Azerbaijan, UNICEF sign 2021-2022 action plan

By Azernews

By Vafa Ismayilova

Chairman of Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs Bahar Muradova and Head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Office in Azerbaijan Edward Carwardine have signed an Action Plan for 2021-2022, Azertag has reported.

The document covers various areas of cooperation and will allow joint work at a higher level.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Muradova hailed cooperation with UNICEF. She also stressed the importance of the Action Plan.

Carwardine expressed interest in cooperation with the Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs, emphasizing the importance of joint activities.

For more than 25 years UNICEF has been working with the Azerbaijani government and people to provide every child with the best start to life. UNICEF started to act in the country since the 1990s, assisting refugees and internally displaced people from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict region and addressing the impact of economic hardships caused by the transition from Soviet power to independence in 1991.

UNICEF now strives to build on the considerable progress Azerbaijan has made, economically and socially, over the last two decades. Poverty rates have dramatically decreased, child mortality rates have fallen, and primary school enrolment is almost universal.

UNICEF focuses its attention on those children who have not fully benefited from such advances. It works alongside the government, communities and families in Azerbaijan to reach out to those children who remain vulnerable or at risk, to initiate new approaches to child and youth development, and to strengthen the national capacities and systems that support children and families.