XUNICEF News and Views

Secretary-General Kofi Annan speaks at a ceremony to unveil the official portrait of his predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe Title: A UN Secretary-General who Defied the US – and Suffered a Backlash Author: Thalif Deen Publication: Inter Press Service (via Global Issues) Date: 22 June 2026

Title: Israeli envoy and UN official clash at hearing on children in conflict Author: Reuters (uncredited staff report) Publication: Reuters Date: 19 June 2026

Title: Pakistan and Afghanistan: a call for health diplomacy and restraint Author: Zulfiqar A Bhutta, Fawad Akbari, Shabina Raza, Suraya Dalil Publication: The Lancet Date: June 19, 2026

Julien Harneis in conversation at Chatham House, November 2024. Image: Chatham House We always want to congratulate a colleague when we learn of their appointment to a senior post. In this case however, we might temper our good wishes with the thought that the new job is one few people would want, and without doubt among the world's toughest. On the other hand, for the past 30 years Julien Harneis seems to have moved from one tough post to another. His latest challenge however is likely to be "off the charts" in terms of difficulty.

It was a pleasant surprise this morning to come across a NY Times article ( A Humble 3-Wheel Electric Vehicle Lands Toyota in Federal Court) which mentions a former UNICEF staffer, Shantha Bloemen, We had never crossed paths in our UNICEF lives, or for that matter, in XUNICEF. Her story and the story of the organzation she founded seems intriguing.

The World Bank has never had a woman president. Neither have the African, Asian, Inter-American, or Islamic Development Banks As the search for the next SG continues, this article points to another great lacuna in gender equality, that of women leaders in financial institutions. The Glass Ceiling has been broken in many UN agencies like UNICEF, WFP and UNESCO, but much more is still needed. PS. Not to forget our own Blog Editors team is still looking for a woman to volunteer!

 This will bring smiles to most readers as an unusual happening in the world of art and culture. It brings back a personal memory in Hanoi in 1980 when Nadia and I attended the opera Fidelio by Beethoven ,sung in Vietnamese when a huge rat came out of one of the loges and onto the stage…the audience was mesmerized for an instant and then the laughter broke out.

This time I take you to Geneva where I spent last month with my daughter Aastha. Behind her house is Park Beaulieu, which has an amazing tree with almost 15 branches rooted into the ground and shooting up to the sky.1 It seems to be there since eternity. It’s wondrous and no matter what, I make my way daily to just stare at it… after sometime passes, I sit at my favourite bench and breathe in the atmosphere.

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Title: A Year of Unthinkable Suffering: Record Number of Children in Conflict Victims of Grave Violations in 2025, With Government Forces as the Leading Perpetrator for the First Time Author: Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Publication: United Nations – Children and Armed Conflict Date: 17 June 2026

The US State Department announced more than $1 billion in humanitarian and disaster response assistance to UNICEF and the World Food Program through new global macro awards, covering more than 40 countries, with UNICEF receiving over $218 million and WFP more than $800 million, the funds will go toward food, nutrition, health, child protection, logistics, and water and sanitation.

Those of us who have pets know that they are playing a very important role in our daily lives. They are companions and part of the family. Cats and dogs are the most common pets, and we have both. Cats are nice to pet, while dogs love to play and want to protect you, They learn to understand certain commands, and make themselves understood. It’s rewarding to care for another beng and to get their positive responses. In the words of author Louis Sabin:

The Job of Intelligence: Human and Artificial     This is my working manifesto on how communication, human intelligence, and artificial intelligence should relate to poverty, dignity, care, and the planet—and I’m sharing it here to invite critique, collaboration, and co‑creation.ficial intelligence reshapes our lives, I believe we must also ask: What is the job of human intelligence—and what is the job of artificial intelligence? Here is my 20‑point manifesto.

The news have been out for a while now: official development assistance ( ODA ) from members of Development Assistance Committee (DAC)  fell by more than 23 per cent  compared to the previous year. 

Title: AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself Author: Ronald Purser Publication: Current Affairs Date: 1 December 2025

The Royal Military Canal, Appledore Anyone wishing to understand the fractious relationships which exist between Britain/ England/ Scotland/ Wales/ Northern Ireland and the rest of Europe (especially Ireland/Eire) needs only to watch the film “Those Magnificent Men and their Flying Machines” (available on DVD both allegedly ‘New’ or ‘Used’ for anything between £ 5:00 and £ 20:00, or around € 6:00 to € 23:00 (Euros), depending. Available to stream (if you know what that means. . . .)) While the film was made in about 1965, the British attitudes to their neighbours/foreigners/others seems to have remained fixed in the past. This, incidentally, seems to reflect the immutable inability of the British to attempt to speak languages other than their own. Speaking Gaelic apparently doesn’t count. In the very early 1800s, Napoleon was eying England and its acolytes, remembering the insults which the French Dauphin allegedly aimed at Henry V in the 1400s and which caused Henry to invade – and c...

The World Cup is underway, and a UNICEF baby has made history!

  XUNICEF REACHES 1.1 MILLION MARK by Rob Carr Posted by XUNICEF News and Views

Few professions appear more resistant to changing their minds than the development strategist. Even when confronted with mounting and seemingly irrefutable evidence, most aid workers refuse to acknowledge that there is anything fundamentally wrong with the way aid is delivered. After all, the real problem is surely those selfish donor governments cutting budgets, isn’t it? Cognitive Dissonance We constantly make decisions: we choose an iPhone instead of a Samsung, vote for him instead of her, eat meat instead of becoming a vegetarian. Then new information emerges that calls our decision into question. Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort that arises when we hold beliefs or perform actions that contradict other perceptions or information. But once we've made a decision, our psyche is programmed to defend it.

