A Better World for Every Child
For 79 years, UNICEF has worked tirelessly in the world’s toughest places to help the 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 our work, then and now.
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.
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.
In 1980 in India, children collect water at a Mark II handpump in a village in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
1985 Children in Conflict
A cease fire 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 wherever they are.
As Government and guerrilla forces observed a truce UNICEF supported an unprecedented nationwide immunization campaign to protect 400,000 children against diphtheria, measles, polio, tetanus, and whooping cough.
1989
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.
1993
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.
Two girls lean against a wall in the Curicancha community, near the town of Chinchero, Cuzco province.
2020 Pandemic
As the COVID-19 pandemic grips the world, UNICEF plays a key role in the United Nations’ global response to the crisis. We are leading efforts to procure and supply COVID-19 vaccines so that all countries have fair and equitable access to the vaccine.
73-year-old Jugadlal Yadav gets the COVID-19 vaccine in Nepal. UNICEF is working to deliver 2 billion doses of vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable populations.
2021 The work Continues
While we have made great progress for the world’s children, there is still so much to do;
- Malnutrition is still the leading cause of death for children under five globally.
- 20 million children miss out on life-saving vaccines every year.
- 1 in 3 people still don’t have access to safe clean water.
- A lack of trained teachers, inadequate learning materials, makeshift classes and poor sanitation facilities make learning difficult for many children.