UNICEF 60 Years After Its Establishment in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria – The work UNICEF is doing in Nigeria today is indisputably outstanding and has helped the country a lot, but it is interesting to look into the past and see how UNICEF has evolved as an organization that helped Nigeria to evolve as well.

UNICEF was created in New York City in December 1946 by the United Nations in hopes to assist those European children left orphaned and facing famine after World War II. Originally, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, the name was shortened to the UN Children’s Fund a few years after its creation.

As the organization expanded its program, it was able to spread across the world to other continents.  In 1952, its Executive Board was able to approve aid for relief in Sub-Saharan Africa and later that year an office was opened in Lagos, Nigeria.

At that time, UNICEF’s first priority was to provide relief for Nigerians against the endemic diseases of leprosy, yaws, and malaria (the first two of which were no longer considered to be a significant public health issue by the 1960’s). They also supported the development of maternal and child welfare services through their original strategies of pilot projects, training, and offering supplies.

To combat malnutrition, UNICEF created the first milk-drying plant ever to exist in Africa, and it was in Nigeria; they did this to provide dried milk for young children and infants across the nation. They also focused on educating the mothers of Nigeria in another attempt to combat undernourishment.

In the late 1960’s, civil war broke out in Nigeria, posing a trial to UNICEF’s humanitarian efforts, since the UN did not permit intervention in civil conflicts. The Nigerian children still needed assistance, however, so UNICEF asked for help from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in order to fly emergency relief and food supplements to the disputed territory.

By 1970, the war had ended and UNICEF had shipped about 30,000 metric tons of drugs, medical supplies and food to areas needing help and they contributed massively to the post-war assistance and reestablishment efforts.

During the the 1970’s and the 1980’s, the Nigerian economy recovered from the war and their main revenues were from the oil boom. Their government had to decide how to use these new and fast-coming revenues, so UNICEF recommended focusing on the children, their development and their education, since they would be the future leaders of the country. UNICEF’s main involvement became health projects in training, education about health, immunization, disease control, and other basic health services.

Near the end of the 1980’s, UNICEF encountered a new problem, AIDS, which they addressed with the arduous sterilization of syringes to prevent its spread through inoculation.

In 1990, Nigeria signed the 10-Point Plan of Action and during that decade, it worked toward a set of development goals to be completed by the year 2000. In recent years, Nigeria has adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs,) each of which is linked to the health and safety of children. The contemporary program of cooperation between the Nigerian government and UNICEF is present in all the 36 states of the country. Also, in 2007, Nigeria had its first general elections for transferring power from citizen to citizen.