UNICEF and Rio+20
UNICEF briefed UN delegates yesterday on its approach to Rio+20, the upcoming global green conference. If anyone doubts the importance UN agencies are placing on Rio+20, Richard Morgan, UNICEF’s director for Policy and Practice, made clear: “The outcomes of Rio will feed into the entire international development agenda, including the Millennium Development Goals and the [...]
Vaccinations, antibiotics and…birth control
A recent UN announcement heralded the launch of a high-level commission on life-saving commodities for women and children. Vaccinations, antibiotics, anti-maleria drugs you ask, possibly, but don’t forget the birth control. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon celebrated the new joint initiative by UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) saying, “The Commission will tackle [...]
The End of the MDGs?
This morning the Secretary General, and Rebeca Grynspan, Associate Administrator of UNDP, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Special Adviser on the MDGs, held a press conference to report on the progress towards achieving the MDG’s. The SG described Sachs and Grynspan as his “top development experts and senior advisers.” They cited a report issued this week [...]
UN Population Fund Will Not Account for $200 million of Dispersed Money
An article in the New American reveals that some UN agencies will not account for a large amount of their funding. Two of these agencies, UNICEF and UNPFA, received $3.9 billion in funding in 2009. The article states that this amounted to about thirty percent of UNFPA total dispersed expenditures according to a consulting firm [...]
New Study: Contraceptives Double Risk of HIV/AIDS
The New York Times front page today carried the story of a new study showing that injectible contraceptives double the risk of contracting HIV. The contraceptive is the most popular in eastern and southern Africa (used by some 12 million women). Women who are HIV positive double the chance they will infect their partner. What [...]
Shielding Youth Through Exposure?
Just in time for the upcoming conference on HIV/AIDS, UNICEF, UNAIDS, and a host of other UN agencies released a report yesterday, entitled “Opportunity in Crisis,” on preventing HIV/AIDS among adolescents aged 10-24. While the report is relatively extensive in outlining the varied reasons for the prevalence of HIV infection among different populations of young [...]
UNICEF: Youth-friendly Clinics or Brainwashing Stations?
As Tyler Ament posted yesterday, UNICEF recently released their latest State of the World’s Children report with some disturbing references to safe abortion for teenage, and even pre-teen girls. Just as disturbing, is the way UNICEF wants to provide reproductive healthcare for adolescents, without any parental supervision or involvement, as shown in this excerpt from [...]
UNICEF: 10 Year Olds Have A Right to Safe Abortion
UNICEF’s most recent State of the World’s Children Report, reveals that UNICEF’s take on what children need in 2011 and beyond is absurd at the least. A look at their broad definition of adolescence (10-19 years old), their reasons for investing in adolescents, and their choice of health topics demonstrates that UNICEF has stepped away [...]
What Do Libyan Women Need Now?
According to UNFPA: what the hundred thousand refugee women fleeing Libya need right now is reproductive health kits. As my colleague Lauren Funk said in this blog yesterday, UNFPA has stated for the record that most of these kits are abortion and contraception supplies. For the last week, Libyan president Qaddafi has engaged in a [...]
Making the Connection: UNICEF and UNFPA
What brings UNICEF and UNFPA together? Providing sexual and reproductive health services- especially to adolescent girls. UNICEF and UNFPA sponsored an event last week during the Commission on the Status of Women, entitled “Women or Children: Whose Rights Come First?” The panelists explored the strong existing ties between UNICEF and UNFPA, and called for the [...]
V-Day: “Victory, Valentine, and Vagina”, Sponsored by UNICEF
Happy Valentine’s Day. For most people, today is celebration of love and a chance to show your sweetheart how much you appreciate him or her. But for Eve Ensler, author of the play The Vagina Monologues, and UNICEF, today is a celebration of feminism. For those of you who are not familiar with the play, [...]