XUNICEF News and Views

The war in the Middle East has increased prices for critical elements like fuel. The article reports how the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and cuts in humanitarian funding have severely reduced aid to vulnerable countries like Somalia at the very moment global crises are intensifying.

Title: From My University in Lebanon, I See a Society Under Fire That Refuses to Quit Author: Fadlo R. Khuri Publication: The National Date: 17 April 2026 UNICEF/UNI356240/Baz/AFP Summary: Fadlo Khuri, President of the American University of Beirut, describes the impact of the widening regional war on Lebanon, where over one million people — including 300,000 children — have been displaced, and more than 2,100 killed. On 8 April, Israeli forces fired over 100 missiles across Lebanon within ten minutes; the AUB Medical Centre received 68 casualties within the hour, many of them children. Despite the devastation, AUB is mobilising volunteers to support displaced families, maintaining academic programmes, and pressing towards a June graduation. Click here for the article Quote: "Yet again, a people who have learnt to live with disaster and uncertainty look to the American University of Beirut for hope, for excellence and for certainty amid the uncertain. No matter the challenges, the...

Doors let you in, they let you out.  Some are inviting, others say “stay out”.  As a few  XUNICEF members have previously shown, doors can be elegant, artistic, majestic, stately or simple, rustic, even crumbling and dilapidated. 

In 2015, I was working in Tanzania when violence erupted in neighboring Burundi, triggering a massive wave of refugees. (this happens every few years - it was my 3rd refugee influx/outflux I had seen in 15 years at this border.)

A Danish Couple's Maverick African Research Finds Its Moment in RFK Jr.'s Vaccine Policy. Arthur Allen, KFF Health News, May 18, 2026 An elementary school student in Indonesia receives a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, or DTP, shot in 2018. (Aditya Irawan/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Renk transit center that is hosting hundreds of thousand of people fleeing the conflict in Sudan. Photo: Herison Philip Osfaldo/Oxfam The article recounts Oxfam Humanitarian Program Officer Waeil Musa’s experience of living and working through the conflict in Sudan, including the loss of his home, separation from his family, and eventual displacement. 

In case you missed it - here are the top 10 posts viewed the past week: Failing to learn from mistakes in humanitarian work; The fallout from feeding USAID into the wood chipper; Measuring progress for humanity; and more.

G ALS for the World’s Children Players , Clubs and Benefit Matches

BEWARE:  AN ARIAL, MECHANICAL TARANTULA Recently, an XUNICEF member (I checked), who will remain nameless, wrote to me in some excitement because his son had given him a very expensive drone which he was busy trying to understand so he could ‘fly’ it.  The fact that he had, in the past, trained pilots to fly, seemed not to provide him with the necessary intelligence. . . .

Is the debate on UN Reform missing the point? The multilateral system is no longer fit for purpose. This is most visible in the handling of climate disruption. While the World keeps on disrupting the Earth; and the Earth is starting to hit back, humans keep on waging war. Humanity’s inability to address global challenges was on full display when the passengers of the virus-hit cruise schip were sent to 20+ countries, due to the deep-seated national reflex. Instead of treating them in one place, the repatriation of the passengers greatly increased the risk of widening the spread of the virus; not to mention the considerable costs involved and the extra greenhouse gas emitted. 

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

"We are missing out by not having more young people in positions of leadership and decision-making today."

Gaza remains the primary epicenter of risks for children. by Bertrand Bainvel, UNICEF Director for European Public Partnerships

Title: Opinion | This Is What Happened After We Gutted U.S.A.I.D. Author: Nicholas Kristof Publication: The New York Times Date: May 9, 2026

Dr Jeutner invited me to meet his Faculty colleagues and students to tell my story of: The White Busses. A rescue mission by the Swedish Red Cross, early 1945

UNICEF education Director, Pia Britto, is interviewed.

There are some things we take for granted in life like birth, death and taxes, and I would add to this list, the UNICEF driver. 

Dear All : I am deeply saddened to inform you that a very senior member of UPGI, Dr. Sindhu Phadke passed away on 8th May at her residence in Pune. She would have turned 99 this October.

To all XUNICEF moms and all those moms we aspired to uplift in our work…

A fascinating report by a panel of distinguished economists including Kausik Basu, Joseph Stiglitz, et al, that builds on what former UNICEF ED Jim Grant championed as PQLI (Physical Quality of Life Index)

Sometimes, I must sheepishly admit, I sneak a glance at LinkedIn . It is a minor addiction. Similar, but not quite on par with the people who cannot look away from a motorway pile-up.  

