THEEDITORS JOHN CHA’WOW w=kmssryof theUNICEFExecutiveBoardfsnmmid-194710hisredrement iondd-1981.Duringthelssttwelveyearsinthsrpost~ w alsore.spnnsibkforliaisnn‘withnon-gov- urrnrentslmgsnisations. SHERWOOD G. MOE, servedasSpecialASS&UNmtheExecutiveDirectordoringallofM. Lsbnuissc’srenure.PreviouslyheM workedforMr.LabnuisseintheMarshallPlsnMissionrnFmnce inPsris.inUNRWAinBeirutsndduringtheCongoCrisisin1960.Heredn?dfrnmUNICEFin1982. BOLeIIditnss,sfrertheirretirementw. eres+ely involvedinUseUNICEFHistnryA-c@. CopyrightUnitedNationsChildren’sFund.June1988 CONTENTS cP/HIsT/MoN/88-ol1 @ HENRYR.LABOUISSE, UNICEFEXECUTIVEDIRECTOR,1965-1979 I Introduction 1 II Biographical note on Mr. Labouisse iaaued by UNICEF following his death on 25 March 1987 3 III Before UNICEF 5 F.xcerpts from interviewa with Mr. I.abnuiase 5 IV Mr. Labouisse as Sxecutive Director 12 “Maiden” speech tn the Executive Board, 14 June 1965 12 Acceptance speech, Nnbel Peace Prize, Oslo, 10 December 1965 16 UNICEFas a development agency 18 Prograume matters 19 Planning fnr, children in national development ,, and the cnuntry prcgrxsm!.‘.-.e- approach” 19 Strategy for UNICEFprogramme cooperation 23 Criteria for assistance 27 Coordination with other agencies in the UNsystem 28 The baaic services apprnach 28 Reflections from a field observation trip 31 Fielda of cooperation 32 Child health 32 :Primary health care 32 —Expanded programne of immunization; 34 --Cmntrol of diarrhneal diseases; 34 -Essential drugs; communicable disease control 35 :Water supply and sanitation 35 :Reaponsible parenthood and. family planning 37 Child nutritio~ &o . :Prnmotion of breastf ceding u Education (f nrmsl and non-formal ) 45 . . . . . Womenand girls ~7. . Reaching children in low-incnme urban areas 48 Emergencies 50 :Relief and recnnatructinn 50 --Informal views of Mr. Labouisse 52 :Economic crises 53 Funds 56 National Committees 60 Non-governmental organizations 62 . Staff and management 6.$ :Womenon staff 67 The International Year of the Child 68 Mr. Lsbouisse’s laat statement to the Board as . Executive Director, May 1979 73 Annex: Personal characteristics of Mr. Labouisse relevant to his work in UNICEF: 79 Extracta from eulogies by: James P. Grant, Sxecutive Director of UNICEF 79 E.J. R. Eeyward, Former Senior Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF 80 Sources 81 1 . I. INTRODUCTION Henry R bbmisse, whose life formore than40 yearshad been dedicated topublic service inboth national aridinternational fields, wasUNICEF’s second Executive Director. He served for 15years, from June 1965 to 30 December 1979. During his tenure, he considerably accelerated artevolution begun under hispredecessor, Maurice Pate.wStardng primarily asahum.%itarianagency intheUnitedNations system UNICEF gradually became afull-fledged partner in the international development corqrttunity, maintaining its special concern. for children. Its prograrome. scope was greatly widene4 and its ctxsperaaon with governments doubled in amount (measured in terms of dollars of constant value). Inthe process, among the most important .developmenrs were: — The introduction of the“country probgrammingapproach”, involving an analysis ofthe main problems of children snd thepossibilities of action incountries receiving UNICEF coopera- tion, — Advocacy andsupport for“basic services”— theessential services thatthecountry shouldtry to deliver to all children, particularly those of families in the lower socio-economic groups. Community responsibility would be fostered in the delivery of these services. — The “lead” responsibility given toUNICEF by dreUnited Naaons General Assembly for the International Year of the Child. The Year, celebrated in 1979, led to a broader UNICEF involvement withissuesaffecting children andaccelerated rhemovement inUNICEF towards finding mom effective ways toprotect chddrert against neglect and exploitation. Amajor motif ofHarry Labouisse’s tenure was the endeavor toconvince the world asawhole, and especially tomake theideaaccepted amongdecision-makers, thatchildren andtheirproper care and nurrure must be an essential component of the development of scciety. He alsocontributed outstandingly tothe UNICEF uadition ofseeking tohelpchildren on both sides ofcivilconflicts. This”ofteninvolved delicate poliac’d situations, andhisskillful diplomatic abilities were artimportant factor in breaking impasses in a number of instances. , i“ Anaccount ofthisevolution isgiveninsomedetail inTheChildren andtheNations:The Story gf UNICEF, by Maggie Black, mainly in Chapters 10to 16,(UNICEF Edition, 1986). 