What we do
The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy, was established in 1988 to strengthen the research capability of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and to support its advocacy for children worldwide.
The Centre, formally known as the International Child Development Centre, has as its prime objectives to improve international understanding of the issues relating to children's rights, to promote economic policies that advance the cause of children, and to help facilitate the full implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in industrialized and developing countries.
The
Programme for 2006-2008
was approved by UNICEF Executive Board in September 2005. It reaffirms the Centre's academic freedom and the focus of IRC's research on knowledge gaps, emerging questions and sensitive issues which are relevant to the realization of children's rights, in developing and industrialized countries.
It capitalizes on IRC's role as an interface between UNICEF field experience, international experts, research networks and policy makers and is designed to strengthen the Centre's institutional collaboration with regional academic and policy institutions, pursuing the following four goals:
- Generation and communication of strategic and influential knowledge on issues affecting children and the realization of their rights;
- Knowledge exchange and brokering;
- Support to UNICEF's advocacy, policy and programme development in support of the Millennium Agenda
- Securing and strengthening the Centre's institutional and financial basis.
Three interrelated strategies will guide the achievement of these goals:
- Evidence-based analysis drawing on quantitative and qualitative information, the application of appropriate methodologies, and the development of recommendations to assess and inform advocacy and policy action.
- Enhanced partnerships with research and policy institutions and development actors, globally and at regional level, in developing and industrialized countries.
- Communication and leveraging of research findings and recommendations to support policy development and advocacy initiatives through strategic dissemination of studies and contribution to relevant events and fora.
The Centre produces a wide range of publications which contribute to the global debate on children's issues and include a wide range of opinions. As a centre for excellence, Innocenti also collaborates with external partners and often seeks contributions and inputs from children's rights specialists from a range of disciplines.
The Centre collaborates with its host institution in Florence, the Istituto degli Innocenti, in selected areas of work. Core funding for the Centre is provided by the Government of Italy, while financial support for specific projects is also provided by other governments, international institutions and private sources, including UNICEF National Committees.
For more details on our work visit the Research section.
