XUNICEF News and Views

Help! I’m losing confidence in all institutions One of the basic principles for using Behaviour and Social Change Communication to promote, well, behaviour and social change, is having confidence in your source of information. Seemingly simple in theory, in practice, many of the communities in countries where I worked, from Rwanda and Mozambique to Afghanistan (based in Pakistan at the time), Brazil and Sudan were wary of messaging that came from their governments or sometimes other organizations or institutions (UNICEF was for the most part perceived as a trusted source of information).  Never did I think that in my own country, the US, would I experience disinformation and misinformation on an unimaginable scale. The current daily barrage of lies is full of purpose, just as Radio Rwanda was in 1994 when it called for the extermination of the Tutsi ethnic group by calling them cockroaches unworthy to live. The public is being fed a steady stream of lies about immigrants, calling t...

My only pumpkin, grown in the year of Covi d For a few years, I have been attempting vegetable gardening. I enjoy being outside in our quarter-acre plot. My husband cares for the flowers and I try to grow vegetables and herbs. I say “try” because I am in my sixth year of gardening and each year has been very different from the previous one. The first year, 2020, the only seeds that yielded anything were pumpkins. We had a truly homemade pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. The second year, I managed a few potatoes and a full vine of cherry tomatoes, which were delicious. Then came a couple years with beautiful peas and beans ... until grasshoppers ate the delicate sprouts. Last year’s effort to grow the indigenous “three sisters” – corn, beans and squash planted near each other – was a failure, mainly for lack of adequate sun. This year, our neighbor allowed us to trim some of the Siberian elm trees that form the border between his place and ours. More on these pernicious trees later. Having ...

©Sammy Roth, LA Times 16 January 2025 As the wildfires in the Los Angeles continue to rage, sustained by strong Santa Ana winds, I have tucked-away images of emergency situations where I served with UNICEF appearing unbidden in my mind. That got me to wondering if UNICEF has improved its ability to provide briefings to staff going into humanitarian situations and if counseling services have improved.

Today’s sky in northern New Mexico is cloudless and a spectacular blue. I sit in our spare bedroom that I share daily with our dog. From her perch on the bed, Tindy delights in rushing out to greet my husband’s music students, leading them to his voice and piano studio and then returning to my side. I open messages which include several blogs and analyses related to Sudan, Ukraine, Palestine and, of course, the recent US elections. But today’s readings do not sync with my beautiful surroundings.

HEATED is one of my favorite sources on the climate crisis. I am sending you today's essay (30 October) for two reasons. First, it refers to a UN report that obscures the true climate impact of meat production. Wish they had gotten it right.  Click here. Second, our little dog I've referred to before, Tindy, is featured at the end as "Catch of the Day"!

7 October 2024 I wish I could say that the depressive slump I have been experiencing for several months was a temporary mid-life crisis. But at 72, I cannot claim to be in mid-life, and I have not been on a good trajectory since 2020 for regaining equilibrium about the health of Planet Earth and all its denizens. Aware of my natural tendency towards doom and gloom, I have worked hard all my life, including over two decades in UNICEF, to present a positive, optimistic face. But the past decade has been tough, beginning, I believe, with the appearance of Mr. Trump on the national and international scenes, where he has normalized lying; encouraged violence; denied the oil and gas industry’s role in climate change; and engaged in conspiracy theories, to name only a few of his many negative impacts. A couple weeks ago, unable to come up with a “good news” essay for this XUNICEF newsletter about guns and other firearms in the US, I decided to take action to improve my outlook. I unsubscribed...

Article shared by Paula Claycomb This article in The New Humanitarian may be of interest to the x-UNICEF network, whether we worked on development or humanitarian issues. I find the concept of "anticipatory action" very interesting. The core argument of Hugo Slim's essay is stated in one of his last sentences: "If we want to live through the Earth emergency, we must show humanity to other life around us. Thanks Paula

Article shared by Paula Claycomb

Mindful of incessant media and friends’ reminders to “de-clutter your home so your kids don’t have to”, I recently set a three-month goal to say good-bye to many cherished possessions. These include several dozen excellent UNICEF documents and other memorabilia from three decades of life and travel in other countries. From friends, relatives and articles, I know many of the generic tips, like: If you have family heirlooms, jewelry, or art you want to pass on to someone, document them. Make it fun: Listen to music, take breaks, and make lists as you sort through belongings. Use a decluttering calendar. Follow the 80/20 rule, which says that people use 20% of their belongings 80% of the time. The remaining 80% is considered clutter, which takes up space and often goes untouched. Make a list of acceptable “must-keep” things. ... And many others Carpets and kilims will stay, of course. And some textiles and paintings. But documents? Hey ... this is not easy going and I seek your advice. ...

