Upon completing 75 years in Brazil, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has been one of the main partners in promoting and defending the rights of Brazilian children and adolescents. When it began its activities in the country, 158 out of every thousand children born died before completing one year. In other words, 16 out of 100 babies died prematurely. Today, this percentage has dropped 90%, to 12 children per thousand. This decrease is the result of UNICEF’s work, in partnership with public authorities and civil society organizations.
UNICEF’s work in the country over seven decades has also extended to other areas beyond health. These include actions in education, protection, poverty reduction, and other issues. The achievements and challenges for children and adolescents in Brazil are detailed in the book “UNICEF, 75 anos pelas Crianças e pelos Adolescentes – Uma História em Construção” and the exhibition “Passos para o Amanhã”, launched on Wednesday (16), during a commemorative event at the Palácio Itamaraty in Brasília.
In addition to the publication, UNICEF is also inaugurating the Passos para o Amanhã exhibition at the Palácio Itamaraty in Brasília. The show pays tribute to the advances achieved alongside the federal government for Brazilian children and adolescents, through a series of sculptures by artist André Alves de Freitas.
The exhibition features six life-size statues representing concrete transformations in essential areas of childhood. Each sculpture symbolizes a milestone where UNICEF’s work contributed to changing realities: vaccination, basic sanitation, education, civic participation, reduction of infant mortality, and climate change. In addition to the sculptures, visitors can explore an interactive timeline presenting historical data, reports, and key facts.
Over seven decades, UNICEF has been present in the country’s main social and political transformations, contributing with the Brazilian government and other partners in decisive moments. Among them, the approval of Article 227 in the Constituent Assembly, which inserted into our magna carta the duty “of the family, society, and the State to ensure, with absolute priority, to the child, the adolescent, and the youth the right to life, health, food, education, leisure, professionalization, culture, dignity, respect, freedom, and family and community life, as well as to protect them from all forms of negligence, discrimination, exploitation, violence, cruelty, and oppression”.
UNICEF also assisted in the debates that led to the creation of the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA), and acted in the formulation and implementation of public policies aimed at reducing infant mortality, strengthening public health, expanding access to quality education, among others.
“In the last 75 years, Brazil has made great strides in guaranteeing the rights of children and adolescents, with achievements that should be celebrated. It is necessary to avoid setbacks and continue advancing. The rights of children and adolescents are an unfinished agenda, as there are always old challenges that persist and new ones that emerge. Society also continuously transforms and begins to demand new rights for boys and girls. In the face of this reality, UNICEF reaffirms its commitment to continue alongside Brazil, for every child and adolescent,” said UNICEF Representative in Brazil, Youssouf Abdel-Jelil.
Balance
The reduction of infant mortality was the initial focus of UNICEF’s work in Brazil. On June 9, 1950, the first cooperation agreement was signed for the installation of an office of the organization in Brazil, which began its activities on October 13, 1950, in João Pessoa, Paraíba.
The agreement provided for an initial transfer of 470 thousand dollars specifically for food distribution actions to combat child malnutrition (one of the main causes of infant mortality) and maternal and child health care in the states of Ceará, Paraíba, Piauí, and Rio Grande do Norte. The action was later expanded to the states of Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, Maranhão, Pará, and Amazonas.
Five decades later, the institution launched another strategy used to combat malnutrition and infant mortality: the Fortalecida Família Brasileira kit, launched in 2004 and updated in 2013.
In 1954, the organization allocated resources for Brazil’s first school meal program, laying the foundations for the national school feeding policy. The organization supported the first polio vaccination campaigns in the 1960s.
In 1973, UNICEF contributed directly to the creation of the National Immunization Program (PNI) of the Ministry of Health, a milestone that made Brazil an example of child vaccination.
At the same time, national campaigns gained prominence. Among them is the work carried out by the Pastoral da Criança, with technical and financial support from UNICEF. The campaign helped disseminate homemade serum as a preventive measure against child dehydration, mainly caused by diarrhea. Another campaign in the 1980s, aimed at promoting breastfeeding, helped increase adherence to the practice by 29%.
During this period, Brazil implemented—with the institution’s support—the Community Health Agents Program, the Family Health Program, and expanded its public health network.
UNICEF worked to combat the consequences of the Zika virus infection epidemic that occurred between 2015 and 2016, developing sensory stimulation kits and training health professionals and families in partnership with local partners in Ceará, Bahia, and with the Fundação Altino Ventura in the municipalities of Recife (PE) and Campina Grande (PB).
UNICEF’s actions also focused on the Amazon and the Semi-Arid region through the UNICEF Seal. Launched in 1999 in Ceará and later expanded to other states, the Seal recognizes and encourages concrete advances in promoting, protecting, and ensuring the rights of children and adolescents. Currently present in 18 Brazilian states, the initiative reaches more than 2 thousand municipalities and has been transforming lives and realities.
In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, UNICEF’s actions were directed toward protecting the rights of children and adolescents, with work related to water, sanitation, and hygiene in vulnerable territories. The action helped deliver potable water, hygiene materials, internet access, and psychosocial support to children and their families. Between 2020 and 2022, more than 17 million people benefited from emergency actions promoted by the organization.
In 2022, UNICEF launched the #AgendaCidadeUNICEF, carried out in vulnerable territories within eight urban centers, aimed at addressing violence and exclusion through intersectoral strategies. The initiative seeks to tackle the challenges faced by children and adolescents in Brazil’s major cities, especially in the peripheries.
“All these actions have been changing realities. If in 1950 life expectancy at birth was 48 years, in 2023 the number rose to 76.4 years. The improvement reflects decades of advances in public health policies carried out by Brazil, with UNICEF’s support,” said the organization.
Challenges for the Future
For the future, UNICEF highlights that there is much to be done to ensure the full rights of children and adolescents in Brazil. Among the main agendas listed by the institution are:
The reduction of poverty and inequalities—including guaranteeing access to quality health and education;
Addressing violence against children and adolescents—the only agenda in which Brazil has not made progress in recent decades. Violent deaths of children and adolescents, especially black boys, are a reality that needs to be addressed.
The organization also highlights challenges related to mental health in an increasingly connected world; the migration issue; and mitigating the climate emergency.
On this last point, UNICEF emphasizes the holding of COP30 in Brazil, advocating the need to place at the center of the national and global agenda a special focus on those in the most vulnerable situations.
“We must continue working on this unfinished agenda, together with communities, governments—at various levels—, civil society, the private sector, and children and adolescents themselves, to ensure a safe and prosperous present and future,” concluded the UNICEF Representative in Brazil.
Source: Agência Brasil