UNICEF works actively to make the United Nations increasingly coherent in development activities, considering this an improved way of working together to get better and faster results for children. The organization’s work for increased coherence is guided by the Comprehensive Policy Reviews of the General Assembly.
UNICEF is working on developing a comprehensive policy on climate change.
In March 2011, UNICEF and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) signed an agreement to work jointly on specific sectoral interventions in the areas of climate change, child and youth participation, environmental education, and water and sanitation.
‘Climate Change and Children’ (Video)
The prospect of catastrophic global warming nears every day. What is the impact on children? UNICEF debates the issue with guests including Dr. Tom Mitchell, the Head of Climate Change at the Overseas Development Institute; Professor Saleem Ul Huq, Senior Fellow in the Climate Change Group at the International Institute for Environment and Development; and Esther Agbarakwe, Head of the Nigerian Youth Climate Coalition.
‘The Debate: Climate change heats up threats to children’ (Video)
‘Children and Climate Change: Children’s vulnerability to climate change and disaster impacts in East Asia and the Pacific’, 2011 (PDF)
‘Climate Change and Children’, 2007
UNICEF’s equity-based approach is founded on the belief that priority should be given to the rights of those children who are the most marginalized and most in need of assistance – not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it is the most practical and cost-effective in order to achieve greater results for children.
UNICEF is committed to gender equality and has made it a central and visible element of all its plans, policies, instructions and guidance since 2010. For more information, download ‘UNICEF’s Strategic Priority Action Plan for Organisational Transformation on Gender Equality, 2010–2012’ (PDF).
Children and their families face many challenges, particularly in resource-limited areas. UNICEF and its partners develop innovative solutions to improve their lives. <http://unicefinnovation.org/>
‘The Debate: Post 2015 – What next?’ (Video)
Post-2015 Key Messages (PDF)
The initiative launched in 2012 to end preventable child deaths, reducing national child mortality rates to 20 or fewer deaths per 1,000 live births by 2035.
‘Committing to Child Survival: A promise renewed’
UNICEF is contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and delivering results for children with equity. To ensure that its management, knowledge, processes and services contribute to the achievement of desired results (outputs, outcomes and impacts), the organization principally plans, monitors and evaluates its work using two results-based management tools:
1. The Medium Term Straegic Plan 2006-13 sets out the vision, core strategies and expected results at the organizational level. It guides UNICEF’s work and contribution to poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The next Medium Term Strategic Plan is currently being finalized.
2.Individual Country Programmes of Cooperation outline expected results, implementation arrangements and budget in line with a country’s poverty reduction strategies and the United Nations Development Assistant Framework.
The International Aid Transparency Initiative IATI was launched in 2008 to support donors in meeting their Accra commitments on transparency. It is a voluntary, multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to improve the transparency of aid to increase its effectiveness. IATI aims to make information about aid spending and results easier to access, compare, understand, and use for stakeholders. This is of value for everyone from taxpayers in donor countries, to the children and other stakeholders in programme countries.
UNICEF joined IATI in 2012 and is currently working on publishing the full IATI data set as per the IATI implementation schedule (pdf).
UNICEF has also developed and published an Information Disclosure Policy that makes explicit the commitment to making information about programmes and operations available to the public. In 2011 UNICEF prepared a briefing note on various accountability and transparency actions. Following this, the UNICEF Executive Board decided in its annual session of June 8, 2012 that the Director of the Office for Internal Audit and Investigation will make publicly available all internal audit reports issued after 30 September 2012.
In the spirit of accountability, transparency and improved effectiveness and results, UNICEF also makes itself readily available for assessments by its donors. The Multilateral Organization Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN) is a network of donor countries with a common interest in assessing the effectiveness of multilateral organizations. The assessment provides a snapshot of four dimensions of effectiveness (strategic management, operational management, relationship management, and knowledge management): MOPAN 2012, volume 1 (pdf) and volume 2 (pdf).
UNICEF is Transparent (pdf fact sheet on UNICEF and transparency).
UNICEF has shown, through programmes and research, that reaching the most vulnerable is one of the best development investments made. The equity-based approach is not only right, it is also ‘value for money’. Funding activities for children through UNICEF is also extremely cost-effective, as more than 90 per cent of core resources are used to fund programme support activities. UNICEF is also able to amply show value for money in its procurement services.
‘UNICEF to save US$22 million through transparency in buying bed nets’, 6 June 2012
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