The War on Children Is Escalating. Where Is Canada’s Leadership on Human Rights? Title: The war on children is escalating: Where is Canada’s leadership on human rights? Author: Save the Children Canada Publication: Save the Children Canada Click here for the article Summary: The article describes the alarming escalation of violence, rights violations, and humanitarian crises facing children worldwide, including in Gaza, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, and other conflict-affected contexts. It outlines Canada’s past and potential leadership roles in promoting human rights, humanitarian law, and child protection, but argues that Canada’s current foreign policy and aid commitments are falling short of what is needed. It calls on the Canadian government to increase humanitarian and development funding, champion accountability for grave violations against children, and show stronger global leadership in protecting children’s rights. Quotes: “Across the globe, children are bei...

What to do la is an occasional musing on what one former staff member has and hasn’t done since leaving UNICEF. This week – Tennis anyone? Tennis is a game I love

EMILY CULLEN AND SON, LEE In all my years of being a closet poet, my wife has only once thought that what I’d written was worthy of the word ‘poet’. All the rest were classified as ‘not worthy’. Somewhat ego-denting even when I thought I’d written quite a clever limerick:

I retired at the end of last year, as the massive budget cuts at UNICEF ultimately hastened my decision to exit. Rather than complain, I gladly accepted the offer and happily hung up my hat after 32 wonderful years of service.  Afterwards we decided to travel, taking our time to figure out exactly where we wanted to land next.

Dear XUNICEF Colleagues: This week XUNICEF reached the 1.1 MILLION for number of hits.  We continue to average around 1000 hits per day.

This is Part 2 of my four-part blog series on wildlife photography in Japan. In Part 1, I described how the COVID years turned me into a bird photographer in Tokyo, following pond and shorebirds through parks, rivers, and Tokyo Bay. In this post, I head north and south in search of Japan’s great winter bird spectacles. Click here for Part 1 Steller’s sea eagle with its catch on the drift ice

It is with deep sorrow that we inform you of the passing of Dr. R.K. Rath, who departed peacefully on 3 June 2026 at his home in Bhubaneswar after a prolonged illness, at the age of 84.

We regret to inform you that Mr. Shriram Agarwal, popularly known as Shriramji, worked in UNICEF Lucknow office expired on 30 May 2026 after prolonged illness.  

Right in front of our house is the view of the Caribbean Sea and of a small Island, the Protestant Cay. It’s our favorite escape to relax on its beautiful beach.

With development funding rapidly shrinking, the future looks bleak, especially for the development strategist. On the bright side, public discourse has finally reached the point where we can openly discuss why so much development aid failed, or why its results always seemed so elusive whenever annual reports came due. We were  amateur actors  in a theatre production called development. I have said this  before and attracted the ire of esteemed colleagues and readers alike, because everyone understandably wants to believe they were hired for their expertise.

Daniel Kahneman gave us the language of System 1 and System 2—thinking fast and thinking slow. System 1 is automatic, intuitive, and effortless. System 2 is deliberate, analytical, and costly. Both matter. Both are trained by experience and sharpened by use. Increasingly, studies now refer to a third mode, artificial. Sadly, that might not be the end of our cognitive decline.

Venus and Jupiter This will be a spectacular June,

An undetected Ebola outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain is sweeping through the eastern DRC, with suspected cases already over 600 after slipping under the radar for two months. 

UNICEF Canada’s AGM was held recently and I was invited to attend as a Volunteer Member. I was there in person.

Salmon by Lucinda Gibbs Readers of this blog may just remember an article on a particular painting by my mother which was stolen and found some considerable period later; was submitted to the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition in 1978

Dear Friends, We warmly invite you to take part in our next Open Consultation Monday discussion event:

We were looking forward to a few days in Rome to renew with a city we both like and where we have spent great times before. Despite the wonderful film that Gianni Murzi directed (see photo) our one pleasant period was a lovely lunch with Gianni in a trattoria not far from his house. There we exchanged news about UNICEF, other colleagues and friends etc in a very congenial atmosphere.  After that we both felt rather run down by the flu we had caught earlier in Geneva and I was having problems with my swollen left leg and so we spent the rest of our time around our hotel in the Parioli area which is one of the most upscale in Rome. The best we could do was a walk in the lovely park of the Villa Borghese which was close to our hotel. Even there we were not lucky because the Borghese museum was closed on that day.The very impressive buildings in the neighbourhood as well as some great restaurants became the focus of our short visit to the Eternal City. PS We had both thrown coins...

Ken's article on coffee and Burundi brought back a strange memory I have never shaken off. During my time with EMOPS I was in and out of Burundi often during the mid/late 1990s,  supporting the country team through volatile cycles of crisis and lull.

It was on account of the rebels at Bujumbura Airport that I was made to buy a packet of coffee which I didn’t want.

With a new team of editors being formed, we would like to streamline how members can submit their own articles for posting. It is easier than you think. Here is what you need to do.

How COVID Turned Me into a Wildlife Photographer What began as a way to get out of the house during COVID turned into a new life in Japan. Grey heron in Sumida park, Tokyo

  In case you missed out - here are the top ten most read posts from the Blog this week.

Having returned to Sweden after fifty years abroad—thirty of them with UNICEF—following the passing of my wife, I received my first pension payment into my Swedish bank account today. It amounted to almost SEK 100,000 for the month. That figure made me reflect.

What to do la is an occasional musing on what one former staff member has and hasn’t done since leaving UNICEF. This week – Cleaning.

For any photographer, trying to capture the Aurora Borealis feels like stepping toward a moment of truth.

Click to view!