New UNICEF chief cool towards reproductive health

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The new director of the U.N. children’s agency, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, said on Tuesday that social issues like reproductive health were irrelevant to the mission of UNICEF.

Veneman, who will replace Carol Bellamy as executive director of UNICEF in May, was introduced to reporters by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. She was the first choice of the Bush administration and is expected to be confirmed by UNICEF’s board this week.

Veneman trod on sensitive terrain when she was asked about reproductive health programs, which can include family planning and sex education for teen-agers. Such programs have been controversial in the United States where the Bush administration has sought to promote teen sexual abstinence.

“I don’t come with any broad agenda with regard to those or any other social issues,” Veneman said. “I don’t believe that these issues are relevant to the mission of UNICEF.”

“I come with an agenda of helping children, particularly in the areas of education and health, and to address the issues of hunger and Malnutrition,” Veneman said.

UNICEF has supported teen-agers having access to family planning information, particularly in prevention of AIDS and maternal deaths. The Bush administration stresses abstinence is the best prevention for AIDS.

In many parts of the world, young brides, particularly those marrying older men, are at risk of getting AIDS and face health risks including death from repeated pregnancies before their bodies have fully matured.

But UNICEF’s position has not become a controversial issue with the Bush administration, which has cut off funds to the U.N. Population Fund that stresses access to family planning.

The top UNICEF post has been held by an American since the agency’s inception in 1946 and has a two-term limit, unless Annan waives it. The United States has been the biggest financial backer of the agency, which has 7,000 staff in 150 countries.

If confirmed by the Senate, Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns will replace Veneman, 55, a lawyer, as agriculture secretary during President George W. Bush’s second term. Veneman, a lawyer who grew up on a peach farm in Modesto, California, has served as a specialist in agriculture, international marketing and food aid under Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan.

She resigned in November but will remain in the post until her successor is confirmed.

Veneman said she came to the job “with a commitment to an approach that will yield for the world’s children results not rhetoric, benefits not banalities.”

She said her work at the agriculture department included international child nutrition programs in 21 countries.

Both Veneman and Annan paid tribute to Bellamy, a 63-year old lawyer, former Peace Corps director under the Clinton administration and the first woman president of the New York City Council.

“She has led UNICEF into the 21st century with exemplary skill, determination and conviction, facing numerous challenges along the way,” Annan said. 

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