INTRODUCTION
CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN FOCUS Serbia: Helping refugees and migrants weather the Balkan winter © UNICEF/UN05622/Gilbertson VII Photo
Every child has the right to a fair chance in life. Leaving no child behind is both a moral imperative and a strategic priority for the development of inclusive, sustainable and stable societies everywhere. In 2015, UNICEF worked with partners around the world to make that fair chance a reality. The year provided a renewed opportunity to build on past achievements with an eye towards reaching all children and narrowing persistent gaps in equity – specifically, gaps affecting children left behind despite overall progress made under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2000 through 2015. The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), approved by 193 Member States of the United Nations in 2015, incorporate objectives that are specific to the health and well-being of children – including adolescents. The goals include targets for early childhood development, universal access to education, and protection of girls and boys from violence, abuse and exploitation. There are also targets related to ending harmful practices against children and promoting their legal identify through birth registration. Together with an alliance of child-focused agencies, the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on Violence against Children, other United Nations agencies and Member States, UNICEF advocated intensively for the child protection targets, which previously had not been integrated into the global development agenda. ABOVE RIGHT: Jannat, age 7, from the Syrian Arab Republic, plays at a child-friendly space in Croatia.
As temperatures dropped and families continued their migration to Europe in search of safety and a better life in December 2015, UNICEF and partners worked urgently to provide support to migrant and refugee children and families fleeing conflict in the Middle East. Chartered buses lined up at the Sid railway station and unloaded their passengers on the Serbian side of the border with Croatia. As people queued for police to check their papers, some of the youngest among them were particularly vulnerable to the winter cold, with temperatures only a few degrees above freezing. One boy, little more than an infant, sat on the ground wearing just one shoe. His other foot was bare.
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UNICEF | ANNUAL REPORT 2015
In response to the refugee and migrant crisis, the European Union’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department provided a grant of €2 million to insulate children from the worst extremes of weather and deprivation as they made their way through Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The grant helped procure winter essentials like clothes, footwear and blankets, as well as age-appropriate food for infants and children. UNICEF and partners used part of the grant to set up winterized child-friendly spaces, where children can relax and play in a warm, dry environment, as well as safe spaces where women can breastfeed their children in privacy.