Improving living conditions for children and mothers in developing countries

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) was founded by the new world organization, the United Nations, in 1946. To begin with, UNICEF concentrated on supplying food, clothes and medicine to children and mothers in war-torn Europe, China and Palestine. From the early 1950s on, the organization set itself longer-term objectives aimed at developing countries. It launched measures aimed at mothers and infants, gave advice on nutrition, distributed vitamin-rich food, and fought disease. As part of these efforts, UNICEF built thousands of health stations in the third world and launched projects to ensure school attendance for children and adolescents. The organization's work was strengthened when the UN adopted a Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959.

According to the Nobel Committee, UNICEF's activities marked a breakthrough for the idea of solidarity between nations, which helped to reduce the difference between rich and poor states. That also reduced the danger of war.