Globally, UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs, and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. In Uganda, UNICEF began its operations in the early 1960s. Our work is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children's rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children.
Advancing the rights of children in Uganda
UNICEF works to ensure that all boys and girls in Uganda, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, realize their rights and have an equal opportunity to survive and thrive.
Through its current country programme, which was designed in partnership with the Government of Uganda, UNICEF supports national efforts to accelerate the realization of children’s rights and progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for children in line with the Government of Uganda’s Vision 2040. Moreover, the programme is aligned with the Third National Development Plan for 2020–2025 and forms an integral part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Uganda 2021–2025 as well as the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework.
The current Government of Uganda-UNICEF country programme 2021-2025 focuses on: education, child protection, social protection, health, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, and HIV/AIDS, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). UNICEF also prioritizes cross-sectoral themes that contribute to holistic results for children, including early childhood development, adolescent development, social behaviour change, and advocacy.
While working at national scale, UNICEF also uses a focus-district approach that targets those districts with the highest prevalence of child deprivation or vulnerability to external shocks, including refugee movements, disease outbreaks, and climate-related impact. In partnership with the government, UNICEF has identified 29 districts that meet this criteria, which UNICEF supports through three Zonal Offices and the Kampala Head Office. UNICEF works with each focus district on planning and budgeting, coordination, evidence-generation, and cross-sectoral collaboration and uses these experiences to inform programming in other districts throughout the country, while strengthening humanitarian and development linkages.
UNICEF is responsible for seven global Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators and co-custodian for a further ten. In this role, UNICEF supports countries in generating, analyzing, and utilizing data for these indicators for all their citizens. This includes leading methodological work, developing international standards, and establishing mechanisms for the compilation and verification of national data, and maintaining global databases.
