XUNICEF News and Views

  Warm greetings to our colleagues celebrating Easter and Passover. As we observe these traditions of renewal and hope, let us reaffirm our shared commitment to a peaceful world.

What is your name and your last assignment with UNICEF? Sikander Khan, Principal Advisor, PFP

Realistic optimism  A distinguishing characteristic of human beings is to remain optimistic even during the direst times.

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF? Milada Pejovic, Administrative Assistant, EMOPS, NYHQ

As our University academic year here in Toronto is coming to an end and my students (of 3 courses at York University and the University of Toronto - Munk School of Global Affairs) and I celebrated the successful culmination of our classes with reflections/feedback and drinks/snacks together and some quality/special moments together - the US/Israel have struck over 30 Iranian universities during this tragic/illegal war of aggression against Iranians and Iran.

What is your name and your last assignment with UNICEF? Rob Carr - Chief of Planning, Monitoring and Reporting, UNICEF Pacific (multi-country office based in Suva, Fiji)

Dear XUNICEF team, March 2026 rapidly is coming to an end. End of tenure. With my latest effort in painting flowers in oil on canvas I wish to thank you for msny years of your immensely appreciated devotion to keep us XUNICEF readers abreast of those events that are locked closest in our hearts.

Life after UNICEF can be pretty sweet. If you happened to be traveling or hiking or visiting grandkids or just tuned out of XUNICEF in March - there was alot going on.

Everyone was excited as we reconnect ourselves through a get-together with UNICEF retirees in Japan. Where have they been hiding? Even cherry blossoms agreed to full blossoming to celebrate the reunion

What is your last assignment with UNICEF? Chief of supply and Logistics Nigeria

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF? Blanca Luz Gomez Diaz (ex Blanca San German) - Supplies & Logistics Officer in UNICEF Lifeline for Haiti (major earthquake), based in the Dominican Republic in 2010.

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF? Ramesh Shrestha Representative, Myanmar (Burma)

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF? Suresh Kishanrao, Program Officer -Health, UNICEF India Country Office

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF? Aboubacry Tall

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF? Niloufar Pourzand, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Uttar Pradesh, India

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF? Marta Maurás Regional Director TACRO

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF?    Saman Al Rasheed

Dear colleagues, Stephen’s passing brought to mind our conversations in the early 1990s when I was drafting the Executive Director‘s speeches and Stephen was preparing his own speeches as UNICEF Special Representative.

In the mid-1990s, while I was working for EMOPS, the civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia were raging. A cholera outbreak had hit a refugee camp in Sierra Leone, and I was dispatched to Freetown to support the office, conduct field missions to "hot spots," and coordinate with government and donors. After a series of bush flights and helicopter hops, I found myself in Kenema—a diamond-mining town where rebels and government forces fought bitterly for control of the mines. Just outside town was a camp holding thousands of Liberians who had fled their own civil war, only to find themselves trapped in a new one. I was there with a senior EMOPS colleague and a cholera expert from the CDC. As we met with the camp leaders to discuss the outbreak, the atmosphere was chaotic. Suddenly, one of the elder leaders froze, looked at me, and shouted,   "Robert Carr! Robert Carr!" He made a distinct Liberian gesture—pointing his index finger at his eye and then at me:   “I wanna s...

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF? Olalekan Ajia. Communication for Development Specialist, UNICEF Nigeria

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF? Nuzhat Shahzadi I was heading UNICEF-Kiribati and the UN Joint Presence Office, UNICEF Pacific (under EAPRO). I was based in Tarawa, Kiribati for almost 4 years. The isolation was too much so I decided to quit. HR termed it as "early retirement."

UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe, Etona Ekole, posted this about XUNICEF reunion on LINKED IN (reproduced here for those not on LINKEDIN):

This in my view, is a perfect park bench. Look at that view!   A favorite spot to pause when walking our dog, this park bench is in Queen Elizabeth Park just north of Wellington in New Zealand. Hard to imagine that more than 80 years ago this area was the home to more than 16,000 United States Marines training to retake Islands across the Pacific in the Second World War. Sadly 10 Marines died on the beach in front of this bench during a beach landing drill. Ten of the more than 7500 Marines who were killed in the Pacific during that War.

So it was that following some work in Nepal in 1979, where I ran into a number of VSO volunteers, that I felt compelled to visit the Head Office of VSO in London on my return to discuss my observations.

I join many former UNICEF staff members in expressing profound sorrow at the passing of Stephen Lewis - a friend, colleague, mentor, and fellow Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF. I first learned about Stephen Lewis in the 1980s when he was the Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations. He was a fervent multilateralist and a staunch believer in the principles and ideals of the United Nations. I recall reading a memorable speech he delivered in defense of the UN, in which he said that even if the rest of the UN were useless - which, of course, it was not - the actions and achievements of UNICEF alone would justify its raison d'être.   There was tremendous mutual admiration between Lewis and the then UNICEF Executive Director, James Grant, and Deputy Executive Director, Richard Jolly. Whenever UNICEF needed an inspiring speaker to support its advocacy for child survival and development, Grant and Jolly often turned to Ambassador Lewis. Jolly once remarked that Stephen Lewis was po...

