Weekly Digest for 19 to 26 June 2022

Welcome to the summary of selected articles that appeared last week on our website xunicefnewsandviews.blogspot.com

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Bangladesh. A Development Success Story : Pascal Villeneuve

Pascal Villeneuve describes the factors that helped Bangladesh, from its independence in 1971, to become one of the major development success stories. Enabling grassroots movements and the propagation of affordable health interventions - also by UNICEF - contributed to significant gains in the well-being of people. But challenges remain. With stunning photographs from his time in Bangladesh, Pascal opens a new window to one of the most populated countries. Click here. 

Everett Ressler answers our 10 Questions this week.  

Click here to see the answers given by earlier contributors.  Consider sending us your own responses to these ten questions at xunicef.news.views@gmail.com 

In this week’s Quick Chat, Niloufar Pourzand shares her experience of working in Afghanistan during the first period of Taliban-rule. Niloufar tells us about the remarkable Afghan women and men she came to know there and the extraordinary work they did for girls’ education and women's development. Their efforts paved the way for UNICEF’s programs in the new government after the defeat of the Taliban.

Did you miss one of our earlier chats? You can find the full collection here. Would you like to chat with us - or record you own chat with an old colleague?  Let us know.

In the aftermath of the UNOPS scandal, several articles this week concern themselves with ethics and whistle-blowing in the UN. A BBC documentary explores whether whistle-blowers are adequately protected, and Purna Sen, former UN spokeswomen on sexual harassment, concludes that complaints are often dismissed too early. We also share the 2021 Annual Report of the UN Ombudsman, and one of our columnists reminds us that corruption, abuse of authority and harassment are not only issues for UN organizations other than UNICEF. 

Somewhat in contrast to these sober revelations, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation published its UN leadership report. It is quite a tome, and we had some mixed reviews  from among the team of editors and colleagues who sent it to us. Have a look for yourself. 

News and articles from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Yemen and other crises appear to be fading into the background. It is worrying that we all get so accustomed to the bad news (and sometimes good news) from humanitarian hotspots, that we do no longer find them worth sharing. War and disaster should not become the new normal. If you come across a particularly interesting story, please send it to us, preferably with your own thoughts or commentary.

We hear that plans are progressing to move parts of UNICEF headquarters to more decentralized locations, while many offices are simultaneously planning to strengthen their capacity. Stay tuned. 

Ken Gibbs:              Never let your mother choose the wine     

Fouad Kronfol         Soliloquy on a postage stamp: The International Cooperation Years  

Detlef Palm:            A Case for Management

Ramesh Shrestha:   Climate Change: A Challenge to UNICEF and UNESCO

Nuzhat Shahzadi     What's in a number?

We continue to post photos from the travels by Leo Goulet on our XUNICEF_photography account on Instagram.  If you use Instagram, be sure to follow our account, and contribute your own photos there.   

This week we have the second poem by Noel Ihebuzor - Cycles and Circles. And no, it is not the same as last week's Circles and Cycles!

Do you also write poems, even occasionally?  You might not consider yourself a poet, but others will still enjoy what you write.  Share a few with us.  

Reports - A new study from 'Education Cannot Wait' reports that the number of school children requiring support grew from 75 million in 2016 to 222 million today, and that nearly 79 million children remain out of school.

See also the new report WASH in Schools which points out that some 539 million school children lack access to a toilet, 546 million lack a clean water source, and 800 million lack basic facilities for hand-washing.

Perhaps this is also a good occasion to point at UNICEF webpage highlighting the latest research and data  on child wellbeing, and reports of important initiatives. 

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