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联合国儿童基金会2012年终回顾

2012-12-31

在充满挑战的一年,为儿童取得成就

纽约/香港,2012年12月31日--对联合国儿童基金会(UNICEF)及其合作伙伴而言,2012年又再是充满挑战的一年──在财政支持未如理想的情况下,仍要应对多种人道主义需求。

纵然如此,UNICEF仍为儿童取得显着成果,包括对抗疾病和降低儿童死亡率。

对抗疾病及儿童死亡率

实现联合国「千禧发展目标4」 的工作上,已取得实质进展:全球5岁以下儿童的死亡人数,从1990年约1,200万人下降至2011年的690万人。

A woman carries a bucket filled with safe water that she was given during a water distribution from a tanker-truck, on the Jamali Bypass, the main highway in Jacobabad District, in Sindh Province. The truck bears the logos of UNICEF and other support partners. More than 58,600 flood-affected people in the province have received safe drinking water via tanker trucks. By mid-October 2012 in Pakistan, monsoon rains and torrential flooding that began in early September had affected more than 5 million people – primarily in the provinces of Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan. Over 459,000 homes as well as roads and schools have been damaged or destroyed; some 265,000 people remain displaced in relief camps, with many others living in roadside and other informal settlements; over 1.1 million acres of land and an estimated 54 per cent of health facilities have been affected; and numerous water sources have been contaminated. More than 80 per cent of the affected are women and children under age 14 in need of shelter, food, safe drinking water, sanitation, maternal and child health care and malaria prevention. Malnutrition rates in the hardest hit districts are well above the emergency threshold, and 74 per cent of children in affected communities are out of school. Logistical constraints are hampering relief efforts in many areas, and continuing insecurity is placing United Nations staff and other humanitarian workers at increased risk. In response to the crisis, UNICEF is working with the Government (which has pledged US $91 million to the monsoon floods response), as well as with other UN agencies and partner NGOs. Support includes the provision of: essential child and maternal health services; therapeutic and supplementary feeding programmes; safe drinking water, sanitation facilities and hygiene kits; ongoing immunization services, including to eradicate polio; temporary learning centres and child-friendly spaces; and protective services for children, including for family reunification and psychosocial support. UNICEF is requesting US $15.4 million to fund its part of the response over the next three months.
这意味着每天少了14,000名儿童不幸夭折。

同时,实现根除爱滋病病毒/爱滋病及小儿麻痺症的日子亦近在眼前。靠着简便的药物治疗方案,以及防治爱滋病病毒母婴传播工作项目的成功,全球爱滋病病毒新感染个案,将有望在2015年前降至零。

今年9月,联合国秘书长潘基文召开了20年来,在杜绝小儿麻痺症工作方面最关键的会议。儘管小儿麻痺症仍于阿富汗、尼日利亚及巴基斯坦等国家肆虐,但在1988年至2011年间,感染率已大大降低了99%。会议上,各国领袖更重申了根除小儿麻痺症的承诺。

UNICEF执行主任安东尼.雷克直言:「如果我们在未来数年仍未杜绝小儿麻痺症,歷史一定不会轻易放过我们。」

伙伴关係

2012年是合作创新的一年。「重申承诺」行动推动了国际间广泛合作,共同减少可预防的儿童死亡个案。自6月发动行动以来,全球已有逾半数国家签署承诺。

UNICEF亦致力于「加强营养」行动(Scaling up Nutrition movement)。这项行动集结了30个国家、27名全球领袖及逾100个组织,共同帮助1.65亿名5岁以下儿童解决发育不良的问题。

帮助儿童生存与发展

UNICEF于2012年应对了各种人道主义灾难,帮助儿童生存与发展。

叙利亚共和国的境内冲突,影响超过100万名儿童,UNICEF正为这些儿童及邻国逾20万名难民儿童提供紧急援助物资。

[THIS IMAGE IS FOR USE BY UNICEF ONLY – DO NOT SHARE WITH EXTERNAL MEDIA] A boy stands in Aleppo, capital of the north-western Aleppo Governorate. The city has been a site of prolonged fighting during the conflict. By late September 2012 in Syria, escalating war continues to take its toll on children and their families. Some 2.5 million people have been affected, of which 1.2 million – half of them children – have been displaced. Deaths, including of children and women, are estimated at 19,000. Syrians have also fled to neighboring Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey; more than 226,700 have registered with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), while over 75,000 are awaiting registration. UNICEF continues working with diverse governments, other United Nations organizations and local and international NGOs to respond to the needs of affected children both in and outside Syria. UNICEF also supports initiatives in education, water, sanitation and hygiene, health, nutrition and child protection, including the provision of child-friendly spaces and psychosocial assistance for children traumatized by their experiences in relation to the conflict. To fund this work, UNICEF has requested US$123 million, of which less than 25 per cent has been received to date.
西非萨赫勒地区的旱灾,是今年最严峻的挑战之一。该地区多逾1,800万人面临粮食安全问题。据估计,当时约有110万儿童危在旦夕。有些国家更因持续冲突、大量难民涌入,以及霍乱爆发等原因,令粮食危机不断恶化。截至9月底,UNICEF已向逾73万名5岁以下、患有严重营养不良的儿童提供治疗,拯救生命。

在巴基斯坦,UNICEF援助了超过10万名受洪灾和动盪局势影响的儿童及妇女,並保护他们。

2012年,刚果民主共和国的境内难民人数升至2009年以来新高,面对该国新一轮的暴力冲突,UNICEF迅速作出回应,协助了3,000多名失散儿童与家人团聚。

此外,2012年亦是南苏丹宣佈独立后的第1年,在紧张的政治形势,以及难民涌现和种族冲突频生的环境中,UNICEF帮助了超过35万名儿童获得紧急供水和衞生服务。

雷克先生表示:「我们每天辛勤工作,帮助儿童生存与发展;帮助女童发挥潜能;保护儿童免受暴力和剥削;帮助每位儿童接种疫苗,杜绝小儿麻痺症;确保生命拯救物资供应充足;开拓更多样化的伙伴关係,以加快工作进程等……除了以上种种,还有更多、更多的工作都让我们感到无比自豪。」