Editor's Note: To mark the sixth anniversary of News & Views, we asked several authors who contributed to our early editions to revisit their articles and both 'look back' over the intervening years, and 'look forward to what lies ahead.

Though I do not always comment on colleagues' submissions, and do not submit anything very frequently, I greatly appreciate the XUNICEF weekly digest.  I love seeing new names amongst the weekly submissions and often wonder why so few of us respond to repeated invitations to chime in. After all, with such a large readership -- over 1,000 -- surely more than 30 or 40 of us have something to offer, if only once or twice a year. I, for one, enjoy reading your poems and admiring your photos. Occasionally I will chuckle out loud over a joke. I share in everyone's pain over the terrible abuse of children's rights in far too many countries. I respect the OpEds and essays that you write. I fear, as many of you do, for our planet's future. And I love knowing that our UNICEF family, collectively and individually continues to live full, rich lives beyond retirement or separation.  Please, if ever you have thought about sending something to our small but mighty group of dedicated e...

How many of you have a dog or a cat? Or maybe a hamster or cockatoo or other animal friend? I cannot remember a time in my life when a dog was not part of the family. Currently, we have Tindy, a 3-1/2 year old mix of Greyhound, Affenpinscher, and Poodle. We know this only because the owner of her sister (coincidentally named Tilly) had a DNA test done.

Oil derricks in the Baku oil field in Azerbaijan in 1912.  ETH-Bibliothek Zürich Interesting article. Paula Claycomb

Happy New Year, everyone!

Partly through personal interest and partly through coincidence, I spent all of 2023 focused on Afghanistan. Having served with the UNICEF Afghanistan Country Office in 1998 and 1999, under Louis-Georges Arsenault, the country is close to my heart. I remain in touch with several colleagues from those days, including Niloufar Pourzand, Ellen van Kalmthout, Anoja Wijeysekera,Hafiza Rasouli, Suraya Dalil and Rafi Mohammad.

Dr. Maryam Farzanegan, former UNICEF staff member, died tragically on Saturday, 2 September, in the Los Angeles area. Her car was struck by a driver “under the influence” as we say euphemistically in the US instead of “drunk driver”. She was taken immediately to the hospital but died of her injuries. Maryam worked with UNICEF for almost two decades in New York, ESARO and EAPRO and spent a few years at the Innocenti Research Centre in Florence. She attended the ex-UNICEF-ers gathering in Mexico in 2017 and had hoped to participate in this year’s get-together in Toronto. Instead, she travelled to Taos, New Mexico, for the 50th anniversary celebration of me and my husband,Mark Jackson. She traveled with her friend Roshan Aflaki. Below are a couple photos of Maryam and other UNICEF and UN colleagues. At the time of her death, Maryam was Clinical Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. She taught a popu...

I have been wondering if any UNICEF of you have a similar story to this one, about how you decided to go to graduate school and study what you did. First, I should say why this issue even arose. You see, my son offered an unusual gift for my 70th birthday, in September. He gave me a year’s subscription to Storyworth https://welcome.storyworth.com/about . It is a service that collects a year’s worth of weekly (or less frequent) stories that you write in response to their questions. At the end of a year, Storyworth pulls all your submissions together into a book, along with any photos or other attachments. You then have a nice little collection of stories on your own life. A few weeks ago, the question was how I chose what to study in graduate school. But before getting to the specialization itself, I should explain how I arrived at the decision to go back to school for a Master’s degree. I was working a gazillion hours a week at UNICEF’s New York headquarters and trying to be a dece...

Like many of us in UNICEF, I have served in duty stations during tumultuous, historic periods of the country’s sometimes turbulent past. These include Rwanda in 1994, East Timor in 1999 (on a short but chaotic mission), Afghanistan from 1999 to 2002 during the first Taliban period (based in Islamabad) and Sudan from 2004 to 2006. This short article is a personal contribution to the 2022 anniversary of UNICEF’s 70 years in Sudan Those three years included the worst of the ongoing Darfur genocide, the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the north and the south, the concluding years of Operation Lifeline Sudan and the death of the southern leader John Garang. During my time in Khartoum, the concept of cluster coordination in response to humanitarian situations was also introduced and a special Darfur Emergency Office was established by UNICEF, whose staff worked independently of the regular County Office.  It was a challenging time for everyone, including, of co...

Paula and her constant companion Tindy What was your last assignment with UNICEF? Senior Advisor, Communication for Development, New York HQs How old do you feel? Exactly what I am: 69 and 9 months, though I am fortunate to have excellent health and able to do 5-mile hikes. Where do you live? Taos, New Mexico, USA