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Children First Children First The Story of UNICEF , Past and Present Maggie Black PUBLISHED FO R UNICEF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRES S 1996 Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © United Nations Children's Fund 1996 The contents of this book reflect the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Children's Fund. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Within the UK, exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, us permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other countries should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. The paperback edition of this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Data available ISBN 0-19-828094-7 ISBN 0-19-828088-2 (Pbk.) 13579 10 8642 Cover photograph by Greg Martin Typeset by Teresa Buerkle Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Bookcraft (Bath) Ltd. Midsomer Norton, Avon Contents Foreword: A Personal Tribute to James P. Grant vi i Preface x i 1. Children : A Cause Comes of Age 1 2. Th e Globa l Drive for Immunization 3 3 3. Unravellin g the Nutrition Complex 6 3 4. Water , Environment, Sanitation: The Changin g Agenda 9 1 5. Cit y Streets and Children's Rights 11 9 6. Globa l Shifts 14 9 7- Th e Gende r Dimension 18 3 8. Learnin g for All 21 5 9. Childre n at the Front Line 24 5 10. Towards 2000 and Beyond 27 5 Notes 30 7 Index 33 7 Foreword A Persona l Tribute to James R Grant he titl e o f thi s book , Children First, i s th e ide a tha t drov e Ji m Gran t T during his years at Unicef. It not only drove him. It consumed him. And it shone from hi m wherever he went. Many years ago, I went on m y first fiel d tri p with Jim. This was soon after he becam e Unicef' s Executiv e Directo r an d soo n afte r th e beginnin g o f th e main stor y i n thi s book . I was new to Unice f too, and prou d t o b e it s firs t woman Goodwil l Ambassador. I coul d no t believ e Jim's energy. We flew an d w e talked an d h e was never tired. We would run between villages in Africa an d Asia because he had much to see. Tim e for Jim was always limited becaus e the day s had onl y 24 hours. Upon reachin g eac h ne w village or community or hut, he would stop and ask questions an d se e what wa s going o n an d explai n hi s ow n poin t o f view. Then off we went to new destinations. I was much younger than Jim, but still I was the one to be tired. He would turn around t o me and wave 'com e on!' There was no rest . His purpose was always to make the world a better place for children. With him, i t wa s always 'childre n first' . Ther e was another wa y he use d t o pu t it : 'first cal l for children'. I shal l always connect that ide a with Jim. I remembe r his joy the day in September 199 0 when he gathered 71 leaders from countrie s all around the world for the World Summit for Children in New York Wha t was it for? 'Children first.' I remember his determination that all the nations in the world, especially the US, should ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. That, too, was all about 'children first'. viii CHILDRE N FIRST: THE STORY OF UNICEF, PAST AND PRESENT This book is not strictl y about Jim, although Jim i s hidden somewher e i n most of its pages. This book is about what Unicef did ove r 50 years, especially in th e pas t 15 , t o make the ide a of'children first ' rea l for millions of people. Jim wouldn' t hav e like d a boo k tha t mad e i t soun d a s thoug h everythin g Unicef did durin g his time was because of him. That kind of self-importance was not hi s style. But thos e of u s who kne w Jim, who sa w him a t work , comin g up with his ideas , coming ou t wit h hi s roa r o f approval , comin g o n a t a pac e w e could barel y keep up with—we know that an incredibl e number of things Unicef did could be traced straight to Jim. Not just things done by Unicef, either, bu t b y man y othe r importan t peopl e an d organization s too—al l sorts o f things i n which Unice f too k a back sea t because , h e said , getting others to join in was what counted. So he always gave them the credit. Jim was an almos t supernatura l forc e wh o mad e impossibl e hope s an d dream s come true. When I was a child, one of my favourite stories was about a little boy who, by magic, became full o f power. He spen t his life flyin g o n th e bac k of a wild goose all over the world. In the wonderment of the boy's eyes, the whole world became clear to him. He di d not alway s know if the goose would fly with him high o r low , o r wher e the y wer e going . Bu t h e alway s kne w ther e wa s a purpose—to learn and to do. And he listened to the dreams of the old people and the young people. The more h e knew , th e mor e h e did , so tha t h e coul d mak e hope s an d dream s become reality . The longe r he flew , mor e and more birds with passengers flew with hi m t o hel p mak e th e worl d a bette r place . Whe n I thin k o f Jim, I remember that story. When Jim listened to a mother in a village in Africa o r Asia and looke d at her sic k baby , an d whe n h e stood in fron t o f a President, h e use d t o pu t hi s hand in his pocket. And you always knew what he was about to do. He would pull ou t a packet o f thos e oral rehydratio n salt s (ORS) . H e woul d sho w th e mother or the Presiden t how you mix the salt s with water, and ho w you sav e the lif e o f a child with diarrhoea. And then they would become new messen- gers for his way of solving the sa d fac t tha t so many children die quietl y each day from preventabl e diseases. And o n thos e travels , when nigh t came , h e would stil l want t o hav e ne w meetings—with health workers, teachers, officials, whomever. And again, from his pocket, he would take out his packet of ORS. And sometimes, I would be ashamed and think that, no, he must let these exhausted people eat their meal in peace . Bu t eac h evening ended with another official , o r healt h worker, o r FOREWORD i x Minister, o r Presiden t promisin g t o carr y ou t his—Jim's—programm e fo r 'children first'. And then, coming back to the same country years later, I would see strangers stand like Jim and put their hands in their pockets, and take out the packet of ORS. An d I would hear the m tal k with his enthusiasm of the live s they had saved. Jim's work was a revolution fo r boys' an d girls ' survival and th e dignit y of life.

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