ICEF/1832

THIRD REGULAR 1996 SESSION OF UNICEF EXECUTIVE BOARD TO BE HELD AT HEADQUARTERS, 16-19 SEPTEMBER

NEW YORK, 13 September (UNICEF) -- Members of the Executive Board of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), gathering in New York on 16 September at their third regular session of 1996, will be asked to approve 48 UNICEF country programme recommendations, with a total requested budget of $986.6 million. Executive Board members will also discuss the allocation of UNICEF's general resources, the work of the International Child Development Centre, and the outline of the implementation plan for UNICEF's new health strategy. They will examine a report on UNICEF's Management Excellence Programme which includes proposals for the future role of UNICEF country, regional and headquarters offices.

Country Programme Proposals The Board will review 48 country programme recommendations (summarized in document E/ICEF/1996/P/L.43/Add.2.). A number of these recommendations demonstrate the new emphasis within UNICEF on a children's rights-based approach to programming. Depending on the needs of children in the country concerned, the strategy used in UNICEF programmes varies in emphasis from the continuing delivery and provision of services to capacity-building, empowerment, and advocacy on behalf of children and women.

The Board will review 40 country programme recommendations (documents E/ICEF/1996/P/L.1/Add.1 to E/ICEF/1996/P/L.40/Add.1) submitted as addenda to the country notes considered by the Board at its first regular session of 1996 in January. Sixteen country programme recommendations will be presented for Africa: Central African Republic, Comoros, C�te d'Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia; 12 for the Americas and the Caribbean: Argentina, Belize, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama and Uruguay; six for Asia and the Pacific: Bhutan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, and the Pacific island countries; two for Central and Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Baltic States: Republic of Moldova and Turkey; and five from the Middle East and North Africa: Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Sudan and Tunisia.

In addition, the Executive Board will discuss eight country programme recommendations which are either short-duration "bridging" proposals or stand- alone supplementary funding proposals: Angola, Somalia, Congo, Gambia, Liberia, Central America and Panama and Amazon subregion, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Iraq (documents E/ICEF/1996/P/L.65-E/ICEF/1996P/L.72, respectively).

The Executive Board will be asked to authorize a total budget of $986.6 million for all 48 programmes: $347.6 million from general resources, and $639 million from supplementary funding.

Allocation of General Resources

The Executive Board will examine a discussion paper on the allocation of general resources to country programmes which receive UNICEF support (document E/ICEF/1996/CRP.30). The UNICEF currently has three criteria for such allocations, namely, a country's child population, per capita gross national product (GNP), and under five mortality rate (U5MR). This has resulted in countries with a high U5MR and low per capita GNP receiving proportionately higher allocations compared with the size of their child populations. These allocations have then been adjusted in a flexible, but ad hoc, manner to reflect the situation within each country.

While the three criteria have served the organization well over the past decade, UNICEF has carried out a review of general resources allocations which conclude that the three criteria remain, on balance, best suited to the UNICEF mandate and mission. However, some modifications will be made to improve the allocation system of general resources for country programmes. The weighing of the three basic criteria will be changed to favour countries with high U5MR and low income, in line with the mission statement that gives priority to the most disadvantaged children and the countries in greatest need, and the child- related criteria will be given greater weighing to reduce the dominance of the income criteria. Any distortions and anomalies that have arisen in some countries as a result of changes in the three criteria will be removed. Ad hoc adjustments and weights will also be removed to make the process more transparent. The concept of graduation will be introduced, with changes in the nature of UNICEF presence and sources of funding within countries with a per capita GNP exceeding $2,895 and a U5MR of less than 30 per 1,000 live births.

The changes will mean that 96 per cent of general resource allocation will be available for country programmes, with the remaining 4 per cent held as a reserve to encourage excellence in performance and to add flexibility in responding to emerging opportunities. The viability of country programmes would be ensured by the allocation of a minimum of $500,000 to each country with a full country programme. These changes will result in an increased allocation of general resources to Africa and to low income countries. The

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changes will be implemented gradually to take full effect over a four- or five-year period beginning in 1998, and the modifications will not result in abrupt or major changes in the share of general resources received by individual countries.

