Executive Board: Continuous improvement to accelerate results for every child
First regular session of 2024
NEW YORK, United States of America, 13 February 2024 ─ The UNICEF Executive Board wrapped up its first regular session last Thursday morning. Organizational learning and strengthening were a key thread running through the two and a half days of the session, as UNICEF continues to build on its robust and inclusive systems to ensure every child, everywhere, has a fair chance in life.
At the start of the session, UNICEF Executive Board President H.E. Mr. Ernest Rwamucyo, Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations, urged “we must…continue to support the organization’s accelerated strategies to achieve the goals of its Strategic Plan and [the] Sustainable Development Goals, placing a special emphasis on severe malnutrition, adolescent girls, climate change and primary health-care delivery through community health workers.”
In her opening statement, UNICEF Executive Director Russell said, “we will continue to prioritize working across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, providing immediate life-saving assistance, while also strengthening the systems that children rely on…to support longer-term development goals.” She reported on recent organizational initiatives, including the 2023 launch of the Community Health Delivery Partnership that will leverage new investments in women community health workers, and the development of a sustainability and climate action plan.
Disability inclusion, and social and child protection
Inclusivity is key to a stronger UNICEF. On Wednesday, the Board considered seven new country programme documents for Bhutan, Brazil, Cambodia, Gambia, Guinea, Madagascar and the Philippines, and adopted them on a no-objection basis. A panel discussion focused on the theme “disability inclusion.”
”UNICEF’s Disability Inclusion Policy and Strategy, adopted one year ago, breathes new energy into our longstanding commitment to fostering inclusion,” said Mr. George Laryea-Adjei, Director of the UNICEF Programme Group, as he introduced the panel discussion. “The country programme documents before you today attempt to translate these commitments into practice, helping to break the cycle of inequality and poverty so that our children enjoy their rights to the fullest extent.”
Representing youth, Governments, civil society and UNICEF, the panellists highlighted the crucial step of involving children with disabilities, their families and their representative organizations in any action to advance inclusivity.
Speakers made the case for scaling up investment on disability inclusion; better data and research to inform inclusive design; as well as implementing policies and programmes that remove barriers and open up access – among others.
The Board also considered evaluations of UNICEF work in two key areas: social protection and the joint programme with UNFPA to end child marriage. Recommendations from the evaluations, such as continued support to Governments on child-sensitive budgeting and a focus on context-specific evidence generation, respectively, will inform future work – enabling UNICEF to boost its impact in these areas.
Humanitarian review, COVID-19 and risk management
The Board received an update on UNICEF’s implementation of the recommendations from the Humanitarian Review – an exercise completed in 2020 with 70 recommendations for the organization to serve children in humanitarian settings more efficiently and effectively.
Since November 2022, significant progress has been made in the implementation of some of these recommendations, such as preparedness; localization (e.g., with increasing local procurement and production of ready-to-use therapeutic food); and better integration of supply needs into planning and response (e.g., with the establishment of the Global Cholera Emergency Cell in March 2023 to meet the needs of children and families affected by cholera outbreaks).
However, with the process beginning against the backdrop of COVID-19, the number of emergencies soaring globally, and challenges to secure necessary human and financial resources, several recommendations remain unaddressed. With implementation gathering pace, in early 2024 UNICEF will undertake a midterm assessment to build on the positive work so far and accelerate progress.
The first regular session of the Executive Board in 2024 comes at a critical time in defining the global health architecture for health emergency preparedness and response, which includes pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Applying lessons learned is vital to strengthen recovery and inform future public health emergency preparedness. This is why UNICEF presented the Board with an update on the implemented recommendations about its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, transition and recovery.
Lessons learned include the need for: flexible funding in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response; special contracting mechanisms to pre-order and secure critical equipment when there is a breakdown of global supply chains; and strengthening community-based primary health-care centres in response to multiple threats to child rights (including poverty, climate change, malnutrition, conflict and humanitarian crises).
Related to preparedness is calculated risk-taking. In today’s volatile world, a stronger UNICEF needs a stronger risk management system. The Board heard an update on progress in this area, which includes the launch of an evolved enterprise risk management framework planned for this year. A priority will be to pilot simplified tools for bottom-up risk reporting, with a focus on transforming the organization’s risk culture towards one of calculated risk-taking without fear of repercussions.
Some delegations expressed appreciation for the ongoing work for improved enterprise risk management, and the fact that the new overarching system was built on existing approaches and informed by reviews, evaluations and audit findings.
Financial audit and innovative financial instrument
On financial matters, the overall position of UNICEF remains robust. The organization received an unqualified audit opinion from the United Nations Board of Auditors on its financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022. This demonstrates UNICEF’s commitment to good internal controls, accountability and transparency in the management of resources.
Importantly, the organization ranked as the most transparent among all United Nations agencies in 2022 according to the Aid Transparency Index issued by Publish What You Fund.
UNICEF also provided an update on the execution of the financial instrument established in 2021 in partnership with the World Bank. Since the inception of this innovative pilot project, UNICEF has invested the funds received from the World Bank in private sector fundraising across 24 emerging-market countries – with rigorous governance in place.
Overall, key findings were positive, as the instrument has facilitated key financing to UNICEF country offices, which has been vital to fundraising operations. UNICEF looks forward to providing further updates to the Executive Board on the performance of this pioneering instrument.
Several delegations welcomed the organization’s clean audit, sound financial position and high ranking in terms of transparency, with some expressing concern about the continuing decline in core resources.
A girl shows her vaccination mark at the Mir Bazar Clinic in southern Afghanistan. Limited education, fear of side effects, lack of awareness of the benefits, cultural beliefs, poverty and violence all contribute to some children not being vaccinated against polio. Afghanistan remains one of only two countries where the disease is still endemic. The other is Pakistan.
Polio eradication – Reaching the final mile
On Thursday, 8 February, a special focus session on polio featured partners from the World Health Organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the International PolioPlus Committee/Rotary International and representatives of two countries (Democratic Republic of the Congo and Pakistan) where the virus is still of concern.
The special focus session highlighted the opportunity – and the challenges – to eradicate polio by 2026. It called for a continued focus on ensuring an interrupted supply of safe and adequate quantities of polio vaccine; increased efforts to build trust in vaccines among parents and caregivers; increased synergies of the polio vaccine with other health services, including routine immunization; and leadership by and commitment from the Member States.
Key decisions
The Board adopted five decisions on topics ranging from evaluation items and financial reports to an update on risk management, the private sector fundraising workplan and budget, and new country programme documents.
During the final meeting of the session, Executive Director Russell called for flexible and reliable funding, which she said were needed to accelerate results across all the cross-cutting priorities of the Strategic Plan. “We heard earlier this week about the projected decrease in regular resources revenue. These core funds are key to our ability to achieve the greatest impact for children,” she said.
Ambassador Rwamucyo concluded by briefly recalling the discussions and deliberations of the session, stating “we have achieved much in support of the crucial work done by UNICEF to benefit children worldwide.”
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The Executive Board will meet for its 2024 annual session from 11 to 14 June.
