From the Editors: 11 January 2026 - 18 January 2026

   

 Online Discussion - Noon EST on 21 January - Join and Help Shape XUNICEF's Future Communications Platform

XUNICEF News & Views will close on 31 March 2026 unless new editors volunteer to continue it.

We still need your help. While several members have expressed interest in joining the editorial team, we don't yet have enough commitments to keep the newsletter running after March.

We also need your ideas. Members have proposed alternatives to the current blog model—a new website, social media platforms, or other ways to keep our community connected after March. Let's explore these together.

Join our first online consultation:
Wednesday, 21 January 2026 | 12:00 noon EST (New York time)
Google Meet: meet.google.com/bkn-svae-qbs

All are welcome. Just bring your ideas on how to preserve what matters most: staying connected as a community.

Thanks.

The Editors

In response to our appeal to join the editorial team we are happy to inform that at least two of our regular readers have come forward to help us out. We are looking for a few more and remain hopeful - check out our latest Vacancy Note. It is your Blog and the team should rotate from time to time to take it forward with new ideas and new approaches. A big thank you to all from your editors and for having started this New Year with new hopes.

We are also happy to announce that beginning this coming Wednesday, 21 January, we propose to set up weekly consultations with our readers on how to take the Blog forward with a new face and new approaches. Do please express your interest to join the consultations by way of 'comment' added to the Vacancy Note or follow the link on that day as provided in the box above.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, an inclusive commentary by NYTimes columnist Nick Kristof and shared in turn with his note by Kul Gautam, makes an interesting study of the fall in US ranking against the Social Progress Index. Read on to discover some startling revelations.

Read about human errors at tipping point where Ramesh Shrestha, our regular blogger and columnist argues that while seeking privileges and opportunities we should not in turn be "running away from responsibility."

Detlef Palm explores the reaction of UNICEF staff to a report by a German magazine on playgrounds turning political.

Niloufar Pourzand shares further thoughts from the media on Cuts in Humanitarian Jobs and how the UN system is collapsing and taking careers with it.

On a positive note, John Gilmartin shares a Devex report of a confidential MOU, which reveals that the US under a US-UN plan to remake funding has pledged $2 billion through 2026 for humanitarian relief in seventeen countries.

We also carry for you here in the Blog an article on the Controversial US-funded study of hepatitis B vaccine from The Guardian. There are many arguments to it, including the claim that it was "A win for advocacy and upholding the ethics of research."

Read also another contribution from John Gilmartin on Overcoming vaccine hesitancy with his observations about issues driving behavior and the possible strategies used to change behavior." It is based on a study analyzing over 1.1 million people in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic.

There is much more on live political issues including Children from Ukrainian orphanages, UNICEF statement on Children Killed and Injured in Iran recently and US suspension of immigrant visa processing.

Comments from Readers.

Regrettably we do not have a lead article or feature for the week. That is more a reason why we renew our appeal to readers to contribute with original writings and artwork. In its absence and as a concluding note I have inserted here for you a cyanotype of my photograph of the Sevan Lake here in Armenia inscribed with a New Year message from all of us on the editorial team:

Gautam Banerji

Editor for the Week