FIRST REGULAR SESSION OF UNICEF EXECUTIVE BOARD TO BE HELD AT HEADQUARTERS, 20 - 24 JANUARY

17 January 1997

Press Release
ICEF/1838

FIRST REGULAR SESSION OF UNICEF EXECUTIVE BOARD TO BE HELD AT HEADQUARTERS, 20 - 24 JANUARY

19970117 Background Release New Health Strategy, Priorities for Children, Women in Emergencies, Budgetary Matters, Country Programme Notes among Topics for Discussion

NEW YORK, 17 January (UNICEF) -- The new health strategy of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), that has as its goal the realization of children's right to health as set down in the articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, will be reviewed by the Fund's Executive Board at their first regular session of 1997, to be held from 20 to 24 January at Headquarters.

The Executive Board will also review the strategic priorities for UNICEF operations for children and women in emergencies and will consider 10 UNICEF country notes. The Board will also examine the results of budget harmonization measures taken by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNICEF, as well as UNICEF revised integrated budget for the biennium 1996-1997.

UNICEF Health Strategy

The Board will consider a report on the implementation plan for the new UNICEF health strategy (document E/ICEF/1997/3). The plan, discussed as an outline by the Board at its third regular session of 1996, develops several key elements: the Convention on the Rights of the Child, especially its focus on children up to the age of eighteen and a resulting focus on the health of adolescents; women's health; support for the development, reform and monitoring of health services and for promotion and behavioural change for health.

The report defines UNICEF's strengths, specifically its country presence; its capacity to transform innovations into action; its development of "user-friendly" information and its position as a knowledge-based organization; and its partnerships.

The implementation plan for the health strategy entails several elements, including the following:

-- Contributing to improving country programmes' health interventions, especially the situation analysis, in the context of the Convention and the focus on different age groups;

-- Developing a permanent monitoring mechanism, using the situation analysis;

-- Improving the health response in emergencies;

-- Special emphasis on working with communities, including monitoring and evaluation, and behavioural change; and

-- Better support between country programmes and various relevant organizational teams.

Partnerships are a key part of the implementation plan. The relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO) will be re-emphasized, but new approaches will also be developed, with Bretton Woods institutions, including the World Bank, and other United Nations agencies and bilateral donors.

New aspects of health promotion will be explored, involving improved collaboration with the private and manufacturing sectors, private doctors and insurance companies. The Convention will be emphasized in working with media and communication channels.

The plan places strong emphasis on the quality of staffing and training, so that staff keep abreast of developments in the health field. It stresses the "management excellence programme" and the different roles of headquarters, regional and country offices in implementing the health strategy

Children and Women in Emergencies

The Board will review a paper on "Children and women in emergencies: strategic priorities and operational concerns for UNICEF" (document E/ICEF/1997/7). The paper, prepared in response to a request of the Board in decision 1996/2, outlines progress towards the clarification of UNICEF roles and responsibilities in emergencies and the effective execution of the UNICEF mandate as advocate for children and women at risk in times of emergency. The Fund will bring a developmental perspective to its emergency action, which has four primary elements: advocacy, assessment, care, and protection of vulnerable children and women from intentional harm.

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The principal goals of UNICEF emergency-related operations are the following: to prevent the exposure of children to risks by addressing the root causes of conflict; to ensure the survival and protection of the most vulnerable children and women during chaotic early days of acute emergencies through access to essential life-saving and life sustaining services; to ensure protection against intentional violence, exploitation, rape, abuse and recruitment into armed forces; to support rehabilitation and recovery of people and communities through developmental actions; and to promote long- lasting solutions through the creation and strengthening of self-help capacities at family and community level and, in particular, through support to women in the development and management of such solutions.

The UNICEF recognizes in the paper that no single agency can address the wide range of needs of children and women in emergencies. It stresses its commitment to partnership and supports the strategic coordination role of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs in complex emergencies.

Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance

The Executive Board will also review a progress report on strengthening the coordination of emergency assistance (document E/ICEF/1997/5). The report emphasizes that the child-centred mandate of UNICEF complements the roles of other partners in humanitarian action, and its continued cooperation with partners in the field through the Inter-Agency Task Forces of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) to ensure complementarity, predictability and clear division of labour. The report is a follow-up to Economic and Social Council resolutions 1995/56 and 1996/33, and will be transmitted to the Secretary-General for inclusion in his report to the Council on the matter in 1997.

Country Notes

The Executive Board will discuss 10 country notes (documents E/ICEF/1997/P/L.1 to L.10). The notes are designed to inform the Board at an early stage of the ideas regarding the mix and weight given to programme strategies and priorities. The notes, and Board comments on them during the session, are used as the basis for full country-programme recommendations which will be presented to the Board for approval at its third regular session in September.

The Board will have before it three country notes from the west and central Africa region: Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau and Mali; three from Latin America and Caribbean region: Bolivia, Venezuela and a multi-island programme for the eastern Caribbean; two from the east Asia and Pacific region: Lao People's Democratic Republic and Papua New Guinea; one from the south Asia region: India; and one from the Middle East and north Africa region: Jordan.

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Management Excellence Programme

The Executive Board will discuss a report on the "management excellence programme" (document E/ICEF/1997/AB/L.1). The report discusses the new internal governance mechanisms, specifically the role and function of the Global Management Team, which will devote its January 1997 meeting to human resources issues, as well as the decentralization of the country programme process to country and regional offices. The report briefly mentions regional and office management teams, with the promise to report in future as those gain experience. Also discussed are some of the actions under way as a result of the external consultancies concerning the financial report system, information technology and the supply function.

Budget Presentation

The Executive Director is requesting from the Executive Board (document E/ICEF/1997/AB/L.4) approval to submit the "biennial support budget" for the biennium 1998-1999 to the first regular session of the Board in January 1998 instead of to the third regular session in September to enable the secretariat to link the country-programme recommendation process and the integrated budget process.

The Board will also review for their approval the presentation of budget harmonization of the UNDP, the UNFPA and UNICEF. The budgets (document E/ICEF/1997/AB/L.3) follow from the agreement of the heads of the three agencies to provide a common format for presentation of their biennial support budgets, common terms and definitions, and a common methodology for the preparation of budget estimates.

Membership, Officers

The Executive Board will elect its officers for 1997 at the upcoming session. The President will be from the Latin America and Caribbean Group of States, in accordance with the Board's rotation schedule. There will be one Vice-President from each of the other four regions.

The 36 members of the Executive Board, whose three-year terms expire on 31 December of the year in parentheses, are as follows: Angola (1997), Azerbaijan (1997), Belgium (1999), Burundi (1997), Cape Verde (1999), China (1998), Cuba (1998), Czech Republic (1999), Denmark (1998), Germany (1999), India (1997), Indonesia (1999), Italy (1999), Jamaica (1999), Japan (1997), Kenya (1997), Morocco (1997), Namibia (1998), Netherlands (1997), New Zealand (1999), Nicaragua (1999), Nigeria (1999), Norway (1997), Oman (1999), Pakistan (1997), Republic of Korea (1997), Russian Federation (1998), Suriname (1998), Sweden (1997), Switzerland (1998), Turkey (1998), Ukraine (1998), Uganda (1997), United States (1999), Viet Nam (1998) and Venezuela (1997).

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