30 years of UNICEF in Romania

The decision to launch an emergency programme in Romania was taken after a UNCEF team visited in August 1990 and carried out an inquiry on the living standards of Romanian children, in particular the institutionalised children, whose number was estimated to be approximately 100,000.  

„The UNICEF Office in Bucharest was the first UNICEF office in Eastern Europe since the immediate post-war period, when we used to supply things like milk powder and hides to make children shoes. But those emergency operations were over by the middle 1950’ and then there was a long gap before UNICEF came back to Eastern Europe. We have to remember that we knew very little about the situation of children and women in Eastern Europe and, of course, in Romania. So one of the first things we had to do was to start to learn”, recalls Rosemary McCreery, UNICEF Representative in Romania from 1990 to 1993. 

^{1990 - Orphaned children institutionalized in Romania.}

The mission of August 1990 determined that the serious deterioration of health and welfare services in the 1980s’ Romania was one of the foremost causes of the high rates of children institutionalisation, and continued to jeopardise the wellbeing of all the children in the country.  

“One of the first things we did was to undertake a series of studies and analyses, to try to establish what the baseline was. We looked at the social protection system, we looked at the causes of institutionalisation. At the same time, we tried to address some of the most urgent needs of the children who, at the time, were in institutions in that immediate post-Ceausescu period. We also did studies on the Roma, who were (and are now) a particularly disadvantaged minority, and we also addressing the issue of international adoption, where the system was weak and very much subject to abuse”, remembers Rosemary McCreery. “I like to think that some of the work we did in those early years has helped to guide the work of UNICEF in Romania in the subsequent 30 years. I also want to acknowledge the extraordinary collaboration and cooperation we had with our national counterparts – people in the Ministry of Health, Education, Labor and Social Protection, University of Bucharest, or local authorities. Everywhere we went, we found counterparts eager to engage with us, to collaborate and to do the best, together with UNICEF, for Romania’s children”, says the first UNICEF Representative in Romania. 

Contributions from two governments and seven UNICEF national committees amounting to 4,180,000 dollars were allocated to programmed activities and to supporting the Office of UNICEF in Romania.  

On June 21st, 1991, the Framework Cooperation Agreement between the Government of Romania and UNICEF was signed, and approved by the Government’s Decision no. 295/1992.  

UNICEF's office in Romania started operating with a small number of staff in a space located on Olari Street in the Capital. 

During its first five years, the UNICEF Office organised itself and prepared the first cooperation plan with the Romanian authorities. UNICEF’s support focused on dealing with emergencies, through the procurement of vaccines, medical consumables for vaccination and other medical treatments, powdered milk, and food and nutrition supplements for babies and pregnant women. 

^{1992 - A doctor examines a baby boy in the examination room of the pediatric ward of a Bucharest hospital. Besides assisting with medical supplies and equipment, UNICEF supported improved training for health professionals.}

UNICEF campaigned to encourage breastfeeding and provided direct emergency support to children in institutional care, in particular disabled and HIV infected children. Over the same period (1991-1995), alongside other international organisations, UNICEF supported the development of the first national family planning programme, the HIV/AIDS prevention in healthcare facilities programme and the support programme in case of natural disasters.   

Initial research was initiated to substantiate reforms: the study on the causes of institutionalisation, the study on nutrition of nurslings and the study on prenatal care. UNICEF supported Romania’s institutional preparedness to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989. 

Among the memories of the former UNICEF Representative in Romania Nora Godwin, who lead the UNICEF office between 1993-1996, was “the commitment of the staff to our mandate, driven by the deep belief that their work was for the benefits of the Romanian children. A lot of the time I was there I had the strong impression that the office belonged to the staff and I was an honoured visitor working with them, very much part of the team, but nevertheless a visitor”. 

“There was very little competition in the office. People were willing and ready to help each other and, as it turned out, to help offices in the neighbouring countries, because my work coincided with the Kosovo crisis and that entailed large numbers of displaced people crossing the border into Macedonia, and that was within driving distance of the UNICEF office. We had to muster very quickly a team of technical and support staff, of drivers and vehicles to get down there as quickly as possible to help. And people were so ready and willing to commit themselves to help and to go there at a short notice”, said Nora Godwin. 

The former representative remembers the work for the children living with AIDS as “such a good example of a multisectoral approach… It was such a complex problem, that it involved health response, but also social support, education and public communication”. 

In the period from 1996 to 2000, UNICEF further established its presence in Romania, by the signing of a new joint country programme. The Office continued its work in critical areas related to the condition of institutionalised children and the deinstitutionalisation process, as well as to the reform of the pre- and post-natal care system.  

