The State of the World's Children 1996

Highlights

This special issue of The State of the World's Children marks the 50th anniversary year of UNICEF. As such, it aims to fulfil three purposes. First, it proposes an agenda against war as a vital step to prevent and alleviate the suffering of children in armed conflict. We start with children in war because their contemporary predicament is both overwhelming and inescapable. Second, it reviews the efforts of UNICEF in its first half-century to cope with children submerged not only in conflict but also in the silent emergencies of poverty and preventable disease. And it shows how many governments and communities, with UNICEF support, have made great progress in improving the health, nutrition and education of their children. Third, it retains the annual presentation of carefully assembled statistical data, so that the progress towards the year 2000 goals, adopted at the 1990 World Summit for Children, can be readily assessed.