 

Hearing Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Sudan's Representative, speak at the United Nations Palais last week was a sobering reminder of how history is repeating itself for children in Darfur.

In case you missed it - here are the top 10 posts viewed the past week -Hiking Bryce Canyon; UNICEF drivers; Spain's legal system. Enjoy!     A (slow) Hike in Bryce Canyon National Park (by Myra Rudin) Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 108  Drivers of UNICEF - Keeping Us Safe and Shaping the CPD? By Rob Carr Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 107  If You Love Your Next of Kin, Don’t Die in Spain: Thomas Ekvall Posted by Detlef Palm 92  This week's top ten posts - Joachim Theis Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 87  Missing You - Hatim George by Mary Sidawi Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 83  10 Questions by Venetia De Silva (Rohini) Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 79  What to do la #2 - Uber driver? by Tim Sutton Posted by Tim Sutton 76  Missing You - Reem Najjar - by Mary Sidawi Posted by Tom McDermott 71  Mutiny on the Bounty : Ken Gibbs Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 50  Rubbish - absolute rubbish : Ken Gibbs Posted by XUNICEF News and Views 50 

Photo caption: My house in little Italy: 3rd from the right On a sparkling, sunny morning I landed in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2004, my twelve years of UNICEF work came to an end (post abolishment). I did apply within the agency, wasn’t successful. I meant to be somewhere else, I guessed. I was offered a job to head an HIV/AIDS project at the Johns Hopkins University/CCP in Baltimore, USA. We operated under the Hopkins-school of Public Health.

We are what we think - Lord Buddha   There is a conviction that human beings are spiritually bestowed with positive and negative energies, which also is a study subject of psychology and neuroscience. 

Alexander Stubb is often described as one of Europe’s most influential politicians. Today, he is President of Finland and a columnist; a decade ago, he was Prime Minister, with a string of ministerial roles and time in the European Parliament behind him. In The Triangle of Power , he sets out his take on a rapidly shifting global order.

What was your last assignment with UNICEF?  Special Advisor to the Regional Director for West and Central Africa. 2003-2004, Abidjan, relocated Dakar.  How old do you feel? Closer to 100 than to 25, but inordinately fit to write and to listen to grandchildren.

Away on any journey, I always bring paints, paper and brushes hoping to indulge in plein air landscape sketching.

Carney picks former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour to be governor general

Child Alert: 20 years on, children under threat in Darfur

Reem Najjar (1957–2026) Reem Najjar, passed away on May 3, 2026. A cornerstone of UNICEF Jordan and MENARO for over three decades, Reem began her career in the mid-1980s and served until her retirement in 2017. Her career spanned operations, partnerships, and communications, but she was perhaps most respected for her leadership as Chairperson of both the Jordan and Regional Staff Associations. In these roles, she was a vital advocate for workplace dialogue and staff welfare across the Middle East. Beyond her service with UNICEF, Reem was a formidable leader in the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). She served globally as Vice President of the World YWCA and as President of the YWCA of Jordan. Reem championed vocational training, economic empowerment, and the leadership of young women. Recognized as a pioneer of women’s work, she spent her life bridging local community needs with global advocacy. Reem leaves behind a legacy of wisdom, selfless service, and a commitment to emp...

Thinking back on Mohammed—the driver who shaped our CPD and drove us with such care—my mind drifted back to John. (he and I pictured here in 1987)

The House That Cannot Unionize The United Nations asks the world to honor collective bargaining. It asks its suppliers to honor it. Then it goes home, closes the door, and tells its own staff: you do not get those rights here. Edgard Mounib Seikaly   May 04, 2026 I have spent over more than two decades inside that house. I know where the drafts come in. The architecture of managed dissent There are currently three federations serving staff associations and unions across the UN system. CCISUA, the Coordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations, FICSA, the Federation of International Civil Servants’ Associations, and UNISERV make up that triumvirate, collectively covering staff associations and unions across the common system. Each agency has i...

Stephen Lewis, who died March 31, age 88, was a Canadian political leader, an ambassador to the UN, and a weekly panellist on CBC Radio, but he’ll be remembered most for his efforts to bring international attention to the HIV pandemic in Africa. On this episode, we hear Lewis channeling the full force of his eloquence in service of that defining goal, in excerpts from his 2005 CBC Massey Lectures, titled “Race Against Time." Listen to the podcast here