50 Fun Facts About UNICEF

What did the letters UNICEF originally stand for?

The name was shortened to United Nations Children's Fund in 1953, but the familiar acronym stayed.

In which year was UNICEF created?

Its first job was immediate relief for children and mothers affected by the Second World War.

Where is UNICEF's headquarters?

Regional offices in Panama City, Geneva, Bangkok, Nairobi, Amman, Kathmandu and Senegal support 150 country offices.

In roughly how many countries and territories does UNICEF operate?

The handful it does not work in includes the Bahamas, Brunei, Cyprus, Malta, Monaco and Singapore.

How is UNICEF funded?

Its income was $8.61 billion in 2024, with public-sector partners giving $4.92 billion of it.

How many members sit on UNICEF's executive board?

They are government representatives elected by the Economic and Social Council, usually for three-year terms.

In which year did UNICEF become a permanent part of the United Nations system and drop 'International' and 'Emergency' from its name?

Its mandate had already been widened in 1950 to cover the long-term needs of children in developing countries.

Which Polish physician and bacteriologist is regarded as the founder of UNICEF and served as its first chairman?

He was also the father of Jan Rajchman, the computer scientist who invented magnetic-core memory.

Which former US president was among those who backed the resolution creating UNICEF and later called its first executive director 'the most effective human angel I know'?

Rajchman presented the resolution to the General Assembly with the support of Hoover and New York mayor La Guardia.

Who was UNICEF's first executive director, serving from 1947 until his death in 1965?

Hammarskjöld said 'at the heart of UNICEF is Maurice Pate'; Pate had earlier helped feed a million Polish children after the First World War.

UNICEF was awarded which major honour in 1965?

It later added the Indira Gandhi Prize in 1989 and the Princess of Asturias Award in 2006.

Which UNICEF executive director accepted the agency's 1965 Nobel on its behalf, and was also the son-in-law of Marie and Pierre Curie?

His marriage to Ève Curie made him one of five Nobel laureates in the Curie family.

Which entertainer became UNICEF's first goodwill ambassador, given the title Ambassador-at-Large in 1954?

He once flew a Learjet to 65 cities in five days for the agency, and was knighted by the Queen of Denmark for the work.

Which actress, appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1989, made her first field mission to Ethiopia and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the work?

She said she wanted to repay the international aid she had received as a child under German occupation.

What is the name of the statue unveiled at UNICEF's New York headquarters in 2002 to honour Hepburn?

It was unveiled at the UN Special Session on Children; the Academy had already given her a posthumous Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

To which country did Hepburn travel for UNICEF in September 1992, four months before her death, describing what she saw as 'apocalyptic'?

She said it was far worse than the famines she had seen in Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

Roughly how many UNICEF goodwill ambassadors are there?

They serve at international, regional or national level depending on their profile and interests.

In which US city did Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF begin as a local event on Halloween 1950?

The Allison family's children collected nickels and dimes in decorated milk cartons for the children of post-war Europe.

How much money did the first Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF collection raise in 1950?

The programme has since raised more than $188 million worldwide.

Who invented Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF after seeing a booth collecting money to send powdered milk to undernourished children?

Her husband, Reverend Clyde Allison, spread the idea through local Presbyterian churches.

What colour are the traditional Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF collection boxes?

Schools hand them out before 31 October; UNICEF Canada dropped the box in 2006 in favour of classroom fundraising.

Which US president declared 31 October 'UNICEF Day' in 1967?

He praised the campaign for turning a holiday 'too often marred by youthful vandalism' into 'basic training in world citizenship'.

Which football club, in 2006, became the first to sponsor a charity rather than the reverse, paying UNICEF to wear its logo on the front of its shirts?

It was also the first time in the club's history that any organisation's name had appeared across the front of the jersey.

How much did the Catalan club agree to donate to UNICEF each year under its original 2006 shirt deal?

A 2016 renewal guaranteed £1.58 million a year plus free advertising, with the logo eventually moving to the back of the shirt.

A 2005 Belgian UNICEF advert shocked viewers by showing the home of which cartoon characters annihilated by warplanes?

Shown only after 9 pm, it raised money to rehabilitate former child soldiers in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Which retailer angered UNICEF in 2009 by using the agency's trademarked slogan 'Change for Good' in its advertising?

