I'm delighted to have online Dr. Judith Diaz, who is Chief Adolescent Development and Participation Section at UNICEF, based at their headquarters in New York. Judy, thank you so much for participating in our MOOC on Global Adolescent Health, and I do appreciate how very early it is for you in New York. Nearly everyone's heard of UNICEF, but perhaps can you start by telling us what UNICEF does? >> Yes. Thank you so much, Susan, for this opportunity. UNICEF was actually founded back in 1946. By the U.N. just after World War II. Recognising that there was famine and disease among children, in Europe. And a need for an agency to address their basic needs around food and security and healthcare, clothing. And today we continue to play a critical role right after crisis. I think, right after the earthquake, certainly, in Nepal. In Haiti, we're very critical there to provide supplies right after a crisis. We're also very strong in other low resource settings around the world, continuing to offer supplies. We continue to procure more than 50% of the world's vaccines. So we're playing a large role in the healthcare of the world. However, our mandate was significantly shifted in 1989, with the passing of the convention on the rights of the child. At that point it was the most widely and rapidly adopted human rights treaty in history of the world. And at that point, we became the custodian for that treaty. Which means that we have a mandate as UNICEF, for the rights of children up to the age of 18. UNICEF does not function, I think it's important to recognise as an NGO. It is in countries at the invitation of governments. And we are indeed, in more than 190 countries and territories, we have great spread. But we don't operate in little projects like an NGO, rather we assist government in carrying out their work, for children around the world. So we establish our yearly work plans with governments, along with them. So we're not seen as a separate entity, but very much as partners in development with them. >> Thanks so much, that's a terrific introduction and background to UNICEF's work. And I'm intrigued, because I know that from what you've said and from what I know of UNICEF, when I think about the C in UNICEF, obviously it refers to children. But, how, in a sense you've described a little bit already how UNICEF has historically described it's work with children. But how has this changed more recently and particularly obviously, in terms of a focus on adolescence. >> Thanks. Yeah, our emphasis as an organisation really has historically been on the young child's survival. Which involves appropriate vaccines, and nutrition for the mother and the child, breastfeeding initiative, adequate water, and sanitation facilities. And UNICEF and its partners have done a remarkable job of bringing down child mortality rates, over the past 50 years. And at the same time as our mandate has shifted to more of a child rights focus, and up to the age of 18, we realise that we can't just focus on that first second of life, but very much also look at that second decade. As our executive director has said, we can't save children the the first decade just to have them die of homicide or in childbirth or suicide in the second decade of life. So yes it's important for the rights of the child in the second decade, but also for our investments in that first decade of life, that we continue that investment going forward. So increasingly, we are beginning to look at our investments very systematically in that second decade of life, across all that we do in UNICEF. From health and child protection, certainly the HIV, AIDS world has been doing that for quite some time. The child protection education, we're all moving in to that second executive life. Seeing that as a critical link, from childhood up to adulthood. >> I think you've nicely sort of segwayed into what I been thinking would be helpful for our students to hear about, which is you've described in a sense the number of different sectors that UNICEF staff are working in at a country level. But we know how challenging that is to work across different sectors. Can you share something of the challenges faced by your staff at a country level, in having to work across different sectors? For example, such as across health and education? >> Yeah, I think first I would point to the opportunity. Because I think UNICEF is very well placed and uniquely placed because it is engaged in all these different areas. From health to education, to protection, to nutrition, to water, to sanitation, to all the things that touch an adolescent's life. But we know we can't slice an adolescent into those different pieces. However, at country level, we, our own organisation is reflecting the way the governments are organised. You have a ministry of health. You have a ministry of education. So we need to have relationships with each of those ministries, and be very clear about our accountabilities for adolescents within those ministries. So we have clear results within each ministry for adolescence. But you are right, that many of the results that we're seeking will only be done once we recognise the synergies, and how the results are dependent on one another, and that delivery systems, delivery platforms that we have for adolescents will deliver on multiple outcomes. Now it is a challenge to work cross sectorally, because of the way that we're organised. But I think the closer that you get down to where adolescents actually are, at the country, at the sub country, at the district level, at the community level. It becomes much more clear that all these results come together in one adolescent. So I think it's most clear when you get down to a community level, where we're looking at sort of decentralised government. And where you have local committees, where young people are actually part of those committees to determine how will the resources be allocated at that community level. That's where health and education and all those come together at the community level. I think the closer you get to the communities, the more we're able to work for cost factorally. Because you don't have separate ministries within the community. Pots of money can come in, and we're able to allocate what are the needs of this population, rather than just sector by sector by sector. >> That's very helpful, thank you. You've raised an important point, and that is really thinking about the rights of young people. And you've talked about UNICEF being the custodian on the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, that incredibly important treaty. And we know that UNICEF as an organisation, is very active in promoting youth participation. We also know how important youth participation is, and use engagement is as part of, as you were describing, about that broader notion of, how is it that we develop an accountability framework that obviously is not just relevant for governments, or UN agencies, or NGO's, but also civil society, which obviously includes young people. I'm just interested, are you able