The beginning

UNICEF is created to respond to the millions of displaced and refugee children deprived of shelter, clothing, and food in the aftermath of World War II. Over the next 15 years, UNICEF evolved from an emergency fund to a development agency committed to tackling hunger, fighting disease and advocating for the rights of children all over the world!

Becoming part of the family

UNICEF becomes a permanent part of the United Nations and launches its first water, sanitation and hygiene programmes to reduce preventable childhood diseases and death. We also began expanding our programmes to address the needs of the whole child. At this point in time UNICEF was already supporting kids in almost 100 countries!

Building blocks for children’s rights

The UN General Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which defines children’s rights to protection, education, health care, shelter, and good nutrition. This declaration has continued to influence national legislation and policies around the world, guiding efforts to protect and promote the rights of children in diverse contexts.

19 years in the making

UNICEF is awarded the 1965 Nobel Peace Prize “for the promotion of brotherhood among nations.” This award was made possible by the growth of a global partnership involving governments, private organisations, and the world's peoples, to increase opportunities for improving the lives of kids everywhere!

The start of our journey!

UNICEF Aotearoa officially becomes a UNICEF National Committee. To raise funds, promote children’s rights, and secure visibility for the world’s children threatened by poverty, disasters, conflict, abuse, and exploitation. This is the collective role of the 33 UNICEF National Committees around the world.

Year of the Child

Marked by celebrations around the world, people and organisations reaffirm their commitment to children’s rights. This proclamation helped raise awareness of the special needs of children on the part of decision makers and the public. The same year a working group was established to start developing what would be the Convention On The Rights Of The Child!

One of the world’s deadliest diseases

Working closely with partners like the World Health Organisation, UNICEF eradicates smallpox with a global rollout of immunisations and monitoring! This remains among the most notable and profound public health successes in history. With today’s advancements in vaccines and testing we're on track to eradicate polio too!

A developmental revolution

UNICEF launches the Child Survival and Development Revolution, a drive to save the lives of millions of children each year. Rather than treating child mortality, the effort sought to directly reduce child mortality with four simple, low-cost techniques: growth monitoring, oral rehydration therapy, breastfeeding and immunisation.

Landmark UNICEF Study

The landmark report ‘Adjustment with a Human Face’ calls for national programmes and policies to protect the rights of children, women, and other vulnerable groups - especially during economic crises. Thirty three years later this approach was just as vital during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure children of low-income families weren’t left behind.

A groundbreaking treaty for kids

The Convention On The Rights Of The Child is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. It’s since been embraced by more countries than any other human rights agreement in history. The convention recognises 42 basic human rights that apply to all children, without any discrimination.

A historic world summit

The largest gathering of world leaders to ever assemble at the United Nations attend the World Summit for Children. This was the first occasion in history when a summit was held exclusively to address children’s issues. 152 world leaders agreed to be guided by the principle that the essential needs of kids should be given high priority in the allocation of resources.

Continuous learning, no matter what

UNICEF and UNESCO invent and distribute the first ‘School-in-a-Box’ - a portable classroom that’s still used today. Each kit now contains three months worth of school supplies and materials for one teacher and 40 students. Even when an emergency strikes, kids shouldn’t have to put their learning on hold.

A landmark for gender equality

The United Nations hosts the Fourth World Conference on Women. Here the world made a promise: equal rights and opportunities for all women and girls, everywhere. This conference ushered in was a new mindset that realising the full potential of women and girls is a powerful and essential component of successful, sustainable development.

Special session on children

A landmark Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly is convened to review progress since the World Summit to re-energise global commitment to children's rights. It was the first session devoted exclusively to children and the first to include them as official delegates! Over 100 delegates were chosen to represent young people and their well-being!

Uniting for children

UNICEF launches global campaign - ‘Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS’ - to raise awareness of the plight of children globally in relation to HIV and AIDS, and to spur action. Over the past two decades, hard-fought global progress against HIV/AIDS has saved millions of lives. Hospital wards that were once packed with people living with HIV are now empty.

Something small but mighty

UNICEF becomes the world’s biggest purchaser of life-saving Ready-to-use therapeutic foods. These sachets are filled with an energy dense and nutrient rich peanut paste used to treat millions of kids around the world suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Today UNICEF procures 80 percent of the world's therapeutic food!

Innovation for connection and change

UNICEF develops U-Report, a digital community for young people, by young people. Across over 90 countries, U-report empowers young people to learn about issues that affect them, take action, and become agents of change. UNICEF continues to take a leading role in creating, identifying, scaling and implementing innovative youth-led and youth-centred solutions!

