Letter from Eight Former Deputy Executive Directors to Catherine Russell - UNICEF@80 Recalling Proud Moments of its History
Dear Madame Executive Director
My name is Karin Sham Poo and I was one of UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Directors from 1987 to 2004.
Although now retired for almost two decades, like most other retirees, I continue to take keen interest in UNICEF’s activities around the world.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank you and congratulate you on your leadership of UNICEF in these challenging times when children around the world face both the silent emergency of continuing poverty and inequality, and the proliferation of grave humanitarian crisis that dominate the world’s headlines.Despite these challenges, we rejoice that UNICEF is making a significant positive contribution to protecting the rights and promoting the wellbeing of children.
As UNICEF approaches its 80th anniversary in 2026, several of us, former Deputy Executive Directors, are pleased to share with you some suggestions to recall, preserve, update and celebrate UNICEF’s glorious legacy of the past even as the organization looks ahead to help build a brighter future for the world’s children.
We trust you will find our suggestions and recommendations contained in the attached letter self-explanatory and helpful as you and the senior management team at UNICEF plan to commemorate UNICEF@80.
Although now retired for almost two decades, like most other retirees, I continue to take keen interest in UNICEF’s activities around the world.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank you and congratulate you on your leadership of UNICEF in these challenging times when children around the world face both the silent emergency of continuing poverty and inequality, and the proliferation of grave humanitarian crisis that dominate the world’s headlines.Despite these challenges, we rejoice that UNICEF is making a significant positive contribution to protecting the rights and promoting the wellbeing of children.
As UNICEF approaches its 80th anniversary in 2026, several of us, former Deputy Executive Directors, are pleased to share with you some suggestions to recall, preserve, update and celebrate UNICEF’s glorious legacy of the past even as the organization looks ahead to help build a brighter future for the world’s children.
We trust you will find our suggestions and recommendations contained in the attached letter self-explanatory and helpful as you and the senior management team at UNICEF plan to commemorate UNICEF@80.
We, the signatories of this letter, eagerly await your feedback on our proposed recommendations. Please rest assured that we, and the entire UNICEF retiree community, stand ready to support your efforts in this regard.
Warm regards
Karin Sham Poo
On behalf of the signatories
Margaret Carley-Carlson
Richard Jolly
Stephen Lewis
Kul Gautam
Andre Roberfroid
Toshi Nina
Rima Salah
Warm regards
Karin Sham Poo
On behalf of the signatories
Margaret Carley-Carlson
Richard Jolly
Stephen Lewis
Kul Gautam
Andre Roberfroid
Toshi Nina
Rima Salah
See Catherine Russell's reply below the full text of the letter
Full Text of the Letter
6 December 2024
To: Hon. Catherine Russell
Executive Director, UNICEF
From: Former Deputy Executive Directors, UNICEF:
Margaret Catley-Carlson (1981-83)
Richard Jolly (1982-1995)
Karin Sham Poo (1987-2004)
Stephen Lewis (1995-1999)
Kul Gautam (2000-2007)
André Roberfroid (2000-2002)
Toshiyuki Niwa (2004-2007)
Rima Salah (2004-2007)
Esteemed Executive Director,
Subject: UNICEF@80 – Recalling proud moments of its history
As our beloved UNICEF prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary and launch its next Strategic Plan in 2026, we believe this will be an opportunity for current and former staff alike to celebrate UNICEF's glorious past, even as we look ahead to an even brighter future.
On this auspicious occasion, we would like to offer a modest suggestion for your consideration: We urge you to consider instructing all UNICEF field offices and NatComs to prepare or update the history of UNICEF in their respective countries and regions in time for the 80th anniversary.
It is worth recalling that at the time of its 40th anniversary, UNICEF had launched a History Project that encouraged all UNICEF offices, and various sectoral experts to prepare the history of UNICEF in their countries and in their areas of expertise (e.g. health, nutrition, education, etc). Several hundred monographs were prepared, widely circulated and carefully archived in various offices with UNICEF HQ library being the main repository.
Since then, many UNICEF field offices and NatComs too have prepared dozens of monographs, some in audio-visual formats, of their history on the occasion of their 50th, 60th, 70th and 75th anniversaries.
Many UNICEF staff members, retirees, government and NGO counterparts, external researchers and well-wishers who read these materials or watch video clips find them very inspiring and motivating.
Until recently, UNICEF HQ in New York, and most UNICEF offices in the field, had very nice, albeit small, libraries where interested staff, visitors and researchers could peruse or borrow books, documents, and sometimes audio-visual materials to learn about UNICEF’s history globally and in individual countries.
Sadly, many offices have now dismantled their libraries. Precious books and documents, and hard copies of films, photo albums, etc. have been lost or boxed and sent to remote storage sites that are not readily accessible to UNICEF staff or researchers.
