The United Nations Children's Fund

Unicef is an acronym for the United Nations Children’s Fund. The organization named United Nations (UN) was founded by 51 countries after the Second World War in 1945 to maintain international peace and security. In December 1946 the UN’s general assembly unanimously established an International Children’s Emergency Fund. The fund had semi-autonomous status in the UN, having its own governing body and secretariat. Its main goal was to plan and release urgent relief programmes aimed to help war struck children and adolescents in Europe. In 1948 aid was aimed to help mothers and children also in Asia and Palestine. Just in a couple of years the Children’s Emergency Fund had became a major organization also overseas. In the 1950’s some six million children were receiving daily food rations through CEF. In 1953 the Fund’s name was changed to United Nations Children’s Fund also known as UNICEF. (Unicef 2013a).

From Relief Programmes to Sustainable Development

In the beginning of the 1950’s the CEF board decided to broaden the horizon on the welfare of mothers and children on a global perspective. Some felt that the emergency work had been done in the post-war Europe. First programmes on health promotion and disease prevention started. In 1952 the first relief and education programmes started in below-Sahara Africa, just six years after the first initiatives in Europe. In 1956 Unicef launched the Declaration of the Rights of the Child which is its most known agenda. The Declaration emphasizes a child’s right for protection, education, healthcare, shelter and good nutrition. Unicef received the Nobel Peace Prize as an organization in 1965 for promoting brotherhood among nations. The International Women’s Year 1975 brought women and g...

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...obs. Career opportunities are multiple but also demanding. Concrete relief work usually acquires health related profession, etc. nurse or doctor. Vacansies can be short-term or long-term and salary is paid (opposite to some relief organizations that work on volunteering basis). I feel that the vacancies are competed to because it’s not volunteer work but paid work. Unicef also has a good imago and it appears to be an appealing organization to work to. My own opportunities to work in Unicef are probably slim, because I don’t have any international work experience or speak other foreign languages than Swedish and English. Also, I don’t have any emergency nursing experience. Probably my experience in health promotion and nursing management would benefit me. Overall I feel that Unicef hires solid and flexible professionals with diamond experience and multiple skills.