Kaitlin Shares her Experince in UNICEF Geneva

My placement at UNICEF in Geneva has been a truly eye-opening experience. The United Nations has four major global duty stations. While the main headquarters is in New York, three additional stations are in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. The agencies here in Geneva focus on issues such as humanitarian aid, disarmament, refugees, telecommunications, labour standards, and human and children’s rights—the area I have been working in with UNICEF.

Before beginning the internship, I had little idea of the vast array of initiatives the agency takes on. It is much more than simply raising money to fund schools. Work on nutrition, health, maternity rights, labour standards, sanitation, and child labour are just a few of the initiatives UNICEF spearheads. UNICEF also operates a corporate engagement division, where I have been placed for my internship.

UNICEF’s corporate engagement section works with various industry groups such as mining companies, garment manufacturers, food and beverage corporations, and internet and telecommunications firms, among many others. In my position I have been assisting different sections in their work to identify ways businesses can improve the lives of children. Here are three brief examples of this work:  

The Bangladesh garment industry is a source of major economic growth for the country, but it also presents challenges. Low wages, long working hours, and limited maternity rights are negatively impacting the lives of the workers who rely on the industry to feed their families. In my internship I have helped to support the launch of the UNICEF Bangladesh Garment Initiative, a programme designed to bring together the Government of Bangladesh, apparel manufacturers, industry bodies, worker organizations and global retailers such as H&M to improve working and living conditions both inside and outside the garment factory gates.

The palm oil industry employs millions of people in Malaysia and Indonesia. It is a ubiquitous product—you can find palm oil in everything from your makeup, soaps, margarine, instant noodles, chocolate, ice cream, laundry detergent, and even your bread. Constantly increasing demand for palm oil has caused a huge industry expansion over the last 20 years. Unfortunately, worker’s rights and living conditions have not kept pace with the industry growth. Children of some workers have very limited educational opportunities and lack adequate health care, as they live in rural areas on plantations with few available services. UNICEF is working on programmes that will ensure workers have adequate wages, working conditions, and other opportunities to adequately care for their children. My work in this industry focuses on reviewing different sustainable palm oil standards that manufacturers use to sell their products and determining how those standards incorporate children’s rights issues in their certification programmes.

 

Finally, there’s the ICT (internet, communications, & technology) industry. Companies such as Facebook and Microsoft are taking major steps to improve online safety for children. Issues such as online bullying, child pornography, and sexual abuse have been well known for many years now. However, there are also emerging issues that the industry is in the midst of addressing, sometimes with UNICEF’s assistance. These issues include children’s privacy rights such as location tracking by their parents, or concerns regarding the recent influx of baby photos on social media sites such as Facebook. While the photos are cute to look at now, they may cause problems later on when those same children grow up and wish those photos were never posted in such a public forum. My work in this area has focused on researching the latest trends in online safety in North America and Europe, and helping to identify key issues for UNICEF to focus on.

Through these above three and many other initiatives, UNICEF’s corporate engagement section is able to leverage the knowledge and influence of the private sector to create substantial shifts in our economic systems and markets. Improving wages in one industry such as garment manufacturing, can positively impact the lives of millions of people for years to come. This is a relatively new focus for UNICEF that has the potential to create lasting impact on the lives of children and their families. After this internship, I will leave Geneva with a better appreciation of the influence UNICEF has globally and a clearer understanding of the impacts of my everyday purchases and actions – whether that be the clothes I choose to buy, the products I consume, or my online activities.