International Child Development Centre

The Executive Board will consider a report (document E/ICEF/1996/201) outlining the work carried out by the International Child Development Centre between 1994 and 1996. The Centre, also known as the Innocenti Centre, was opened in Florence, Italy, in 1988 to act as UNICEF's primary source of research and analysis on children's issues, particularly children's rights. Funded largely by the Italian Government, the Centre's work between 1994 and 1996 includes its monitoring project on Central and Eastern Europe, CIS and the Baltic States, which now covers 18 countries and has established the Centre as a leading source of information on the subject. The Centre's work on children's rights now includes an examination of the situation of children in armed conflict which seeks practical ideas for the reintegration of children into schools and communities following years of fighting, dislocation and destruction.

The report before the Executive Board includes a suggested outline for the Centre's work for the years 1997 to 1999 and asks the Board to authorize the Centre's funding for those years with a total allocation of $10.5 million in supplementary funding, of which $6.7 million has already been promised by the Government of Italy.

UNICEF Health Strategy

The Executive Board will consider the outline of an implementation plan for UNICEF's new Health Strategy (document E/ICEF/1996/19), prior to the submission of a full implementation plan at the first regular session of the Executive Board in January 1997. The Health Strategy outlines broad principles for reducing the mortality and improving the quality of life for infants, children, adolescents and women, including a greater focus on health problems that have their roots in social upheaval and poverty. The Strategy itself proposes more reliance on UNICEF mobilization and partnership capacities than on direct execution of programmes by UNICEF staff.

The outline to be discussed by the Executive Board suggests the areas that should be addressed in more depth in January 1997, including the possible impact on country programmes, the importance of partnerships at all levels, the role of advocacy, and the need for staff training on the main components of the new Health Strategy.

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Management Excellence Programme

The Executive Board will discuss a report on the Management Excellence Programme (document E/ICEF/1996/AB/L.13) which outlines progress already made to ensure the most effective use of financial and human resources within UNICEF. The report contains draft recommendations on the roles of country, regional and headquarters offices. The proposed changes would aim to use the existing structure more effectively, rather than creating a new hierarchical structure for field management, and would confirm the decentralized nature of UNICEF, with its emphasis on the importance of the country programme. The report also includes proposals on the management of relationships with national committees for UNICEF.

Oral Reports

The Executive Board will also consider oral reports on the progress of the audit of UNICEF's Kenya country office, the harmonization of budget presentations, a progress report on the External Study of the Greeting Cards Operation, and the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative for Africa.

Executive Board Composition, Officers

The officers of the Executive Board are Ion Gorita (Romania), President; John Aggrey (Ghana), Lyda Aponte de Zacklin (Denmark), Dino Beti (Switzerland), and Hicham Hamdan (Lebanon), Vice-Presidents.

The 36 members of the Executive Board, whose three-year terms expire on 31 December of the year in parentheses, are as follows: Angola (1997); Azerbaijan (1997); Brazil (1996); Burkina Faso (1996); Burundi (1997); Canada (1998); China (1998); Cuba (1998); Denmark (1998); France (1996); Ghana (1996); India (1997); Indonesia (1996); Italy (1996); Jamaica (1996); Japan (1997); Kenya (1997); Lebanon (1996); Morocco (1997); Namibia (1998); Netherlands (1997); Norway (1997); Pakistan (1997); Republic of Korea (1997); Romania (1996); Russian Federation (1998); Suriname (1998); Sweden (1997); Switzerland (1998); Turkey (1998); Uganda (1997); Ukraine (1998); United Kingdom (1996); United States (1996); Venezuela (1997); Viet Nam (1998).

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