The initiatives undertaken in this period included education reforms (curriculum reform, introduction of standards and wide-scale training of teachers, preparing the system for teaching in the Romani Language and Roma children’s participation to education). Based on a multiannual agreement with the Ministry of Education and Research, UNICEF supported the development of early education policies and preschool teacher university education programmes, thus contributing to the training of previously unqualified Roma teachers.   

UNICEF supported the wide-scale development of family planning programmes and the improvement of standards in maternities. 

^{1992 - Two women breastfeed their babies in the maternity ward of a Bucharest hospital.} 

Between 2000 and 2005, UNICEF was the main partner of the authorities in the efforts to decentralize and reform the institutionalised care system for children. The efforts continued to support equity in the education system and promote early education.   

A first national education for health programme involving 12,000 teachers was introduced in the Romanian schools with the support of UNICEF.  

In 2001, UNICEF launched the National Parenting Programme in Early Education, providing parents the opportunity to improve their parenting knowledge and practices.   

Reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and public health strategies were promoted, and the national law on salt iodisation and the framework supporting the fortification of foods were adopted with support from UNICEF.  

_{2004 - A health worker draws a blood sample from Elisa at the UNICEF-assisted NGO Alaturi de Voi (‘Close to You’), in the village of Silistea in Constanta County. Elisa is five months pregnant, and her blood sample will be tested for HIV. Her 12-year-old died after contracting HIV from contaminated blood at a hospital.}

Within the United Nations’ System, UNICEF participated in the defining and implementation of the first UN joint programme in support of the Millennium Goals as globally agreed for 2015. UNICEF also supported the efforts to align child education and care regulations and practices, in the perspective of Romania’s accession to the EU.  

“When I think back of my time in Romania, between 2000 and 2003, I think about Strada Olari, this wonderful villa with all kind of little rooms, and large conference room, some terraces… we had a very good time there. And we used the time to think through what we could do to take children out of institutions... We did what we could, together with the Government, European Union, World Bank and others, to take out as many children out of the institutions back to their biological families, extended families, sometimes foster care. All in all, I think we got some 80,000 children living in families again, after three years. I really feel proud of the role UNICEF played”, states Karin Hulshof, UNICEF Representative at the time. 

The former representative also remembers the high number of children with HIV/AIDS: “In the 1980’s and 1990’s, some 10,000 children got infected through blood transfusions. They were living in small rooms, but not having really real access to education and health. We negotiated with the Government and the pharma industry to make sure that pharmaceutical treatments was available. We negotiated, as first country in the world, to cut the prices by 85 percent. That insured the children could get treatment, that they could go to school, and that they had access to health services. One of the big moments was probably the four day of celebration for the World Summit for Children in 2002 – four days in which we talked about deinstitutionalisation, the quality of education, inclusive education, the treatment of HIV/AIDS, and children living with disabilities to make them access all the services that are needed. When I look back, I look back with a big smile on my face: beautiful people, wonderful staff, great colleagues and great counterparts. Multumesc!”. 

Between 2006 and 2010, UNICEF continued its efforts to reform the education and social protection system and assisted in the establishment of the Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS), defined to support the development of children from birth to 6 years of age. UNICEF supported the training of national experts in writing and validating ELDS and the establishment of a multi-sectoral task force that provided expertise in the development of those standards.   

UNICEF strategically envisaged to change the childcare system, by the switching to responsibilities based on children’s rights and best interest. The organisation contributed to the development of new laws, standards and methodologies aimed at improving the quality of childcare in residential institutions and at widening the range of alternative, family care options. 

In 2006, the parenting programme reached national coverage. The focus went on increasing the number of kindergartens included in the project, in particular in disadvantaged communities. The statistics showed that more than 70,000 parents received training in almost 4,000 kindergartens and 370 schools. UNICEF started piloting the approach to bring social and health services close to the community, especially for the disadvantaged and marginalised, which contributes to the improvement of the population’s social wellbeing and health. This is an innovative concept, where the family doctor, community nurse and health mediator are trained to work together to facilitate access to healthcare services. 

“There are still lots of challenges ahead. Particularly in the post-pandemic the situation of children is not going to be good and you are going to have your work cut out. But I hope that, when we will look back at the 80th anniversary, I hope we will be able to see great post-pandemic achievements” (Edmond McLoughney, UNICEF Representative to Romania 2007-2021) 

Over the last decade, together with its partners (central and local governments, and civil society), UNICEF has established two models for the social inclusion of children in Romania: the Minimum Package of Services, addressed to vulnerable children and their families, and the Quality Inclusive Education Package. These models are focused on preventing poverty, early pregnancy, disease, discrimination, absenteeism, school dropout, and the unnecessary separation of children from their families. Currently, the two models are being prepared to be extended nationwide, with national or European funding. 

