UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION GRANT TO FUEL EXPANSION OF WHO'S CHILD AND YOUTH ACTIVITIES

The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to greatly expand its child and youth activities, thanks to a $16.4 million grant from the United Nations Foundation (UNF). Expanded activities made possible by the grant include helping communities reduce child deaths, preventing HIV/AIDS among adolescents, improving vaccination programmes and improving child nutrition.

At a meeting on 13 December with former US Senator Timothy Wirth, President of UNF, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO, said, "Child and adolescent health represent the backbone of WHO's commitment to improving health and combating disease. Healthy children and confident, competent adolescents will be the productive adults of tomorrow. We thank the UN Foundation for sharing and supporting this commitment."

The latest round of UNF awards for the UN System totalled $51 million and is aimed at decreasing child and youth mortality, particularly in Africa. The $16.4 million received by WHO will be used to strengthen community knowledge about the needs of ill children (as part of WHO's Integrated Management of Childhood Illness – IMCI - strategy), to involve youth as partners in preventing HIV/AIDS, to support sustainable vaccine delivery, and to improve child nutrition by using vitamin A and zinc as food supplements.

All projects have been funded for a three-year period and most of them will take place in one or more of eight African countries selected by UNF as priorities: Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. $2.4 million will go towards improving the management skills of immunization programme directors, while $5 million will go towards improved surveillance and control of vaccine-preventable diseases and $3.5 million will be used to help determine whether zinc supplementation decreases child mortality. WHO's African Regional Office has been given $1.5 million to improve community knowledge of the management and prevention of major childhood diseases.

In just over one year, the UNF has given or pledged nearly $50 million to WHO programmes. UNF is supported by the American billionaire Ted Turner.

"Young children face the major issue of simply surviving. Older children and adolescents need help and support to negotiate the great risks they face daily. The support from the UN Foundation will greatly enhance what we can do for these young people, and builds on the support from the WHO regular budget and contributions from member states," said Dr Jim Tulloch, Director of WHO's Department of Child and Adolescent Health, in expressing his appreciation for the UNF support.

Since Dr Brundtland became the Director-General of WHO in July 1998, the Organization has actively pursued innovative partnerships with other UN agencies, private foundations, and industry. The UN Foundation support, through the UN Fund for International Partnerships, is providing increased means of collaboration with UNICEF and other agencies involved in child health.