On the positive side, most UNICEF offices now have excellent websites and blogs where one can find plenty of materials about the organization’s current activities, projects, partnerships and many touching human stories.
But regrettably most of these websites provide little or no information on UNICEF’s long and proud history in those countries. Most websites give the impression that UNICEF started its activities in those countries just a few years ago. They naturally highlight the great things UNICEF is doing at present, but one gets no glimpse of UNICEF’s long and illustrious history, globally or in those countries.
With today’s advanced digital technology, it should be relatively easy for every UNICEF office website to include a tab with links to some historical documents and audio-visual materials that showcase UNICEF’s inspiring history in every country.
We are sure that if asked, UNICEF’s bright, young IT and communications officers could digitize such materials and post them on the UNICEF websites within a few months at minimal cost.
If UNICEF staff are too busy because of other priorities, we can imagine offering internship opportunities to some bright, young and enthusiastic local university students who could help digitize and upload such documents under the supervision of UNICEF professionals. We believe that if asked, even some recent UNICEF retirees would be happy to help such a project – voluntarily.
We worry that besides losing our institutional memory, the lack of easy access to such historical materials is depriving new staff members of the opportunity to learn about some of the most motivational legacy of some of our illustrious predecessors.
As time passes, it is understandable that there is a massive turnover of staff, memories dim, and with the pressure of urgent and important work at hand, most of UNICEF’s current staff have little time left to reflect on or learn from UNICEF’s history.
Through our post-retirement travels and peer networks, we are surprised to find out how many new UNICEF staff members, including some in leadership positions, are woefully ill-informed about some momentous milestones in UNICEF’s history.
∙ Many of them do not seem to know that UNICEF won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965. ∙ Few recall that UNICEF organized the historic World Summit for Children in 1990 - the largest gathering of world leaders in history until that time.
∙ Not many are aware that the goals of the Children’s Summit were the foundation for the Millennium Development Goals, the predecessors of today’s Sustainable Development Goals.
∙ The long and fascinating story of how it took eight decades of negotiations for the Convention on the Rights of the Child to be adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989 is not widely known by most UNICEF staff members.
∙ Nor do many recall that in the past UNICEF’s leadership managed to stop several wars temporarily and organized “Days of Tranquility” to provide basic services to children. ∙ We are aware that in every country where UNICEF works, there have been many glorious moments – and a few challenging circumstances – that would be worth recalling and celebrating during UNICEF@80.
Knowing some of the high points of UNICEF’s history would be highly motivating for UNICEF staff. Their pride and motivation would soar knowing that UNICEF has been by far the most successful UN agency in advocacy, fund-raising and serving as the truly “people-to-people” organization of the United Nations.
We believe this could be done as part of the orientation of new staff joining UNICEF and through short refresher courses for older UNICEF staff members. The knowledge of what our predecessors and their national counterparts, NGOs and UN agencies did under circumstances that were often – believe it or not – even more challenging than they are today - will be an inspiration to all UNICEF staff and partners.
To sum up: as UNICEF prepares for its 80th anniversary in 2026, we appeal to you to ask all UNICEF offices and NatComs to revisit UNICEF’s proud history in ways we have outlined above or in other creative ways.
We know that many former and retired UNICEF colleagues share our concern and wish. If helpful, they would be happy to contribute to the mission to instill a sense of pride in UNICEF's past as the organization embarks on preparing bold and visionary plans to build a better future for the world’s children.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Karin Sham Poo
(On behalf of the above-mentioned former UNICEF Deputy Executive Directors)
Reply by Catherine Russell
Dear Karin,
This is great. Thanks so much for your longstanding commitment to UNICEF and the children we serve.
I hope our paths cross sometime soon.
All the best,
Cathy
6 December 2024
To: Hon. Catherine Russell
Executive Director, UNICEF
From: Former Deputy Executive Directors, UNICEF:
Margaret Catley-Carlson (1981-83)
Richard Jolly (1982-1995)
Karin Sham Poo (1987-2004)
Stephen Lewis (1995-1999)
Kul Gautam (2000-2007)
André Roberfroid (2000-2002)
Toshiyuki Niwa (2004-2007)
Rima Salah (2004-2007)
Esteemed Executive Director,
Subject: UNICEF@80 – Recalling proud moments of its history
As our beloved UNICEF prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary and launch its next Strategic Plan in 2026, we believe this will be an opportunity for current and former staff alike to celebrate UNICEF's glorious past, even as we look ahead to an even brighter future.
On this auspicious occasion, we would like to offer a modest suggestion for your consideration: We urge you to consider instructing all UNICEF field offices and NatComs to prepare or update the history of UNICEF in their respective countries and regions in time for the 80th anniversary.
