UNICEF and Rio+20

By Wendy Wright | April 11, 2012

UNICEF briefed UN delegates yesterday on its approach to Rio+20, the upcoming global green conference. If anyone doubts the importance UN agencies are placing on Rio+20, Richard Morgan, UNICEF’s director for Policy and Practice, made clear:

“The outcomes of Rio will feed into the entire international development agenda, including the Millennium Development Goals and the progress and lessons learned from the MDGs.”

UNICEF’s key message is, “Put children at the center of sustainable development plans and strategies.”

This is not surprising, but also not comforting when a “child first” approach can be used by homosexual and abortion activists to argue for children to have sexual autonomy. Separating children from families or guardians invested in their well-being and entrusted with their long-term care makes them prey for exploitation.

UNICEF hit the right notes by focusing on nutrition, sanitation, and quality education as issues within sustainable development.

Behind the scenes, one area of contention among countries is the future of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Should they be replaced, or built upon?

The MDGs were created by economist Jeffrey Sachs and adopted virtually wholesale by the UN establishment. They framed international policy on development beyond the UN. Now, the UN establishment is searching for a framework to carry on past the MDGs’ expiration date of 2015.

Rio+20 is seen as the opportunity to launch a new framework designed as “Sustainable Development Goals.” This time, however, countries want a say in what constitutes the Sustainable Development Goals.

Morgan touched on this by stating some MDG principles remain valid: Equality and human rights. But a lesson can be learned from the experience of establishing the MDGs’ targets and monitoring. Targets and indicators should be set based on prior experiences, taking a step-by-step approach to identify future monitoring trends. It’s necessary to do testing and validation, applying a rigorous and empirical approach agreed to by the international community, he stated.

UNICEF’s role is policy development, finance management and facilitating both (such as, building adequate sanitation facilities and teaching proper sanitation techniques). School curricula and engaging adolescents as spokesmen connect the work to their child-centered approach.

UNICEF’s perspective is “human-centered, particularly those worst off, marginalized” due to gender, location, ethnicity, income or wealth. Their specific focus is on girls, but would add to the existing focus on women the disadvantages of girls and boys.

The debate over Sustainable Development Goals, however, ultimately comes down to what is meant by “sustainability. ”

“That will be clearer as we emerge from Rio,” Morgan said.

Here are the five points of “UNICEF’s Key Messages for Rio+20″

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