UNITED NATIONS, September 7 -- The UN and many of its NGO “partners” run scared of governments, even on issues like child poverty and mass rape. On Tuesday at the UN, new UNICEF chief Tony Lake presented findings that governments could benefit by focusing more on the poorest children.
Beside him was the Chief Operating Officer of Save the Children, which in its own linked report criticized countries like India, Burkina Faso and Rwanda for focusing too little on the poorest quintile of children.
But when Inner City Press asked about Rwanda, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's decision to name its president Paul Kagame as the co-chair of the UN MDG Advocacy Group, the Save the Children COO Ms Miles said they work with government, they understood the initial focus on low hanging fruit, which some call cherry picking. She did not address the irony of Rwanda and Kagame. Nor did Tony Lake.
Inner City Press asked Lake what UNICEF was doing in the Congo, in light of the mass rapes scandal. E-mail traffic provided to Inner City Press shows that such UN agencies as UNDP and FAO were informed of the rape(s) on July 30, but do not show UNICEF.
Lake gave a generic answer about monitoring, referring and tracking cases, and said that UNICEF does “name and shame.” Video here, from Minute 37:50.
But the Congolese government has in its army the FARDC noted rapists like Colonel Zimulinda / Zimurinda, Bosco Ntaganda and Peter Kerim. Has UNICEF named and shamed them?
Lake said he has approached UNICEF's donors about these issues. We'll see.
