UNICEF calls for priority focus on girl child.

UNICEF calls for priority focus on girl child

All programmers of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and strategies in the 1990s will address explicitly the status of the girl child and her needs, particularly in nutrition, health and education, with a view to eliminating gender disparities.

The recommendation was made by the UNICEF Executive Board at its 1990 regular session (16-27 April). Endorsing the priority focus given to the girl child, the Board also asked UNICEF to implement gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to assess progress made in reducing disparities between girls and boys in health care and primary education programmes.

The Board also requested UNICEF Executive Director James P. Grant to highlight the girl child in the annual report on women in development and to submit to the 1992 Board session and every second year thereafter, a full report on progress made on the situation of the girl child.

Other issues discussed at the session were the situation of large numbers of homeless, abandoned, displaced and street children in South Africa, children and acquired immunodficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the situation of children in Central and Eastern Europe where, Mr. Grant said, new policies of restructuring and openness were creating some problems, especially for the most vulnerable.

The Board approved $1 million in annual transitional support for Central and Eastern Europe in 1990-1992. UNICEF would offer to help Governments in the region rethink policies for child survival. This would be done without diverting resources committed to support developing countries.

UNICEF's 1990-1991 budget will be $926.7 million. The World Summit for Children, set for 29 to 30 September at UN Headquarters, is budgeted at $1.48 million, with another $1.9 million going to related activities.

"Children should be at the centre of society's concerns", Mr. Grant told the Executive Board on 27 April.

The purpose of the Summit, he said, was to mobilize political leadership in support of UNICEF's goals and strategies and to identify and encourage accelerated action in other forums on child-related issues. More aid should be given to primary health care and basic education.