The real Change for Good scheme collects passengers' spare coins on airlines and has raised tens of millions of dollars.

Which airline has supported UNICEF's Change for Good scheme with passenger envelopes since 1991?

Passengers hand over more than 19,500 kg of coins every year, and frequent flyers can donate points instead.

UNICEF's research arm, the Innocenti Research Centre, is based in a historic hospital building in which city?

It was established in 1988 in the Ospedale degli Innocenti, a Renaissance foundling hospital.

UNICEF's Supply Division, which ships more than $3 billion in aid a year, is based in New York and which European capital?

Its warehouse there stocks everything from water purification tablets to the 'School in a Box'.

What is the name of UNICEF's annual flagship report, first published in 1980?

Peter Adamson wrote it for 15 years, and the 1982-83 edition launched the 'child survival revolution'.

Which executive director led UNICEF for 15 years from 1980 and drove the 'child survival revolution'?

Nicholas Kristof wrote that he 'probably saved more lives than were destroyed by Hitler, Mao, and Stalin combined'.

In the child survival strategy known as GOBI, what did the letters stand for?

Grant saw a parallel to the Green Revolution: a package of cheap technical fixes that together could transform outcomes.

In which country was Grant, UNICEF's third executive director, born?

He was born at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, where his father was the first professor of public health.

Which former director of the Peace Corps and New York council president went on to become UNICEF's executive director?

She had earlier been a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala and a managing director at Bear Stearns.

Who became UNICEF's executive director in 2022 after serving as chief of staff to Jill Biden?

She had also been US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues and ran the White House personnel office.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which UNICEF helps implement, was adopted by the UN General Assembly in which year?

It was opened for signature on 20 November, the 30th anniversary of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, a date now marked as World Children's Day.

Which is the only UN member state that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child?

196 countries are party to it, making it the most widely ratified human rights treaty.

Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is defined as any human being under what age?

The definition yields only where national law sets the age of majority earlier.

UNICEF Kid Power, launched in 2015, created what it called the world's first 'Wearable for Good'. What was it?

Steps counted in the app unlock partner funding that pays for therapeutic food packets for malnourished children.

The UNICEF Tap Project asked American restaurant diners to donate $1 for what?

Created by the agency Droga5 in 2007, it raised nearly $2.5 million for water and sanitation before being retired in 2016.

U-Report, UNICEF's real-time community polling tool operating in 68 countries, originally worked through which technology?

It covers more than 11 million people and polls them on issues from health to youth unemployment.

Kids United, a children's pop group whose debut album went gold in France, was created to support campaigns for which organisation?

Sponsored by singers Hélène Ségara and Corneille, its first album came out on Universal Children's Day in 2015.

In what was called 'the worst scandal in its history', UNICEF disclosed in 1995 that 24 employees had stolen or squandered $10 million in which country's office?

The fraud ate more than a quarter of the office's two-year budget.

In December 2020, UNICEF made funding available to feed children in which wealthy country for the first time in its history?

Grants went to a south London charity and a Devon partnership, prompting a furious row in the House of Commons.

WHO and UNICEF jointly set the guidelines for which cheap, life-saving treatment for diarrhoeal dehydration?

In 2003 they cut the recommended solution's osmolarity, which reduces stool volume in sick children by about a quarter.

UNICEF's total income in 2024 was closest to which figure?

Public-sector partners provided $4.92 billion of it, with national committees raising roughly a third of annual income from private donors.

How many national committees raise private funds for UNICEF as independent local NGOs?

The oldest is the US Fund for UNICEF, founded in 1946, the same year as the agency itself.

Which luxury pen maker has supported UNICEF's education work since 2004?

Merck also partnered with UNICEF in 2013, pledging $500 million through its Merck for Mothers programme.

Which Spanish honour did UNICEF receive in 2006?

It followed the 1965 Nobel Peace Prize and the 1989 Indira Gandhi Prize; in 2018 alone the agency assisted 27 million births.

A late-2000s mismanagement row in which country saw 5,000 regular donors quit and the national chairwoman resign?

Politicians including Angela Merkel demanded explanations before the resignation in 2008.