2 ThebulkofthisMonograph (Chapter IV)isdevotedtoUNICEF’s mairspolicyconcems asexpressed by Harry Labouisse during his tenure as Executive Director. They are presented in the form of , selected key passages from statements he made, often initially to the UNICEF Executive Board. Some of these statements were seminal in the evolution of UNICEF policy. Others recapitulated developments over sevemi years and suggested next steps. They embodied the experience of UNICEF over the years, combined with Labouisse’s own experience and sense of values, and his . alertnesstoworld-wide economic andsocialdevelopments asthey affected children. Theyreflected hiscontiuous interchange ofideas withBoard members, UNICEF staff, andothers concerned with improving the condition of children. In substance they obtained the endorsement of the Board. Mostofthepassages inthis Monograph havehad tobelimited totheessential core oftheExecutive Director’s views onkey issues. Inmanyinstances sentences orparagraphs elaborating ondteissues havebeensbonertedoromittedin ordertokeepthisMonograph withinreasonable length. Labouisse, ofcourse, had much more to say about these issues at other times, and to a number of audiences. YVMlethis Monograph is primarily issue-orienteQ snd as such can serve as a basic reference work onpolicy evolution during adecisiye ftiteen yearperiod ofUNICEF’s history, some ofdtepersonal characteristics ofHarry Labotsisse which influenced hisleadership ofUNICEF are alsoapparent in this Monograph. In addition to being reflected in the wording ofthe passages quoted, they emerge intheimerview.sheld withhiminwhichhetalkedinformaflyabouthisearly family Iifeandhiscareer before hecame toUNICEF (Chapter HI),intheobituary on him (Chapter II) and theexcerpts from eulogies at Memorial Services held for him (Annex). . . 3 IL BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON MR. LABOUISSE ISSUED BY UNICEF FOLLOWING HIS DEATH Henry R. Labouisse died ofcancer on 25 March 1987 in New York City at the age of 83. He had a long and distinguished cmer in international social tid economic affaira culminating its his IeadexshipofUNKEF from 1965to 1979. He W+Sknow byall who served wjth him for hisintegrity and sense ofjustice, hisacute analytical capacity and sound judgemen~ and his personal warmth and courtesy. When he retired tiom UNICEF, asenior colleague noted: ‘“Thereiaanalmost insrantdirect human sympatiy between him and thepeople he is taIkisrgto— hissimplicity and directness ofexpression, hisreadiness to listen to arguments and tochange hismind and at the same.dine, when itis aquestion of principle, then hisreadiness to &fend it” Born 11Februag, 1904,inNewGrleans, M. Labouisse gmduatcd from WoodbcrTYForest School, Viigisria,in 19;2. He earned aB.A.degree fromprinceton University in 1926andaLL.B. from the Harvard University Law School in 1929. He practiced law for 12years in New York City. After the outbreak of dre Second World War, he entered public service, joining the Division of Defense Materials of the United States government. He was appointed Counselor for Economic AffairaintheUSEmbassy inpark in 1944andlaterpiaycd akeyrole insetting uptheMarshall Plan inEurope. He served as Chief ofthe Marshall Plan Special Mission toFrance from 1953 to 1954. In1954,U.N.Secretary-General DagI%nssn~kjoldappoitttedMr. Labouissc Director ofrheUnited Nations Relief and Worka Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which was responsible forpmviditrg food.shelter, health services andeducation tosome9C@00 refugees. By thetimeheleftin 1958,thesrartdardof living hadimproved generally throughout thecamps, despite severepolitical andadministrative tensions aswell asinsufficient funds, andUNRWA hadmanaged toput inplace an expanded programme of vtxational mining and develop areservoir of goodwill for the organization itsboth the host counties and among rherefuge-mthemselves. Mr.Labouisse becarnc aconsultant tothe World Bank in 1959anddirected aneconomic survey of Venezuela, which included for the first time in such studies, chapters on health and education. In thesummer and fallof 1963 atHammarakjold’s request, he was granted aleave of absence by the Bank to serye as Special Adviser in UN efforts to contain the upheavals in.Congo (now