The Great Recession of 2008 prompted many traditional donor countries to cut back foreign aid budgets. Pressure from lawmakers is now greater than ever for aid dollars to go further, and for development programmes to prove that aid is linked to tangible changes in the lives of children in the poorest regions of the world. Well, it turns… Read more →←
Topic: Experts speak
Social Accountability for Children’s Rights: Evidence, Practice and Impact Evidence Earlier this year,Jonathan Fox, Professor at the American University and renowned expert on social accountability, gave a talk at the World Bank entitled “Social Accountability: What does the Evidence Really Say?” In his talk, Professor Fox… Read more →←
Dressed proudly in their blue shirts, Team India walks onto the field, two of the players holding their large, crayon-coloured paper flag of India. The four players pose for a group photo and then step aside as Team Paraguay, Team Kenya, Team Chile, Team Brazil and the other teams participating in today’s championships follow with… Read more →←
The indigenous peoples of the Republic of the Congo, who constitute approximately 10 per cent of the country’s total population, lead a semi-nomadic life based on hunting and gathering deep within the nation’s dense forests. They are a widely marginalized population affected by extreme poverty, lack of access to basic social… Read more →←
7.5 million young people aged 15-24 — roughly the total population of Switzerland — were not in employment, education or training (referred to as ‘NEET’) across the European Union in 2013. In Greece alone it was one in five, nearly a quarter of a million young people. The UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti will later… Read more →←
Numbers, facts and figures can be daunting. Discuss too much data and people’s eyes are sure to glaze over. But let me assure you, data can make all the difference. The Out-of-School Children Initiative is an example of how UNICEF and its partners use numbers, facts and figures to change children’s lives. On the Day of the African… Read more →←
On April 16th, a remarkable, and probably the first-of-its-kind meeting took place at UNICEF New York. Sixteen (no coincidence with the date) neuroscientists discussed and debated the influence of early experience on brain development and function. These scientists, who represent the super specialized fields of neuroscience, biology,… Read more →←
“Reform” is a word often heard in global governance debates. And it’s hardly surprising, as negotiations stall along issues as far ranging as climate change to trade rules, it’s almost universally recognized that we need to do things differently. Through UNICEF’s Conversations with Thought Leaders, we had an opportunity to… Read more →←
Children are not only at the heart of social accountability, but social accountability is also in the hearts of children. Children can be active participants, or perhaps better, players in the social accountability game, rather than just passive spectators and beneficiaries. But for this to work, certain ‘ingredients’ are important… Read more →←
In the first years of life neurons in our brains form new connections at the astounding rate of 700-1000 per second – a pace that is not repeated again. We have one chance to get it right. Yet there is so much that can threaten this process – all around the world young children are growing up in contexts of poverty, conflict,… Read more →←
