Annual report 2009 (with overview in English).

UNICEF Iceland started in March 2004 and is the newest member of UNICEF’s fundraising national committees.

Iceland, an island surrounded by the Greenland Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, has just over 300,000 inhabitants who have truly welcomed UNICEF to their country. Since the national committee started, over 16,000 people have signed up as Global Parents who donate to UNICEF on a monthly basis.

Catering to individuals, Global Parents is an initiative that aims to bring on board contributors with the concept that they can adopt – not one single child, but all vulnerable children. This concept has been developed and successfully implemented by UNICEF Australia, Ireland, Canada and others. The former President of Iceland, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, is the patron of Global Parents.

Donors, partners and supporters
UNICEF Iceland has enjoyed support from several major and corporate donors who have enabled the committee to sponsor projects in Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Nigeria. Other campaign has generated support for projects in Swaziland and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Many Icelanders are regular buyers of UNICEF Christmas cards and gifts, which have been sold by the Icelandic Association of University Women for four decades – long before the national committee was formed.

During a major fundraising campaign in Iceland, ‘Red Nose Day’, many local celebrities participated and helped double the number of Global Parents in a three-hour TV show. Among those celebrities was the internationally known band Sigur Ros who visited Swaziland to raise awareness about UNICEF’s HIV/AIDS projects and its work for orphans and other vulnerable children.

UNICEF Iceland has been lucky enough to enjoy visits from two international UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors, Harry Belafonte and Sir Roger Moore.

Involving children in Iceland
As part of its emphasis on education for development, UNICEF Iceland has developed education material for schools in collaboration with the National Centre for Education Materials. These include a leaflet about the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was distributed over a six year period to all 11-year-old schoolchildren in Iceland.

In early 2007, web-based education material was launched. UNICEF Iceland used the great material that UNICEF internationally has developed through the years and adapted to the Icelandic school system.

In 2008 UNICEF Iceland started to raise awareness about children’s issues in Icelandic schools through a ‘Moveathon’ project. Icelandic children get a chance to raise funds for their peers in the developing world by participating in the Moveathon. In 2009 around four thousand children in 13 schools all around the country participated.

In 2006, the Youth Council of UNICEF Iceland started. They have launched several campaigns, e.g. selling designed T-shirts and throwing a fundraising concert with the Reykjavik Sports and Youth Council.

Children’s needs come first
Helping UNICEF promote its global work with, and for, children in Iceland lies at the heart of UNICEF Iceland’s vision. So, too, is ensuring that the needs of children are considered as a first priority in domestic and international development social policy areas. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the guidance tool to work with local NGOs and lobby for the rights of children in Iceland.

The Icelandic Government has shown a great interest in UNICEF’s work and will be on the global board of UNICEF in 2010. More importantly, the government has quadrupled its contribution to UNICEF in the past five years.