Zaire) following its independence. Appointed by President Kennedy as D~ctor of the United States International Co-operation Administration in 1961, Mr.Labmsisseplayed akey role in thepreparation oflegislation which led 4 totheestablishment of the successor Agency forItrrematiotralDevelopment (USAID). From 1962 to 1965he served as Ambassador toGreece. He was appointed Executive Director ofUNICEF by UN Secrctsry-Generai U Thant shordy following the death of the organization’s first Executive Director, Maurice Pate, in 1965. Ina world whem”poliacal tensions often threatened to&rail international social and humanitarian initiatives, Harry Labotsisse was deeply committed to keeping the issue of children’s well-being firmly above thepoliricaI bartlefiehd. UNICEF hadestablished since itscreation aoadiaon of non- partisan relief to children and mothers in distress on both sides of civil conflict. The war in the Indochina Peninsul% and the Nigerian civil war, were two of the most testing experiences for humanitarian action in the post-colonial world. Labouisse’s quiet diplomacy enabled UNICEF to aidchMren and mothers wherever theyhappened tobe,even when they were outside thecontrol of ‘internationallyrecogrtizcd States. During the late 1960s and eariy 1970s, UNICEF became much more involved in longer-term development efforts for children, considerably enfarging riiescope and sucrtgthening theeffective- ness of its operations. An approach to “basic” or community-based services for children was introduce~ “whichembraced health, safewater, nutrition, educadon and women’s programrnes and whichemphasized seif-help bypeopleartdcommunities, Iirdcedtogovernment servicesfornecessary support Inthe mi4-1970s, N!!.Lcbmrisse lcd UNICEF tojoin with the World Heaidr Orgarrizatiori(WHO) inthe development and promotion of the primary health care strategy involving areorientation of theconventional pattern ofhealth services toreachthelarge mass ofunderserved people, especially in the developing counties. These joint efforts received amajor impetus in 1978 with the WHO/ UNICEF-sponsored Conference atAlma-Ata, USSR, where Ministers of Health and senior health officials”of some 140 counties accepted primary health care as the principal means of achieving “Health for All by the Yew 2(M0.” In 1979,thelastyear of Mr. Labooisse’s tenure, theUNGeneral Assembly made UNICEF thelead agency worldwide for the ‘Ts-ttematiortslYearoftheChild.” Generating adegree ofinterest in the well-being ofdieir children in manycounties farexccding original expectations, theYearSISOled to broader UNICEF advocacy and involvement on issues affecting children, nationally and internationally. InSeptember 1979,UNICEF, working with theInternational Committee ofthe RedCross onrelief operations inKampuchea, wmdesignated “leadagency” oftheUnited Nations system forthiseffort, anemergeticy operation ascomplex asMy in“theUnited Nations’ history. Mr. Labouisse brought his very special experience to this irmicate and internationally sensiuve situation,’and helped guide the massive international relief effort in the lastmonths before his rctimment Mr.Labouisse travelled extensively inthe more than 100counties where UNICEF was providing 5 * assistance. His happiest moments were spent in the field going from village to village with local = peopleartdUNICEF staffmembers, gairringfirst-handknowledge oftheimpactoftheorganization’s workrmdalsoofthe inevitable diftlctdries andshortcomings. During Mr.Latnmisse’s stewardship, UNICEF income from governments and private contributions increased from $33 million in 1965 to more than $250 rrrillionin 1979. For some six years following his retirement from UNICEF, Mr. Labouisse served as Chairman of the Board of the American Farm Schcd, a vocational training center for Greek rural youth in ‘fhessaloniki with which he had become acquainted while serving as US Ambassador. ~. Labouis;e wasfiratmsrried,tqElisabeth Striven Clink,whodiedin 1945. Hehadone ~ughter. Anneandfour gmrtdchildren. In 1954,hemartied EveCurie, theyoungest dsughterof thescientists PierreandMarie Curie, an author andjournalist. He.wss survived byhiswife, hisdaughter andfour jgrandchildren. III. BEFORE UNICEF Excemts from internnewswith Mr. Labouuis# Iartsriotoireof dtesepeople withan-tic back@mrnd. Istiedoff inarktherquiet, un@%xenriotis“ wayoflife. Myfamily was reasonably well-to-do, comfortable. My farher’s family were