UNICEF: Making child rights possible for 75 years

ANILA — As COVID-19 continues to affect children at an unprecedented scale, UNICEF commemorates its 75th anniversary by engaging youth influencers and various sectors of society to band together for children. The anniversary theme, Making It Possible For Every Child, highlights the forward-looking nature of the UN child rights agency while reflecting on its past achievements and on the challenges of today.

MUNICEF was founded in 1946 in the aftermath of World War II, a period marked with unprecedented devastation across the gl obe.

In the Philippines, UNICEF started working for children in 1948. Since then, it has been working closely with the Philippine Government, partners, children, and young people to strengthen national policies, programs, and services to ensure that every child in the country enjoys their rights, and provide humanitarian support during em er gen ci es.

During the 1940s and 50s, UNICEF in the Philippines focused on children’s survival.

In the 1960s, UNICEF worked to give children their rightful place in national planning, rather than out of a sense of charity.

The seventies saw a whole child in the community approach, focusing on basic services and grassroots participation.

Economic and political struggles in the 1980s led UNICEF to focus on children’s nutrition and protection, running more than 2,000 feeding centers for children affected by the famine in Negros Occidental.

During the 1990s, a shift to a rights-based approach was promoted through the enactment of the most widely ratified human rights treaty in the world, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The Philippines was one of the first countries that ratified the CRC on July 26, 1990. The 2000s to 2010s saw increasing focus on protecting children from sexual exploitation and armed conflict, safeguarding rights of those in conflict with the law, HIV and AIDS, and supporting children’s voices through child participation programs such as the Kabataan News Network (KNN).

At present, UNICEF sees the COVID-19 pandemic as the worst crisis for children in its 75-year history. The report Preventing a lost decade: Urgent action to reverse the devastating impact of COVID-19 on children and young people highlights the various ways in which COVID19 is challenging decades of progress on key childhood issues such as poverty, health, access to education, nutrition, child protection and mental well-being.

It warns that, almost two years into the pandemic, the widespread impact of COVID-19 continues to deepen, increasing poverty, entrenching inequality and threatening the rights of children at previously unseen levels.

In the Philippines, UNICEF is focusing on children’s education, vaccination and protection to help them recover and mitigate the pandemic’s imp act .

UNICEF’s support to learning includes provision of school and WASH supplies, generating data, capacity building of teachers, and gathering support from local leaders and community members. Technical support and coordination with the Department of Education, WHO and partners supported the safe reopening of schools in pilot areas and improvement of distance learning modalities. UNICEF, as the delivery partner of COVAX, has supplied around 36 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, as well as syringes and cold chain equipment, to support the country’s vaccination program. To aid children’s mental health and protection, national helplines were supported to assist children and paren t s.

“As we highlight some of the most crucial issues that are affecting children and young people in the Philippines today, UNICEF remains a hopeful voice that aims to unite and inspire children, youth, and soci et y.

Together, we can fight for child rights. We have made it possible then. We continue to make it possible As UNICEF works to now. And we will continue the progress continue to make it made for children’s possible for the future rights, its special focus of every child,” UNICEF remains on children Philippines Representative who are the most vulnerable, Oyunsaikhan disadvantaged, Dendevnorov says. and left behind

It is not all doom to ensure that every and gloom, especially child has a fair chance for children themselves. in life. Today’s young “By giving extra support generation is more and help to those hopeful and confident who need it, their that the world is becoming dreams will continue a better place. to thrive until they UNICEF’s Changing reach whatever it is Childhood project surveyed that they want to over 20,000 achieve in the future. people across 21 countries One of them can be the and found that instead next leader of our of despairing in country, would you let the face of inequality that opportunity slip and the climate crisis, away from the child?” the young generation Erl Lacman, a social is more confident that media influencer joining the world is becoming UNICEF’s campaign a better place compared say s. to those aged 40 UNICEF works in and older. some of the world’s

The survey also toughest places, to found that today’s reach the world’s most young people are more disadvantaged children. likely than the older generation to recognize In more than 190 the progress made as countries and territories, living standards have we work for every risen and access to child, everywhere, to services has expanded build a better world for many children. for everyone.

For more information about UNICEF and its work for children in the Philippines, visit www.unicef.ph.

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