to share something about, I don't know, a youth participation program that you're perhaps pretty excited about that UNICEF's engaged in. To give us a sense of how that might actually play out on the ground at a country level? >> Yes, I'd be happy to. And I think one of the important things that we try to stress at UNICEF, is that participation is not separate from all the other work that we do, but it has to be integral. To all the work that we do, whether it's in health or protection. That it's about hearing the voices, and having young people be part of programs from the very beginnings and very onset of setting priorities all the way through the evaluation of the work. At the same time we're also very focused on broader civic engagement and social accountability programs, in which young people can participate. We currently have a six country program focused on building the skills for young people, creating the spaces for them to become civically engaged, and to hold government accountable through social accountability mechanisms. Which I find very, very exciting going forward. Because I think many of the skills that you learn in for civic engagements and social accountability, are those critical thinking problem solving skills that you also need for the work force. But I think it's not seen as an extra thing that we're doing, but very much building the skills that they're going to need for life, in the future, in their many different roles in family, in work and in their communities. So we're linking much of this also to the new strategic, I'm sorry. The new sustainable development goals. And looking at ways in which young people can be part of monitoring what's happening in their communities, in their countries, that could also be rolled up globally. So there's great accountability there to young people themselves for results for them and for their communities. But the civic engagement piece is also really critical, because we recognise the creativity and the innovation of young people to make a difference in their communities as well. Not just hold government accountable, what can they do? We often talk about young people as being at risk. Well actually that riskiness is the type of thing that we need, it's that creative way of thinking that adults no longer do. So taking that and turning it around for more positive development, and seeing the positive in risk taking. And how do you channel that in a way that can help think of solutions to the world's problems that we adults can no longer think of. >> I think when you described that wonderfully evocative title of your 2011 report, Adolescents, the Age of Opportunity, comes to mind. That extent of those dynamic developmental changes in adolescents, is just so important to the future of all of our societies, so I couldn't agree more. Look, finally, Judy, I'm interested in just getting you to draw out a little bit more that your thoughts about that notion of accountability. You've clearly articulated the importance of young people as being part of that accountability framework. And right at the end of our course, we're really trying to find ways of how do we bring some of these thoughts together, in a way that makes sense of this incredible complexity of what is adolescence. What is adolescent health, and then what are the systems that we need to put in place at a local community, national and the global level. In order to be really driving improvements for the health, and well being of young people. And I'm interested specifically in the notion of data as a critical input to organisations. And how organisations use data to inform their work. And I'm just wondering, can you share with us how UNICEF uses data about young people, how it has used those data to inform perhaps, some of the directions it's taking, it's priorities that it's taking. And, I suppose is there are also data about young people that you would really like to have access to, but that is currently not available to UNICEF as an organisation. >> Thank you. That's a great question. And I think what brought me to UNICEF is its focus on evidence based programming and policies. It really does pay attention to what the evidence says. Before we put things in to place. I think having that evidence, having the research behind what works, is really critical to our agenda going forward. At the same time, something that we really focus on is a situation analysis. When we start a new country program every, it's a five year cycle, we identify what is the situation of children in that country. And so we rely on available data, to determine what is the situation of children up to the age of 18. I would say that the biggest data gap, lies in the data around 10 to 14 year old's. We are not able to gather that in our mix or DHS surveys, except in the household's rosters, where we can find out information that the household had reports on this group, but we do not hear from them directly. Many people hide behind sort of ethics committees saying, we can't ethically interview those 10 to 14 year old's. But I feel very strongly that it's unethical not to hear their voices. And I think we need to work harder to find ways to gather that information from this age group, in a way that respects their voice and also supports them in the way that they need to be supported, and protected during that process. I think something that's really emerging around data collection that is exciting, is a way in which we're involved in young people in collecting data. Some of the real time monitoring that we're doing such as in the U reports in Uganda, where we have hundreds of thousands of young people online with SMS's responding to questions that we have of them. That reach every corner of Uganda. That is very exciting. We have to think about how to better use that information, to both collect the views and understand young people better, but help give them back the information that they need to better understand their communities, their own lives. Their own country because that information is really power. We don't want to just extract it from young people, but how can we feed it back to them, for them to help create better lives in their communities. So I think we're just on the edge of exciting data revolution, as everyone's talking about and thinking about different ways to collect data from young people. So I'm excited to see where we can go in that. I think UNICEF got some great innovative initiatives underway, and I'm thrilled to see where that might go in the future. >> Judy, thank you so much for joining us today. I think you have given a beautiful overview of how UNICEF as an organisation is really changing, and shifting its emphasis from the under five age group, where historically the largest burden of disease has lain in the under eighteen year old population. To continuing that unfinished business but moving that to an increasing emphasis on the second decade as well. And I wish you and your colleagues all the best in your important work. Thanks again. >> Thank you so much, Susan.
