UNICEF looks to the future; African children a major priority.

• Position: United Nations Children's Fund - Includes related article

Deep concern over the deteriorating situation of children in Africa and focus on other major concerns-debt relief for child survival and the needs of street children and abandoned children-marked the 1988 session of the Executive Board of UNICEF (New York, 18-29 April). The Fund will invest $2 million within the next two years in a programme to provide essential drugs to African countries, and try to raise $30 million more for that purpose.

Originally proposed in 1987 by African health ministers who met in the capital of Mali, the "Bamako Initiative" seeks grass-roots participation and a steady supply of inexpensive but good-quality drugs to make primary health care universally accessible to children and women in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Fund will continue assisting countries interested i"debt relief for child survival". According to UNICEF Executive Director James P.Grant, the concept involves reinvestment of debt payments made by developing countries in programmes to aid children and mothers,

'With a human face'

Although most countries participating in the debate supported the notion of "adjustment with a human face", some had reservations about translating the concept into a specific debt reinvestment scheme. The United Kingdom, for example, pointed out that debt problems are normally handled through rescheduling. Debtor Governments must decide how best to use resources thus liberated, it felt. Nevertheless, the recommendation on the subject was approved without a vote,

Street children and abandoned children are to receive more UNICEF help in the future, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The plight of those and other "children in especially difficult circumstances" all ovcr the world was stressed by many delegations and by the NGO Committee on UNICEF, a coalition of 162 organizations, which has been a strong advocate of that cause. Child victims of armed conflict, including army recruits, those with AIDS and girls submitted to circumcision in Africa were specifically mentioned.

An intense AIDS prevention and education campaign to benefit women and children will be launched by UNICEF in countries which do not yet recognize an AIDS problem, as well as in those with significant numbers of reported cases.

Another health-related goal is the prevention of diarrhoeal discases which kill millions of children in the developing world by stressing sanitation, hygiene and health education in water projects.

The reduction of infant and...