I.: Broken promises
It was September 1990, a time of unusual optimism in the world.
The cold war was over and there was widespread expectation that
money that had been spent on arms could now be devoted to human
development in a ‘peace dividend’. An unprecedented
number of country presidents and national leaders gathered at
the United Nations for the World Summit for Children, as the world
considered how to guarantee children a better life.
The World Summit for Children reflected the world’s hopes
for children. Leaders promised to ratify the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, which had been unanimously approved by the
United Nations General Assembly just the year before. They signed
up to ambitious goals to reduce child mortality, increase immunization
coverage, deliver basic education and a whole raft of other measures
by the year 2000. The World Declaration to which the leaders signed
their name was bold and unequivocal: “The well-being of children
requires political action at the highest level.” The cause
of children, for perhaps the first time in human history, was
at the top of the world’s agenda.
The State of the World’s Children 2002 is about leadership:
about the leadership that turned the commitments made at the 1990
Summit into actions that improved the lives of children and families,
and about the leadership that is still needed to ensure the right
of every child to live in peace, health and dignity. Presenting
models of leadership from individuals and agencies, organizations
and alliances, this report spotlights the ‘Say Yes for Children’
campaign and the United Nations Special Session on Children.
Unfinished
business
UNICEF is determined to focus attention on the unfinished business
of the World Summit for Children, on the children who have not
yet been reached. Every child has a name and a story; every one
has the right to health, learning and protection, the right to
their full potential and the right to participate in shaping their
world – rights which have in all too many cases been violated.
Leadership
Governments, as well as international institutions, must be held
accountable for their leadership in putting the rights and well-being
of children above all other concerns. And those that fail to do
so must also be held accountable.
Ensuring the rights and well-being of children is the key to
sustained development in a country and to peace and security in
the world. Meeting this responsibility, fully, consistently and
at any cost, is the essence of leadership. Heads of State and
Government hold the lion’s share of this responsibility.
But commitment and action are also called for across the board:
from community activists and entrepreneurs, from artists and scientists,
from religious leaders and journalists – and from children
and adolescents themselves.
Challenges for leadership in the face of HIV/AIDS
The impact of HIV/AIDS is crushing the attempts of countries
all over the world to put human development and the rights of
women and children first. In the Latin American and Caribbean
region, for example, an estimated 210,000 adults and children
contracted the virus in 2000, bringing the total number of people
living with HIV to 1.8 million. Haiti is the worst affected country
in the region, with an estimated 74,000 children orphaned by AIDS.
But the epidemic is at its most devastating in southern and eastern
Africa where, after decades of steady improvement, life expectancy
figures are plummeting.
In his report to the Special Session of the UN General Assembly
on HIV/AIDS, UN Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan spoke of the AIDS
epidemic as a “crisis of governance and a crisis of leadership.”
And he went further to say that “leadership – at the
global as well as the country level – is the single most
important factor in reversing the epidemic.” Launching an
intense campaign at the highest levels of international cooperation
in 2001, the Secretary-General proposed a multi-billion dollar
a year Global AIDS and Health Fund, with support to come from
donor and developing country governments and the private sector.
Leadership in policy-making
Some national governments have shown leadership by recognizing
the paramount importance of a particular policy and moving heaven
and earth to bring it about. The decision by Malawi in 1994 to
guarantee universal free primary education was just such a case.
This enormously popular move resulted in school attendance skyrocketing
from 1.9 million to 2.9 million. The school system is still straining
now to meet the demands – but the fee-free schooling remains
in place.
Cambodia, China and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
have shown leadership in the field of immunization. Through multiple
National Immunization Days backed by strong governmental commitment,
both China and Lao PDR reached the goal of polio-free status by
the end of 2000. Cambodia succeeded in eliminating polio in three
years despite huge obstacles, and in 2000 the country showed a
particular commitment to spreading the benefits of immunization
to people in remote, underserved areas, reaching more of these
– 65 per cent – than ever before. In Thailand, meanwhile,
immunization is close to universal: The Government sustains the
vaccination programme out of its own budget and has stressed that
no children under five die of vaccine-preventable diseases. The
goal of freedom from polio has also been achieved by Pacific Island
Nations, which are also well placed to eliminate measles and neonatal
tetanus as seven countries in the region have achieved and maintain
90 per cent immunization coverage.
Corporate leadership
Instances of leadership are by no means confined to the public
sector. There is a particular need for corporations, those in
the pharmaceutical industry in particular, to exercise leadership
in the world’s fight against HIV/AIDS, and many have stepped
forward in response to intense international pressure to do so.
The Coca-Cola Company recently announced that it would put its
enormous distribution network – which manages to get soft
drinks to nearly every part of the African continent – to
help bring condoms, testing kits and literature to remote clinics.
Coca-Cola is one of many corporations to join the Global Business
Council on HIV and AIDS, an effort to mobilize the private sector
that is chaired by William Roedy, president of MTV Networks International
and includes such companies as AOL Time Warner, Daimler Chrysler,
MAC Cosmetics and Unilever.
Some private companies have shown a different kind of leadership
in finding a way in which high-tech commerce can serve the needs
of the poorest. The Finnish mobile-phone giant Nokia launched
child-oriented social initiatives in many countries. The sale
of mobile phones also benefited Palestinian children: The Egyptian
company MobiNil donated $140,000 of its proceeds to UNICEF programmes
in the West Bank and Gaza area. Meanwhile in Bangladesh, GrameenPhone
is donating $2 to UNICEF for every mobile phone sold.
Leadership by individuals
Individuals who use their celebrity and popular respect for the
greater social good can have a huge influence. A classic example
of this kind of leadership on behalf of children was seen when
23 of the leading intellectuals in Latin America and the Caribbean,
including writers Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez,
Elena Poniatowska and Ernesto Sábato, issued a moving and
outspoken manifesto challenging governments and citizens throughout
the region to put aside their differences and establish a ‘social
pact’ for the region’s 192 million children and adolescents.
Internationally, Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa,
together with Graça Machel, a former Minister of Education
in Mozambique and a world leader on the issue of children caught
up in armed conflict, together with UNICEF and other key children’s
agencies, aimed to enlist the commitment of leaders to do whatever
it takes to create a world fit for children. “The future
of our children lies in leadership and the choices leaders make,”
they have said. “We call on those we have called on before
to join us in a new global partnership that is committed to this
change. We invite those whom we have never met to join us in the
global movement for children.”
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