- how to deal with the attacks on our principles of DEI and human rights, including elegantly circumventing them with "adaptive" language so as to continue work esp in the humanitarian field.
- whether one needs to re-think "aid" systemically, since it has always been high risk, funding-wise, that the UN and some of the funds/programmes/agencies depend so much on US contributions given their large GNP - the same predicament will soon emerge regarding China as its GNP grows. So, from the system of assessed contributions to the issue of voluntary funding, we need to rethink. One (not immediate) option is to support the Tax the Rich movement and get those tax flows funnelled into an international indepedent social justice fund (one of the climate funds, or universal social protection etc etc). - Apart from that, ensuring effective taxation even in status quo formats could do a lot for good governance and the provision of public goods and services.
- Another is to push much harder for "decent work". Probably, if adults made a proper living, children could (notionally) be looked after well. This would, in the ILO definition, include social protection (child grants, health and accident insurance, pensions etc etc). Not a direct UNICEF mandate, but perhaps we need to connect our concerns better.
- My personal involvement recently has been the efforts for a UN treaty on human rights and business. Assuming that all people and nature were respected along all global value chains, we would get a different economic system. Click here if you have time.
But those are all long term processes, entirely threatened by today's right-wing swing in the US and large parts of Europe (including, as of Sunday, Germany). Not so sure how to "save" humanitarian assistance.
One more pragmatic question to those closer to UN day to day work - how are the American heads of UN agencies (UNICEF, WFP) treading - I read Catherine Russell's cautious note in that vein.
Best to all, Gabriele (Munich),
Hi Gabriele - thanks for sharing your thoughts. If there is to be funding in the future for development assistance and humanitarian aid it will surely be very tightly linked to deliverable results in a cost-effective manner. And this is an area we have struggled with for years - really showing that our programmes are delivering tangible, measurable results. So if UNICEF is to survive the current turmoil, the ability to demonstrate results and cost-efficiencies will be key. This will require a radical rethink of our structure and way of working, since I am sure we are all well aware of how little of the money that comes in at the top actually reaches those that it is intended for at the bottom. I hope that UNICEF has the courage to really go for the radical changes that are necessary.
ReplyDeleteThat is true and right to the point - it is just too bad that it took Trump to force it onto the agenda - that we could not do it ourselves. As a first step, in trying to get things sorted, skeletons need to be cleaned out of the cupboards.
DeleteWOW, congratulations to the organisers of this superb 2025 X-UNICEF reunion. Its heart warming to see the getting together of people who dedicated years of their life to the cause of children, in such wonderful settings.
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