UNICEF’s Story: Building a better world for every child
For over 79 years, UNICEF has worked tirelessly in the world’s toughest places to help children in the greatest need.
From emergency food to clean water, education, and child rights, our work has evolved and grown to transform the lives of millions of children around the world.
Keeping reading to learn more about UNICEF’s story.
1946: Europe
Following a unanimous vote at the first session of the UN General Assembly, UNICEF was founded on the 11th of December 1946. The mission of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, as it was then known, was to provide short-term emergency relief to children in post-World War II Europe.
UNICEF provided life-saving therapeutic food, medical supplies, clothing and blankets to more than 6 million children across the continent.
UNICEF provided life-saving therapeutic food, medical supplies, clothing and blankets to more than 6 million children across the continent.
1948: Vaccinations
By 1948 the first mass disease control programme started, with mass vaccinations delivered to prevent the spread of tuberculosis. In time, diseases like leprosy, malaria and polio were also included in UNICEF’s vaccination programme.
Today UNICEF helps vaccinate half the worlds children each year. Our work over the years has helped ensure the life-saving benefits of vaccines are now reaching 85% of the world’s children, preventing up to three million deaths every year.
Today UNICEF helps vaccinate half the worlds children each year. Our work over the years has helped ensure the life-saving benefits of vaccines are now reaching 85% of the world’s children, preventing up to three million deaths every year.
1950: Worldwide Reach
The United Nations General Assembly extends UNICEF’s mandate and emphasises the need to support children outside Europe.
By 1953 UNICEF was helping children in over 100 countries and the words ‘International’ and ‘Emergency’ are dropped from the official name to reflect the growing scope of UNICEF’s work.
By 1953 UNICEF was helping children in over 100 countries and the words ‘International’ and ‘Emergency’ are dropped from the official name to reflect the growing scope of UNICEF’s work.
Can you support UNICEF’s work for every child, everywhere?
1957: Nutrition
UNICEF launches new nutrition programmes to extend beyond emergency and therapeutic food. Communities are trained in vegetable gardening, fish pond management, poultry and livestock breeding, and receive education about nutrition.
Today UNICEF runs nutrition programmes in over 130 countries.
Our programmes work to prevent all forms of malnutrition while always prioritising the early detection, treatment and care of malnourished children to help them survive, recover, and go on to live healthy and productive lives. UNICEF supplies over 80% of the world’s life-saving therapeutic food.
Today UNICEF runs nutrition programmes in over 130 countries.
Our programmes work to prevent all forms of malnutrition while always prioritising the early detection, treatment and care of malnourished children to help them survive, recover, and go on to live healthy and productive lives. UNICEF supplies over 80% of the world’s life-saving therapeutic food.
1961: Education
UNICEF expands its focus to include children’s education and by 1993 our programmes help increase the proportion of children starting school from 50 per cent to 75 per cent.
Today UNICEF help millions of children access education every year, with education programmes in over 100 countries.
We help build and rehabilitate damaged schools, train teachers and provide essential school supplies and learning materials. Our innovative programmes ensure that even when children can’t get to school, we can take the classroom to them and solar-powered radios are just one way we do that.
Today UNICEF help millions of children access education every year, with education programmes in over 100 countries.
We help build and rehabilitate damaged schools, train teachers and provide essential school supplies and learning materials. Our innovative programmes ensure that even when children can’t get to school, we can take the classroom to them and solar-powered radios are just one way we do that.
1965: Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to UNICEF for the “promotion of brotherhood among nations”.
The Nobel Peace Prize designation recognizes work for children as work for peace.
The Nobel Peace Prize designation recognizes work for children as work for peace.
Millions of children saved
Over the decades UNICEF has protected the rights and well-being of millions of children, providing life-saving support like clean water, nutrition and education, as well as upholding the rights of children globally.
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UNICEF supporters helped us reach 251,000,000 children in 2024 with early detection services for deadly malnutrition.
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UNICEF reached over 33,000,000 people in 2024 with safe water and 21,000,000 million with basic hygiene services.
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Our supporters enabled us to provide 1.5bn polio vaccine doses in 2024 to 87 countries across the world.
1975: Clean Water
The Mark II water pump is invented, transforming village life. The pump, designed for heavy usage, is manufactured in India and used in the UNICEF-assisted water supply programmes around the world.
By 1993 and the number of rural families with access to safe drinking water has risen from just 10 per cent to almost 60 per cent.
Today UNICEF WASH programmes help ensure access to save clean water for billions of people in over 100 countries.
By 1993 and the number of rural families with access to safe drinking water has risen from just 10 per cent to almost 60 per cent.
Today UNICEF WASH programmes help ensure access to save clean water for billions of people in over 100 countries.
1985: Children in Conflict
A ceasefire in El Salvador’s civil war, based on the UNICEF-supported concepts of “children as a zone of peace” and “periods of tranquility” for humanitarian assistance, allows for three days of mass immunization of children.
Today this approach and our apolitical stance ensure we can reach children whoever they are and wherever they are.
Today this approach and our apolitical stance ensure we can reach children whoever they are and wherever they are.
1989: A Landmark Moment
159 United Nations Member States adopt the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most universally approved human rights treaty for the protection of children.
Decades of work in photos
In pictures: see UNICEF’s work for children around the world, supported by people like you.
Burma (now Myanmar), 1968. A midwife trainee bathes a newborn baby in the Tower Lane Maternity Hospital in Rangoon. 
Bangladesh, 1989. UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Audrey Hepburn vaccinates a child against polio at a health clinic. 
Kenya, 1990: A poster featuring a map of Kenya with a dancing boy and girl, used as part the global campaign led by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) in the mid-1980s to achieve Universal Child Immunization. 
Greece, 1946: Children in Patras, a north-western port city, eat cereal provided by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. 
Kenya, 1950: A health worker from a UNICEF-assisted mobile health unit in Olobelibel applies antibiotic ointment to treat a child affected by trachoma. 
1993: A Great Leap Forward
By the end of 1993, life expectancy in the developing world has increased by about a third since the end of World War II.
Infant and child death rates have been halved.
Infant and child death rates have been halved.
2020: The Pandemic
As the COVID-19 pandemic grips the world, UNICEF plays a key role in the United Nations’ global response to the crisis.
We lead efforts to procure and supply COVID-19 vaccines so that all countries had fair and equitable access to the vaccine.
We lead efforts to procure and supply COVID-19 vaccines so that all countries had fair and equitable access to the vaccine.
Ukraine, Gaza and the story continues
As the world recovered from the pandemic, new crises emerged for children. UNICEF was on the ground from the first days of the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria in 2023, and we continue to help children suffering amid war in Ukraine and Gaza.
With your support, UNICEF will keep striving to ensure every child can fufil their potential.
With your support, UNICEF will keep striving to ensure every child can fufil their potential.
Will you help continue the story?
Your support today can ensure UNICEF keeps helping children globally for generations to come.