Interview with Ann Avril, Executive Director of UNICEF France

Welcome Ann Avril.

You have been Executive Director of UNICEF France since 2021. What are UNICEF’s missions?

UNICEF’s mission is to promote, defend and enforce children’s rights in 190 countries and territories. We do this on the basis of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by almost all countries. Our missions focus more specifically on children’s health, education and protection, but also on participation, equality and inclusion. We work with governments and civil society to develop programmes for health, vaccination, access to schooling, drinking water and sanitation. We also work to protect children who are victims of conflict, violence or exploitation.

What do you see as the major challenges facing early childhood and childhood in France today?

Firstly, there are far more issues at stake than there should be in a country like ours. Obviously three come to mind.

Child poverty, which is growing all the time. More than 42,000 children have no fixed abode and nearly 2,000 of them sleep rough every night. Most of our major cities are home to shanty towns where even access to water is sometimes a challenge. I’m not even talking about the overseas territories where growing up healthy is an almost daily challenge for most children.

The second is protection. Dedicated resources are inadequate and insufficiently valued. Many unaccompanied minors are not taken into care when they are suspected of being adults. The vast majority of children held in detention centres in Mayotte are in conditions that are already inhumane for adults.

Finally, the learning crisis accelerated after COVID and revealed huge flaws in our education system. Yet investing in young people is essential.

What are the levers and obstacles to the development of children, which are a priority for your organisation?

The main levers are always to bring together all the stakeholders so that they agree to work in the right direction. Public authorities, civil society, parents and the children themselves. They are the bearers of many solutions and are only too happy to be listened to. Everyone contributes: governments provide a legislative framework, define encouraging policies and allocate substantial resources. Voluntary organisations provide information and warnings, parents get involved and children take part. In fact, the major obstacles are the difficulties in getting all these people to work in the same direction and in the best interests of the child. UNICEF is generally well received and listened to. Unfortunately, as soon as we have to put in place the resources or a legislative framework and apply it, we come up against walls. The challenge is to overcome them.

You have said that you are ‘driven by the conviction that childhood holds the solutions of the future’. And so are we! What do you see as the possible benefits of investing in early childhood?

Investing in a child means guaranteeing the best chances of ensuring a better future for them, and for us. Young people who are doing badly cannot bring value, wealth or even change to a country. We have been blind to climate change and now we are powerless, so let’s listen to our young people.

Every day I have the immense good fortune to meet people, scientists, young people and business leaders. They are convinced that we can reverse this kind of determinism by putting childhood and youth back at the heart of our concerns. What’s more, science continues to make progress for children: cognitive sciences, vaccines, treatments. It’s also a source of optimism to think that so many adults are devoting their lives to children and future generations.

What is your personal or UNICEF approach to multi-sensoriality in young children?

First of all, I was lucky enough to see my children (twins) grow up a little longer than the average. I was able to stay with them for 6 months and marvel at their development every day. Each at their own pace, not reacting at the same rhythm, or to the same signals. UNICEF has been a long-standing partner of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), which promotes a different kind of parenting, even before childbirth.

At UNICEF, we obviously encourage all innovative practices, including in countries where you wouldn’t think it would be a priority. I think back to the father whose eyes I met about ten years ago in neonatology at the Port au Prince hospital. He was sticking his baby against his chest to apply the Kangaroo method (skin to skin). The mother had died in childbirth… I’ve seen many children blossom or rebuild their lives thanks to visual or auditory stimulation. Even in the most precarious situations, you have to listen to your child and what they are feeling. That’s what the senses are for. When it comes to learning to use the senses, children’s situational intelligence is prodigious and an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

Thank you very much Ann Avril, and I wish you every success in the many projects you are promoting.

To find out more about UNICEF France, click here