Overall, what kind of year was 2018 for the world’s most vulnerable children?
“It was a tough year,” UNICEF Canada president and CEO David Morley, the self-described optimist, replied in an end-of-year telephone interview.
“For us at UNICEF, we were responding to one emergency a day.
“One out of every four children lives in areas affected by emergencies, humanitarian crises.”
As a result, UNICEF’s budget for humanitarian crises is growing in comparison to the funds allocated to long-term development projects.
Conflicts in Yemen, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Syria continue to require significant humanitarian responses. “Much of our work now, is in those difficult, difficult areas,” he explained.
Hot spots
In late 2013, South Sudan, the world’s newest country, tumbled into civil conflict. A faltering peace process has yet to stabilize the country and bring a lasting peace to the world’s poorest nation.
According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the conflict in South Sudan has forced in excess of 2.2 million South Sudanese to flee to six neighbouring countries, including Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Central African Republic.
In addition, there are 1.9 internally displaced person (IDPs) in South Sudan.
The situation is even more desperate in war-torn Yemen, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have been fighting a proxy war.
According to the UNICEF Canada website, “over 11 million children – 80 per cent of all children in the country – require humanitarian assistance.”
UNICEF also reports that basic services have collapsed in Yemen, which means that “schools, health facilities, and water and sanitation systems have been destroyed, evacuated or forced to close down because of the lack of fuel, supplies and funds.”
As a result, “children face food shortages, disease, displacement and an acute lack of access to basic social services.”
The UN agency reports that 1.8 million children in Yemen are “acutely malnourished,” and “400,000 children under the age of five suffer from severe acute malnutrition and are fighting to survive.”
It is not clear that a fledgling peace process will yield a permanent ceasefire in Yemen.
Glimmer of hope
“It’s not all bleak,” Morley insisted. Even in conflict zones, there are people doing good works. For example, UNICEF carried out an initiative in Yemen in October 2018 to prevent the spread of disease.
The “days of tranquility” was a UNICEF-brokered ceasefire in certain parts of the war-torn country that allowed the UN agency to vaccinate civilians against cholera.
“There was a ceasefire, so we had about 3,000 Yemeni community health workers who were able to go to areas where there had been fighting,” Morley stated.
“They reached about 300,000 people and gave them the cholera vaccine.”
The initiative, Morley said, “was a reminder that you can stop the fighting, and people will often stop it when it’s for children.”
And he revealed that UNICEF is planning a polio campaign for Yemen in 2019 — if the ceasefire holds.
“There are always glimmers of hope,” offered Morley, reaffirming his optimism even in troubled times. “There are peacemakers everywhere. And we need them.”
Marshall Plan for Yemen
Even if a final peace agreement is brokered in Yemen in 2019, millions of children will have already suffered from starvation and/or malnutrition. What will this mean for their physical and mental development in 2019?
“If we are able to quickly get in to some of those areas and get the supplies, the therapeutic food, the health care we need, there’s hope for a bunch of them,” Morley answered.
“But if we can’t get in, or if we don’t have the resources,” or if opposing armed factions control different areas of the country and limit access, the UNICEF Canada boss warned that the children could “suffer long-term” damage.
“They will suffer, because they haven’t had enough nutrition and food. There is irreparable damage that can be done to them, particularly in those first five years of life, because they will never grow to their full intellectual or physical potential.
So if we can’t get in there, it does not bode well in the long term for those children; that’s why stopping the fighting is so key. But that’s only the first step.”
Once peace is established, UNICEF and other humanitarian non-governmental organizations will have to work with the Yemeni government “to get the nutritional supplies those kids need,” said Morley, who became a member of the Order of Canada in 2018.
The humanitarian need in Yemen will remain great even after the conflict ends. What does Morley want to see the world doing in Yemen in 2019?
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could pull together some sort of Marshall Plan for Yemen,” he replied, referring to the American reconstruction and development assistance plan that rebuilt Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War.
“It doesn’t have to be us in the West” who funds the plan, he added.
“Saudi Arabia and Iran are wealthy, oil-producing countries. They could be putting money into rebuilding the country they have been squabbling over.”
Morley also believes that the West should contribute to efforts to help Yemen get on its feet after the war eventually ends. “It’s going to need a Marshall Plan-like effort to rebuild, because it was already such a poor country.”
Migration
Migration will continue to be a source of controversy and anger in 2019. What does Morley want people to know about the lives of migrant children?
“Well, first of all, they’re children,” he replied with a sigh.
“First and foremost, they’re children,” he repeated for emphasis.
Morley has met families on the run who were escaping violence, and others who were simply looking for a better life than their homelands could provide.
And he said the parents wanted their children to have the opportunity to go to school so that they would have a chance at a bright future.
Noting that there is a legal difference between refugees, who are people fleeing conflict or violence or persecution, and migrants, who tend to leave their countries in search of better economic opportunities,
Morley said that many Canadian families that have been here for generations sprang from ancestors who migrated to Canada in search of opportunity. “They could be called economic migrants from England,” Morley said of his own parents.
In addition, he said many Canadians trace their lineage to people who fled violence and famine in Europe long ago. “That’s our history, and that’s all these kids are doing,” he said of today’s migrant and refugee children. “They’re not a marauding horde. They’re just kids.”
By the end of 2019, will the situation of the world’s most vulnerable children have improved?
“By the end of 2019, I fear for some places, where it will be worse,” Morely answered candidly. For example, the situation in Venezuela concerns him greatly.
People are fleeing the country as the economy crumbles, food shortages worsen, and political oppression is the order of the day.
“If things do settle in Syria, that will stop some of the flow of migration,” he said with very cautious optimism.
“If fighting and conflict could come to an end in several places, things will get better. There are always more people who want to do good, I’m convinced of it. Way more people want to do good than evil,” he added for emphasis.
“If they get a chance, things will blossom,” he said, citing positive developments in Sub-Saharan Africa, where more children are now surviving and going to school.
“But we need peace. I think for 2019, if some of these places can start to see peace, then we will start to see the benefit for those children.”
by Geoffrey P. Johnston
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