It is worth recalling that at the time of its 40th anniversary, UNICEF had launched a History Project that encouraged all UNICEF offices, and various sectoral experts to prepare the history of UNICEF in their countries and in their areas of expertise (e.g. health, nutrition, education, etc). Several hundred monographs were prepared, widely circulated and carefully archived in various offices with UNICEF HQ library being the main repository.
Since then, many UNICEF field offices and NatComs too have prepared dozens of monographs, some in audio-visual formats, of their history on the occasion of their 50th, 60th, 70th and 75th anniversaries.
Many UNICEF staff members, retirees, government and NGO counterparts, external researchers and well-wishers who read these materials or watch video clips find them very inspiring and motivating.
Until recently, UNICEF HQ in New York, and most UNICEF offices in the field, had very nice, albeit small, libraries where interested staff, visitors and researchers could peruse or borrow books, documents, and sometimes audio-visual materials to learn about UNICEF’s history globally and in individual countries.
Sadly, many offices have now dismantled their libraries. Precious books and documents, and hard copies of films, photo albums, etc. have been lost or boxed and sent to remote storage sites that are not readily accessible to UNICEF staff or researchers.
On the positive side, most UNICEF offices now have excellent websites and blogs where one can find plenty of materials about the organization’s current activities, projects, partnerships and many touching human stories.
But regrettably most of these websites provide little or no information on UNICEF’s long and proud history in those countries. Most websites give the impression that UNICEF started its activities in those countries just a few years ago. They naturally highlight the great things UNICEF is doing at present, but one gets no glimpse of UNICEF’s long and illustrious history, globally or in those countries.
With today’s advanced digital technology, it should be relatively easy for every UNICEF office website to include a tab with links to some historical documents and audio-visual materials that showcase UNICEF’s inspiring history in every country.
We are sure that if asked, UNICEF’s bright, young IT and communications officers could digitize such materials and post them on the UNICEF websites within a few months at minimal cost.
If UNICEF staff are too busy because of other priorities, we can imagine offering internship opportunities to some bright, young and enthusiastic local university students who could help digitize and upload such documents under the supervision of UNICEF professionals. We believe that if asked, even some recent UNICEF retirees would be happy to help such a project – voluntarily.
We worry that besides losing our institutional memory, the lack of easy access to such historical materials is depriving new staff members of the opportunity to learn about some of the most motivational legacy of some of our illustrious predecessors.
As time passes, it is understandable that there is a massive turnover of staff, memories dim, and with the pressure of urgent and important work at hand, most of UNICEF’s current staff have little time left to reflect on or learn from UNICEF’s history.
Through our post-retirement travels and peer networks, we are surprised to find out how many new UNICEF staff members, including some in leadership positions, are woefully ill-informed about some momentous milestones in UNICEF’s history.
∙ Many of them do not seem to know that UNICEF won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965. ∙ Few recall that UNICEF organized the historic World Summit for Children in 1990 - the largest gathering of world leaders in history until that time.
∙ Not many are aware that the goals of the Children’s Summit were the foundation for the Millennium Development Goals, the predecessors of today’s Sustainable Development Goals.
∙ The long and fascinating story of how it took eight decades of negotiations for the Convention on the Rights of the Child to be adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989 is not widely known by most UNICEF staff members.
∙ Nor do many recall that in the past UNICEF’s leadership managed to stop several wars temporarily and organized “Days of Tranquility” to provide basic services to children. ∙ We are aware that in every country where UNICEF works, there have been many glorious moments – and a few challenging circumstances – that would be worth recalling and celebrating during UNICEF@80.
Knowing some of the high points of UNICEF’s history would be highly motivating for UNICEF staff. Their pride and motivation would soar knowing that UNICEF has been by far the most successful UN agency in advocacy, fund-raising and serving as the truly “people-to-people” organization of the United Nations.
We believe this could be done as part of the orientation of new staff joining UNICEF and through short refresher courses for older UNICEF staff members. The knowledge of what our predecessors and their national counterparts, NGOs and UN agencies did under circumstances that were often – believe it or not – even more challenging than they are today - will be an inspiration to all UNICEF staff and partners.
To sum up: as UNICEF prepares for its 80th anniversary in 2026, we appeal to you to ask all UNICEF offices and NatComs to revisit UNICEF’s proud history in ways we have outlined above or in other creative ways.
We know that many former and retired UNICEF colleagues share our concern and wish. If helpful, they would be happy to contribute to the mission to instill a sense of pride in UNICEF's past as the organization embarks on preparing bold and visionary plans to build a better future for the world’s children.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Karin Sham Poo
(On behalf of the above-mentioned former UNICEF Deputy Executive Directors)
Reply by Catherine Russell
Dear Karin,
This is great. Thanks so much for your longstanding commitment to UNICEF and the children we serve.
