"UNICEF: 70th Anniversary"

Mrs. and Mr. Annan
Dear friends,

It is a great pleasure to be here with you today to celebrate the 70th anniversary of UNICEF. I would like to thank the UNICEF Geneva Staff Association for their invitation and for selecting a particularly poignant theme: Hope.

Over these past decades, UNICEF has worked tirelessly around the world to serve and protect our common future: children. Your efforts have helped boost literacy among children aged 15 through 24 from 83% in 1990 to 91% in 2015 and reduce the number of deaths of children under five by 50% over the same period. Today, UNICEF immunizes nearly 40% of the world’s children, saving untold numbers of lives. These efforts have brought hope to millions.

Seventy years ago, UNICEF was born out of the ashes of the Second World War, when the international community forged new institutions to care for refugees and prevent a return to the unbridled horrors of war. Living through a period of renewed violence, misery and uncertainty, our own hope – as United Nations staff members – may feel battered and our faith in our institutions undermined. This may be particularly true when working away from the field, in offices where the impact of our daily work is not always readily apparent.

It is in situations like this that international civil servants can look to our second Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, for a pick-me-up. A bottomless source of pithy quotes, Hammarskjöld was himself particularly fond of a passage from Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound: “… hope till hope creates; From its own wreck the thing it contemplates.” In other words, forging real, lasting change depends on a string of small victories in a long, trying struggle. At times, this slog will challenge our hope for a better world, but it is only through this hard work that reality will ever come to reflect our most cherished hopes.

I have seen this reality at work in my own career. I joined the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, here in Geneva, in 1979. In the years that followed, I went from Geneva to Iran, Mexico, Haiti, Cyprus and New York before returning to Geneva. Along the way, my own hopes and aspirations were tested, but I am now convinced that our efforts, in Geneva and elsewhere, directly affect the lives of people every day, all over the world.

For us away from the field, we all need to periodically step away from our desks to take stock of our common purpose and achievements. In 2017, the Palais des Nations will host UNICEF’s “There is Hope” exhibition, which highlights the stories of children who escaped harsh circumstances thanks to UNICEF. This exhibit could include the story of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who himself benefited from United Nations relief during the Korean War. The exhibition will be an opportunity for us all to renew our hope for a brighter future.

Ultimately, our greatest source of hope comes from the extraordinary individuals, colleagues and friends, both inside and outside the United Nations System, that surround us each and every day – they make our collective efforts possible. It is now my pleasure to present two such individuals. A couple – and dear friends – who really need no introduction – Mrs. and Mr. Kofi Annan – for their own thoughts on UNICEF and the power of hope.

Thank you and I wish you a wonderful celebration.