XUNICEF News and Views

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...

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) 

With the end of March approaching and with that, the departure of some of our current editorial team at the xUnicef blog, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for the extraordinary efforts and dedication of this group.

 

I am happy to report some good news about possibilities for News & Views to continue beyond the end of March. We invited all members of XUNICEF to participate in an online discussion on Wednesday January 28th on the question, "Replace or Continue News & Views after 31 March".  We included a link to a very short questionnaire asking whether members would like the publication to continue and if so, whether they would agree to help in managing or leading after the end of March.

FOR ALL FORMER STAFFERS (AND THE NOT-YET-FOSSILIZED) Editors at XUNICEF are our strategic co-pilots, making sure the collective brilliance, experience and leftover institutional memory of former staff are put to excellent use. All this follows sound journalistic management principles, lofty goals, well-meaning priorities and a shared determination to deliver News & Views on children, development, humanitarian action and a generous handful of other important things.

FOR ALL FORMER STAFFERS,  AND THOSE WHO HAVE SIMPLY NEVER LEFT At XUNICEF , Editors are our strategic visionaries, operational magicians and unpaid volunteers of destiny. Their sacred duty is to maximize the residual talents, institutional memory and strongly held opinions of former staff, in accordance with world-class journalistic management practices, aspirational goals, overlapping priorities and the occasional strong email. Together, we produce News & Views on children, development, humanitarian action and whatever else emerges during the meeting. Our Ever-Evolving Reality Over the past eight years, our operating environment has evolved rapidly, largely without our consent. It is now dynamic, complex and frequently confusing. As our global footprint has expanded, we have grown to over 1,000 members in more than 100 countries, including some that we no longer can find on the map . This growth has required bold thinking, flexible adaptation and a surprising number of r...

For You, You. And You.  Editors at XUNICEF are our strategic masterminds, custodians of wisdom, and occasional herders of digital cats. Their noble task is to ensure the optimal deployment of the talents, assets and deeply ingrained habits of former staff, in line with best-practice journalistic management, aspirational goals, loosely defined priorities and a shared commitment to producing News & Views about children, development, humanitarian action and… well, whatever else comes up.

FOR ALL FORMER STAFFERS Editors in XUNICEF are strategic partners, assuring the best use of talents and assets of former staff, in alignment with sound journalistic management practices, goals and priorites to deliver "news and views" about children, development, humanitarian aid and a lot of other stuff.

Dear Readers and Contributors, After eight wonderful years of bringing you News & Views, we write with heavy hearts to announce the closing of News & Views in March 2026. Unless new volunteer editors step forward, we will publish our final edition in March—fittingly, after reaching our eighth anniversary and after covering stories and photos from the February 2026 Reunion in Zimbabwe.

  Yes, We're Back - And It’s Déjà Vu, All Over Again We editors took a pause in August, and now, as we return, it feels as though the world itself had dozed off for the month. For millions of children and families, daily life remained as precarious as ever—perhaps even more so. The wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan dragged on without relief; peace plans were floated, negotiated, and collapsed—again and again.

    We are taking our summer break during August. We hope to resume publishing on 30 August. Anyone wishing to share an article or announcement should submit it in the usual way to the editors' email address - xunicef.news.views@gmail.com . We hope you will enjoy your own time off during this period - Happy Vacation!! The Editors @ XUNICEF News & Views

  Today, March 20th, 2024, XUNICEF News & Views marks its 6th anniversary. Come celebrate with us, the readers, writers, photographers, artists, editors, and members of XUNICEF.  

1. Daily news coverage:  From the beginning of January the editors have stopped posting daily news articles.  In past years we posted such stories after reviewing the news summaries on Google News of stories on topics such as UNICEF, the UN, children in crisis, and so on.  Why did we stop? Posting each day was a strain on our very meager team of editors.  Moreover, we know that our readers themselves follow news topics like these and our posting may simply duplicate what our readers have already read elsewhere. But the news does not stop:   No, we have not dropped the 'News' from 'News & Views'.  Instead, we count on you, our readers, to share articles you feel others may enjoy reading.