I hope our paths cross sometime soon.
All the best,
Cathy
UNICEF is currently offering internships – junior archivist, in New York for 6 months. Perhaps some retirees may qualify.
ReplyDeleteJob no: 576848, deadline 31 December 2024.
From the Job description:
The UNICEF Archives’ goal is to take a systemic approach to preserving the organization’s institutional heritage…. The intern will report to the UNICEF Archives Archivist….
Dear Tom and friends of children,
ReplyDeleteI want to whole heartedly congratulate our dear former colleagues for their initiative to make the past proud history of UNICEF and its outstanding achievements well known to the existing staff and hopefully to the whole world. I would particularly like to endorse the last para of the letter to the EXD which stated:
We know that many former and retired UNICEF colleagues share our concern and wish. If helpful, they would be happy to contribute to the mission to instill a sense of pride in UNICEF's past as the organization embarks on preparing bold and visionary plans to build a better future for the world’s children.
As the special thematically focused issues of News and Views has demonstrated our group can make very useful contributions to this idea.
The letter provides adequate reason to encourage the present management to take the suggestion seriously. For what it is worth, I like to add a few words based on my own experience.
When I returned to UNICEF in 1984 I was given the task of drafting the paper on CHILDREN IN SITUATIONS OF ARMED CONFLICT. This challenging assignment prompted me to work closely with international NGOs engaged in drafting the inspiring UN Charter on Rights of Children. It was when UNICEF and its visionary ED James Grant got involved, the third world got became actively engaged and the slow moving drafting process gained momentum.
At that time the existing IT technology was not applied widely. As a consequence much knowledge gained through practise was not used in enriching policy and improving practise. At end of the two years of study, I came across some material on work done in promoting the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON CHILD RIGHTS. Much of the time and energy our team spent could have been saved if we had been aware of the outstanding work done across the globe to mark the year this event was celebrated.
Another modest idea is not only to make the information available to present and future UNICEF people, but also to governments and international NGOs that played a key partnership role in many of the pioneering initiatives. For example, it was Sweden's humanitarian leader, Nils Thidin, who came up with the energizing concept of children as zones of peace. By involving these partners, particularly country leaders and NGO activists, they can share the glory and help sustain and build on the knowledge gained.
I hope other friends and colleagues will come forward and contribute to a vibrant history project.
Baquer Namazi
Lovely answer from the current EXDIR. Very encouraging,
ReplyDeleteI am very proud of our agency. With support from governments, partners, communities including children, we have persevered, achieved a lot in extreme difficult situations. We have stories of our successes, resilience, courage and limitations/failings . . . it's not all hunky-dory . . . Let's try to look at our work through the lenses of pride and humility and share them . . .
ReplyDeleteSorry, I thought that UNICEF was to support governments and communities so children would succeed and be resilient, not the other way round.
DeleteThe countries that received the most aid, from UNICEF and others, over the past 50 years did not catch up with the rest of the world - they fell further behind. According to the Nobel Prize winners in economics, good governance is necessary for development, however, the aid system is set up so that countries with poor governance get the most aid. Perhaps these two inconvenient facts would be worth reflecting on leading up to the 80th anniversary.
DeleteA great idea. I did the history of UNICEF Ethiopia in 2018 commissioned by Gillian Melsop. The CO should still have the original pdf and pictures. It was a wonderful experience writing it as so much of present day practices of nutrition and other responses to emergencies were 'learnt' and practiced there. UNICEF has a lot to be proud of and must insist and fight for its global position to advocate against mankind's propensities to do evil against itself.
ReplyDeleteDear Karin, I hope this finds you well and enjoying the Holiday Season. Many thanks for your lovely card.
ReplyDeleteI write to congratulate you and to thank you for signing the Letter to ED Russell about giving some attention to UNICEF History in the lead up to UNICEF@80. It was a good initiative that Kul started and we all hope that your own inputs will give even more weight to getting things done in the next couple of years. We all have been lamenting the paucity of institutional memory and historical knowledge among the current staff world-wide. The 80th anniversary may be a good opportunity for the start of increasing attention not only to the urgent and immediate, but also to where the Organization is coming from in previous times. As it grows older UNICEF is bound to lose a great deal of this perspective if something is not done to capture the wealth of information available in all country offices as well as in NY. There must also be a better way of having the knowledge available for research and reference than stocking it in some far away warehouse. In any case we are pleased that ED's initial response, albeit brief, was positive and that the rest of the management will go along and take serious action.
Best for the Holidays.
Fouad
Fuad - it is called Christmas.
Delete