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Linkedin post by Lakshmi Balaji

We mourn the loss of: Dr. Sharad Sapra Left us for his heavenly abode today 26th January 2023 at Gwalior, India Ex Director UNICEF Global Innovation Centre Sharad is survived by his wife Uma Sapra, son Abhishek Sapra, daughter Sonam Sapra and brother Sudhir Sapra.  Condolence messages to the family may be sent to umasapra@gmail.com or saprasudhir@gmail.com . Here is a link created for Sharad where everyone can post stories, photos etc, - feel free to share link with others: https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/kGEcWUL7 From Sharad's biographic page: "Dr. Sharad Sapra, is a man who has dedicated himself to the betterment of the lives of children and their families around the world. He has created and implemented not only life changing ideas and programs in UNICEF, but has brought concepts to life that have, and will continue to, change our world. The enormous legacy he has already created will always be recognized, but those accomplishments are merely evidence of Sharad’s most im...

Child Soldier Demobilization and their Reintegration in South Sudan After 17 years of conflict, war was the only reality for people of South Sudan. Those of us involved in humanitarian work get so engrossed in the daily operations that we often do not have time to think and plan “What Can Be” for changing a given situation. So everyone, including my bosses (except one, at that time as Director OLS, I had many bosses including UNICEF, WFP, OCHA, DPA) laughed at me when I first proposed the idea of Peace 2005 and child soldier demobilization as one tangible evidence of the desire and vision for peace.  A multi-stakeholder Future Search Conference on Peace 2005 was organized which was attended by politicians, military commanders, teachers, health workers, diaspora, tribal leaders, children, women, representing different stakeholder groups. At the end of three days they presented an aligned and common vision of Peace 2005 and what it would look like. One actionable agreement of the Pea...

by Sharad Sapra   The Covid Pandemic exposed the fragility and the vulnerability of community-based public health and social development systems. Services were disrupted, disinformation and rumors through social media challenged the credibility and outreach of formal communication channels. In some cases, innovations and adaptation of existing infrastructure, technology and delivery mechanisms  provided a few breakthroughs which can now be explored further. Some of these breakthroughs and  the lessons learned offer us a unique opportunity to rethink development in a post Covid era and in future  decades which are shared below.  1. Managing Information : We can expect that with the rapidly increasing  access to social media and peer networks globally,  rumours, misinformation and even dangerous lies will be loud and pervasive. The challenge will be to create  and maintain  trusted social media networks and peer network outlets that are in cont...

July 1983. James P Grant, The Executive Director of UNICEF had this audacious vision of Growth Monitoring, Oral Rehydration, Breast Feeding, Immunization, Female Literacy, Food Supplementation and Family Spacing (GOBI-FFF) as the seven interventions to spearhead a Child Survival and Development Revolution worldwide. If the revolution was to happen, it was clear that it had to happen in India, the country with the largest child population after China. On the immunization front, UNICEF Middle and North India Office (MNIO) had tried a mass immunization strategy in Dewas, with some success but more impactful and visible strategies and projects were needed to galvanize a possible accelerated national programme. Dr Wah Wong, the head of UNICEF MNIO had gone on home leave and his deputy  Ernesto Siliezar was the Officer in Charge. Instead of just holding the fort, Ernesto decided to demonstrate a significant impact of a immunization strategy in two areas of Delhi - Trilokpuri, a resettlem...