(dp/New York/Bonn) 1 April 2026 . In a landmark decision, the UN General Assembly has determined that the next Secretary-General shall be a non-binary person, thereby stepping around a long-standing stalemate.

  What is your last assignment with UNICEF? Horst Max Cerni, Senior Public Affairs Officer, NY HQ

One year ago today, I retired. At least, that is what the paperwork said.

“Today, I join Canadians in mourning the loss of Stephen Lewis, a pillar of compassionate leadership in Canadian democracy and a renowned global champion for human rights and multilateralism."

Today, 31 March 2026, I step down as Chief Editor of News & Views — eight years after sending out the first newsletter in March 2018. That first edition was a simple quarterly newsletter, sent via email. A small team of volunteers soon joined, and by early 2019, we had moved to publishing on the web. News & Views grew rapidly from there, both in member contributions and our global readership. From major quarterlies and milestones like UNICEF@75 to our current daily blog format, we have continued to grow and change. We recently passed one million articles read — a remarkable achievement for a voluntary publication and a testament to our faithful contributors and readers. None of this would have been possible without the extraordinary commitment of our volunteer editors. From the beginning we have viewed News & Views as a community publication, written not by publishers or editors, but by our members. I am proud of what the publication has become, and prouder still of t...

Today, 31 March 2026, marks a turning point in the life of this publication. After eight years, the founding editorial team hands over to a new team of volunteers, who take charge starting tomorrow, 1 April. We do not take this moment lightly. Last December, it seemed possible that News & Views might simply close its doors at the end of March. That it will not is entirely due to several members of our community who stepped forward, unprompted, to keep it alive. We are more grateful than we can easily say. The new team will be introducing themselves to readers in due course. Please give them a warm welcome — and give them your full support with the same energy, commitment, and goodwill you have shown this publication over eight years. To our readers and contributors: thank you. The articles, photographs, personal stories, and comments you have shared are what made News & Views matter — what kept more than a thousand former colleagues, scattered across a hundred countries, in gen...

What IS YOUR NAME and your last assignment with UNICEF? Jimmy Kolker, NYHQ, Head of AIDS section in Programmes 2007-11

The children of UNICEF are leading this world!  Avi Lewis is the son of former UNICEF Deputy Executive Director and visionary, Stephen Lewis.  Avi is now leading Canada's New Democratic Party.

What was your last assignment with UNICEF? Abdifatah Osman Hussein – Former Programme Specialist with UNICEF (2015– 2024) (The picture is from Bentiu - S SUDAN in 2020 when I was on a mission. - Emergency operation management)

Among the most popular events that draw tourists to Spain are the Holy Week processions taking place in practically every town. Most famous are the ones in Andalucia (Seville etc), with many big floats and bands. It's not just a religious ceremonial happening, but also a social and cultural and, of course, touristy one.

(Saddam Hussein's abandoned palace on Gara mountain in Northern Iraq  source ) What was the most impactful project you ever worked on at UNICEF? Mine is easy to recall. It was a WASH project that diverted water from one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces back to the villagers from whom it had been stolen.

Dear colleagues Yesterday I sent out an email request to XUNICEF staff to share your response to 10 QUESTIONS.

During a downpour in Sulawesi What was your last assignment with UNICEF? Chief of child protection in India.

 

A couple of months ago, I saw that Robert Grandcourt, who as you may remember worked for UNICEF as head of Africa section many years ago, had written a very interesting book called Beyond Horizon. 

I am enjoying retirement immensely.   Not having deadlines looming is lovely.   

  Pour la version française, voir ci-dessous  For the French version, please see below UNJSPF News - March 2026 Join our next Pension Townhall sessions. Check the dedicated  Pension Townhall page  for more information.

Here it is :  as of this Friday  27th March - XUNICEF has: Over 10,000 posts Over 7700 comments Over 1 MILLION HITS (today 555 and yesterday 497) 

Project Maven's Cheery Seal Features Smiling Robots of War* On 19 March I posted my article, How AI and Distance Killed the Children at Al Minab . My focus then was on the moral chasm that opens when killing is automated and carried out at a distance — the way technology allows those who give the orders, or push the button, to remain untouched by what happens at the other end.  I also wrote about the absence of the fail-safe systems of the past - human spotters who could halt attacks on civilians.

This project explores the tradition of Armenian carpet weaving as a living connection between past and future. In Armenian culture, carpets are far more than decorative objects. They represent continuity, memory, and identity, providing both spiritual meaning and material comfort across generations.

Here some pictures of trees which I've taken while golfing at the Qutab Golf Course in Delhi.  I have been fascinated by the vibrant colors of spring among these beautiful trees and wished to share some pictures with our readers. Regards

We talk constantly about decolonising aid. About moving away from Northern-led, extractive development models. About South-South solidarity. About trusting communities and shifting power. It fills our conferences, our theories of change, our funding frameworks.

An estimated 4.9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2024, including 2.3 million newborns, according to new estimates released today. Most of these deaths are preventable with proven, low-cost interventions and access to quality health care.

We recently had our tenth Reunion of UNICEF India Retirees at Udaipur, Rajasthan, from 8 to 12 February 2026.