The Minimum Package of Services was launched in 2014 and implemented in 45 communities of Romania. It aims to ensure that all children in Romania are protected, healthy and educated, through access to integrated, community-based services. The programme includes integrated prevention services (health, education, welfare) provided directly to beneficiaries by local teams of trained professionals (a social worker, a community nurse and a school counsellor, plus school and health mediators in Roma communities). These concerted interventions help close the equality gaps, but also reduce social, health and education costs on the medium and long term. 

The objective of the Quality Inclusive Education Package, implemented since 2014, is to ensure that every child is enrolled in school at the right age, learns to his/her full potential, and is adequately prepared for life. To that end, we established a school-family-community partnership in support of children. The Quality Inclusive Education Package is addressed to all students and schools, with a focus on the most vulnerable children and most disadvantaged schools. 

Sandie Blanchet, UNICEF Representative in Romania between 2012 and 2017, says that she has many beautiful memories since she lead the Bucharest Office. One is the development and implementation of the Minimum Package of Services and the Quality Inclusive Education Package. “We travelled to Bacau so many times that it lireally became our second office. I was always inspired by children, their families and communities, mayors, health and social workers, teachers, and national and county authorities. And I’m very proud that today most of these projects have become national laws, regulations and standards. The second memory is very different, is was all the galas we had at the Parliament. We gathered prime-ministers, ministers, presidents of the Chambers, parliamentarians and, of course, children and, all together, we celebrated children’s rights. None of that would have been possible without the wonderful team of highly qualified, hard-working, and committed professionals”, says Sandie Blanchet.  

“My work builds on all the work done in by the fantastic team that we have here in the country and the work done under the leadership of the representatives that came before me. I want to highlight particularly one element, which is our work on the Minimum Package of Services, which was completed in 2018. But ‘completed’ that does not mean the end. ‘Completed’ means we proved the results that this kind of programme can achieve, and we are now working very hard with the Government and other partners to promote a scale-up, because this minimum package of services can make a big difference in the lives of children, at national level, particularly in the fight against child poverty.”  Pieter Bult, UNICEF Representative in Romania 

In 2011, UNICEF began the implementation of the modelling project initially called “Helping the ‘Invisible’ Children”, later renamed “First Priority: No More ‘Invisible’ Children!”. Based on the theory that children’s welfare in Romania will improve only if and when they, especially those worst-off (‘invisible’), will have enhanced access to social services (education, health and social assistance services), the modelling project aimed to provide a possible solution to increase the impact of social policies on children and their families. With the new approach and working methodology tested at the local level, the project aimed for a paradigm shift in the child protection system – from a reactive to a proactive system. 

Monitoring children’s rights is one action area that is based on the generation of evidence (such as baseline assessments, rapid assessments, assessment of the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, etc.) and monitoring global and EU children’s indicators trends and the progress in achieving the sustainable development goals. UNICEF supported the establishment of the Children’s Ombudsman and provided technical assistance to this entity to work as an independent mechanism for monitoring children’s rights.  

Through the World Children's Day and high-level public events, UNICEF and key decision makers have been supporting the participation of children, by inviting and encouraging them to speak out and advocate their rights.  

“The Bucharest EU Children's Declaration” was developed during Romania’s Presidency at the Council of the EU by a diverse group of dedicated Romanian children, in a consultative process involving EU and children’s right experts from various international institutions and organisations and, most important, children and teenagers from all Europe. The Declaration was handed over to the EU leaders (including Donald Tusk, President of the European Council and Klaus Iohannis, President of Romania) during their informal summit at Sibiu. 

“Participation is a right of every child, as is mentioned in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. But we did not promote participation just for being a right, but for being an absolute necessity to face the persisting challenges in Romania and the world, challenges around child poverty, climate change, and fighting inequality. For these, we need new ideas and new thinking. And who could do this better than children? So we have to tap into the collective knowledge of children. We did this successfully during the first Romanian Presidency of the Council of Europe, in 2019”, says Pieter Bult, UNICEF Representative in Romania as of 2017.  

“Together with the Government, civil society, and all EU member states, we championed child participation, and the children of Romania (who formed the Children’s board) led this process around Europe and came up with the first ever EU Children's Declaration promoting children’s participation at all levels. I am very proud of this achievement and of the continued work that the Romanian Children’s Board is doing to promote the child participation and much more than that”, declares the Representative.