Building a world that works for all kids

UNICEF hosts the first Forum of the Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities. Our disability-inclusive programmes reached over 4.5 million kids with disabilities in 142 countries in 2022! Including children with disabilities in all aspects of life must be a priority for all of us if we’re to succeed in making sure EVERY child thrives!

Groundbreaking health innovation

UNICEF launches the first version of RapidPro - an open-source platform for sharing real-time data across health, education and youth engagement platforms. To continue reaching millions of the hardest-to-reach children and those most in need, we need to know where, when and how to act.

Finding Water in the Driest Places

UNICEF collaborates with the European Union Joint Research Centre to develop a new way of mapping groundwater using satellite imagery and data to find water before drilling. This saves time and money, especially compared to other technologies that cost thousands of dollars more, but find water less than half of the time!

Innovations from above

UNICEF supports the first commercial vaccine delivery by drone, in the remote island nation of Vanuatu. In a country where 1 in 5 kids are not fully immunised, drones reduce a journey of several hours into just 25 minutes to safely transport the vaccines from distribution centres to rural vaccination posts. This innovation continues to save time, energy, and lives!

Building a brighter future

Generation Unlimited, a global UNICEF partnership launches at the United Nations General Assembly. This partnership works to connect the world’s 1.8 billion young people with opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and social impact. Currently GenU has involved young people in co-designing and implementing solutions in over 54 countries!

Trailblazing girl-centred tech

UNICEF’s develops the world’s first digital menstruation app Oky, with and for adolescent girls. The app provides evidence-based information about periods, puberty, and reproductive health in fun, creative and positive ways, straight into girls’ hands. Oky is continually bridging the gap in access to information on menstruation & reproductive health!

Reshaping ‘wellbeing’ for Māori

UNICEF Aotearoa develop Te Hiringa Tamariki, a dedicated wellbeing outcomes model for tamariki Māori with a unique Te Ao Māori lens and contributions from rangatahi māori. This model fights negative stereotyping and articulates a new narrative of Māori capability, empowerment and potential!

A leap for equal opportunity

UNICEF launches the Girls in Science programme, empowering girls to excel in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This programme continues to bridge the gender gap in these areas by combating societal gender norms and stereotypes that impact girls' educational opportunities and academic performance.

An important investment in families

After years of advocacy from UNICEF Aotearoa, campaigning from politicians, and tireless petitioning from the New Zealand public - a momentous bill passes and increases parental leave to 26 weeks. This gave our newborns more needed time with their parents and a stronger start in life. Every moment matters!

A game-changer in remote learning

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, UNICEF & Microsoft develop 'The Learning Passport'. Named one of Time Magazine's best inventions of 2021; this educational innovation is a digital learning platform providing kids app and browser-based school classes without always having to be connected to the internet.

A life-changing partnership

UNICEF Aotearoa and the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade announce a multi-year partnership to support our neighbours in Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Timor-Leste, & Papua New Guinea. This life-changing partnership continues to ensure kids receive the best start in life and thrive in a healthy, stimulating, and safe environment.

The largest health operation in history

UNICEF helps launch and lead the global delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. Our expertise and experience in delivering vaccines along with our global network positioned us to make this vaccination campaign a success. By the end of 2022, we had helped deliver almost 2 billion vaccines to 146 countries including some of the most remote areas in the world.

A historic step in health care

UNICEF is awarded a $170 million contract to supply the first-ever malaria vaccine. A revolutionary tool for saving lives, 35-years in the making. The landmark award lead to the availability of 18 million doses over the following three years, potentially saving thousands of lives every year. This was just the beginning!

Breaking records for kids

UNICEF procures a record $7.4 billion in supplies and services for kids in 162 countries and areas, representing a 93 per cent increase from pre-COVID-19 numbers. Supplies are essential to fulfil children’s rights, especially those living through conflict, war, climate disasters and food insecurity. This marked a sixth consecutive year of record-breaking procurement!

Revolutionising emergency relief

UNICEF partners with drone start-up Aerobots to develop drones that transmit essential real-time data during natural disasters. Drones reduce the time it takes to communicate data between emergency responders by 80 per cent, increasing our ability to save more lives when disaster strikes!

Safeguarding Today and Tomorrow

UNICEF launches the world's first climate-change financing solution to protect more than 13.5 million children and families. This revolutionary new fund is all about strengthening all our systems today to reduce the impact of a weather event, while insuring for what may happen tomorrow. After piloting in 8 countries it expected to scale up to more countries.

Bridging Parliament and youth

A non-partisan forum is launched by UNICEF Aotearoa to provide young people with the chance to speak directly to New Zealand’s decision-makers. These forums demonstrate the value of listening to and engaging with child and youth perspectives on issues that directly affect their rights, to better inform the action needed from our Government.