allfrom NewOrleans. Oneofom,ancesmra, Jeart-JacquesLatmuisse, had comeoverfromFranceinthelatter part of the 18th century. The Labouisses were Huguenots. My mother’s family came from Charleston. They alsowere.Huguenots, andtheirforefadrm came over fromEurope about thesame time. Iwas born and brought Upin New Orleans, went to school there, and went away toprep school in Virginia. Ihad two brothers, one four years older, and the orhereight years older. But I’m theonly onewhoeventually wentNorth tolive. Wegew UpintheSouthduring the“Jim Crow”erainwhich there were“colored only” and “whites only” signs in resmmms, restaurants, and soforth. I never felt too much affected by this: my family really had no raciaI hang-ups. Inthefamilytherewasaninterest inbroad socialissues. During theFust .WorldWar, myfather was thevolunteer headoftheregional American RedCross. Iwasbrought uptotrytodothingsofacivic nati. Iremember, duringWorldWarI,oneofmyf~t public speeches wis madeinwhatrhey called the’’FourMinute Msn”, sellirtgLlberry Bonds. 1wonaprizeforsellirrg bonds. Myfarherrdsowanted allof usboys towork. Irrthe summer, we went up to Lake Champlain and we boys helped totake care ofthefamilyplace in Wesrport. Iuse torun a vegetable garden and all the vegetables that the family couldn’t eat I sold in the neighborhood and to tie 10calmarkets. I’ve always had a speciaJ feeling about farm life and namre. I like to see things grow. 6 Itwas real hard work toorganize this garden, which wasquite big. Somedmes Icouldn’t do all dre ploughing andplanting by myse~ Iwotdd get someone todo tha~ rltenIran the thing. Before the First WorldWar, andduring it,weoftenhadhuge numbers ofguests down for week-ends andIused toproduce allthefoodforeverybody. Although comfortably welloff, wedidn’t haveanautomobile until I was in my early teens. Later on, when I was in law school, I was also secretary for my farher in the summertime, taking dictation, writinghisletters,keeping hischeckbook etc. Myfatherwasitsthecotton business inNew Orleans. He was a man of tremendous integrity. He once tried to stop a financial panic in New Orleans, Ithinkitwas inabout 1907,when there wasagreatrunon themarkets. He tried toprevent it, droughherisked losing W his money by continuing to buyinorder to stop therush of sales. He did losealotofmoney buthe helped stopthepanic. He wasalways quite anexample tome because of the way he cared ab6ut other peopIe. Aftergraduadng fromPrittceton IwenttoHarvard LawSchool. Ililtedthelaw. Ilikedlegd processes of thoughL Ialways felt itwas very helpful, no matter what you were going todo later, to get that kind oftraining. While atHmvard Law Ihadn’t yet made upmy mind about my future, sothat was one more reason for me tocontinue being educated alittle longer. When Ileftlaw school, myfirst thought wastogobacktoNewOrleans topractice law. The leading !IL=.in the New Orleans had affcm~ tnc ajob; so Ididrr’tlook for w-orkin A’ewYork at that time.’ But,theheadoftheNewOrleans fmsrsaidhewatrtcdme togotoTukmeUniversity forayesrto study dreLouisiana code andLouisiana law, which aresomewhat different from thecommon law inother States oftheU.S. Bythen, Ihad hadenough ofstudying and feltitwas time tostart earning my own living, so Idecided to come to New York. This wasinAugust 1929,just befort.thegreatstockmarket crash. Ihad acousin, aformer Secretary ofState,whowasaparmerirt aNewYorklawfm. Heoffered meajob. Ithought hisoffer bordered alittle on nepotism and Ididn’t rake iL My cousin then gave MCthe names of other fmrts in New York andIstarted working inSeptember 1929at$2100 ayear, which wasreasonably good,indtose days, for a young manjust out of law schcd. When Christmas time came, the little envelope was brought around in which, normally, you’d get araise as aChristmas present — but this time I got a little.note saying that, unfortunately, because of what happened in October, fid on into the depression, my salary had been cut $300. So Iwas now getting $1800 a year instead. Iintended topractice lawinNew Yorkfor acouple ofyears andthengo back toNew Orleans — but Ijust never did that. I“stayedon with my fmn for about 12years. I wasn’t t&-ibly happy with big New York corpoiate practice: we did a lot of corpomte mortgage work,‘utd I thought this left something tobedesired. But,you know, whenyou sraRsomething, you like toseeitthrough. Also, I wanted to become a partner in the fm, so I stuck on until that happened.