IOM’s Director General Brunson McKinley and the Executive
Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Ann
Veneman, signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the two
organizations on Thursday, 14 September 2006 in New York to
strengthen their relationship and their shared commitment towards
improving the lives and wellbeing of children and families around
the world.



IOM and UNICEF have agreed to make special efforts to address the
needs of the population in marginalized or excluded communities and
indigenous peoples, especially children and women, and will focus
efforts to assist, to the maximum extent possible, displaced
persons to return to their original communities if they so wish.

The organizations will focus on joint efforts that include:

• Protecting child victims of trafficking and seeing to their
  return, foster care, shelter, and family reunification
• Advocating the highest possible coverage and quality of health
  and nutrition interventions, paying special attention to equal
  access to health and nutrition services
• Restoring education in emergency and post conflict settings by
  reconstructing schools and building temporary shelters
• Addressing the rights and needs of women and girls, as well as
  their vulnerabilities such as the increased risk of sexual
  violence, trafficking for exploitative labour or commercial sex,
  and related risks of HIV/AIDS
• Supporting and involving young people and adolescents in
  conflict prevention, peace building and recovery processes;
  and
• Meeting basic water, environmental sanitation and hygiene needs
  of children and women in situations of displacement particularly in
  temporary shelters.
  

IOM and UNICEF will also explore collaborative efforts in the areas
of information sharing and training.



For more information, contact



Anke Strauss

IOM New York

Office of the Permanent Observer to the UN

Tel. 212-681-7000 ext. 203

E-mail: "mailto:astrauss@iom.int" target="" title="">astrauss@iom.int