow-up to the evaluation report, UNICEF will prepare a separate strategy for its early childhood development work.

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Visiting address: 7. juni plassen 1 / Victoria terasse 5, Oslo, P.O.Box 8114 Dep, NO-0032 Oslo, Norway.

For more information, contact the Section for Budget and Administration by e-mail at: sbf-fn@mfa.no. This document can be found on our website:

http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/ud/selected-topics/un.

Publication code: E-919 E

ISBN: 978-82-7177-835-4

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