Planning the Needs of Children in the Global South: UNICEF’s Contribution to the Development Debate during the 1960s

The paper points out why and how UNICEF contributed to underlining the need for maternal and children’s welfare services within national and international planning for development. This took place between the 1960s and the 1970s, matching the First UN Development Decade, when UNICEF updated its actions and perspectives linking the social and economic dimensions of development and giving room to new fields such as education and family planning. It definitively shifted its mission from the humanitarian rescue of children and mothers, to the technical assistance of developing countries, conveying a certain model of social welfare in recipient countries.