Yearbook of the United Nations, 2005. Part 3, Economic and social questions. Chapter 11, Children, youth and ageing persons

Abstract

In 2005, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) continued its efforts to ensure that every child received the best possible start in life; was fully immunized and protected from disease, including HIV/AIDS, and disability; had access to quality primary school education; and was protected from violence, abuse, exploitation and discrimination. Further progress was made towards mainstreaming children's priorities into national policy. Of the 190 countries that had adopted “A world fit for children”—the outcome document of the General Assembly's 2002 special session on children—at least 172 had taken action on or planned to initiate policies to put the four major goals of the session into practice. UNICEF's 2005 income was 40 per cent higher than in 2004, largely due to the significant increase in contributions, mostly from private sources, in response to the late 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the October 2005 earthquake in South Asia. UNICEF completed the final year of its medium-term strategic plan (MTSP) for 2002-2005 under its five organizational priorities. In September, the UNICEF Executive Board approved the MTSP for 2006-2009 with the same focus areas. In observance of the tenth anniversary of its adoption of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, the Assembly, in October, devoted two plenary meetings to evaluating progress in implementing the 10 priority areas identified in the 1995 Programme of Action and the five new concerns recognized in 2003. The plenary meetings, at which many Member States were represented by youth delegates, culminated in the adoption of a resolution that called for strengthened efforts to implement the Programme of Action. United Nations efforts to implement the 2002 Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing continued during 2005. In December, the Assembly called on Governments and the UN system to ensure that the challenges of population ageing and the concerns of older persons were adequately incorporated into their programmes and projects.