UNICEF Milestones by Year provides significant moments in the efforts to promote maternal and child well-being for 60 years.

Thematic Overview provides content-based historical analysis.

See UNICEF at 40, for an overview of UNICEF's first 40 years.
See 1946-2006 Sixty Years for Children, for an overview of UNICEF's first 60 years. UNICEF at 60: A brief look back, and ahead provides video and photo essays.

Introduction
On December 11, 1946, the International Children's Emergency Fund was founded in the aftermath of World War II to bring "some milk and some fat, on bread"  to millions of children victimized by war. Its assistance was to be given on the “basis of need without discrimination because of race, creed, nationality, status, or political belief” — a policy which has been the bedrock of UNICEF's programmes in providing aid to children everywhere without regard to politics.

Entirely funded by voluntary contributions, for 60 years UNICEF's efforts on behalf of the world's most vulnerable — children and their mothers — has expanded rapidly. The organization's mandate has grown beyond short-term relief for the 'loud emergencies' of armed conflict and natural disasters to long-term survival and development programmes for the 'silent emergencies' of malnutrition, deadly disease, the AIDS pandemic, gender inequality and child abuse including child trafficking, child labour and child soldiers.

To further ensure the basic rights of every child, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, after years of negotiation, was finally drawn up in 1989, and is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights — civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. It is the most widely and rapidly ratified human rights treaty in history, now signed by a total of over 190 nations.

Since the turn of the millennium, the health, welfare and protection of women and children has become a top priority for the international community and national governments and is enshrined in the Millennium Development Goals for 2015. UNICEF, in partnership with UN Agencies, NGOs and the private sector is focusing all efforts to achieve the MDGs. At the same time, global emergencies continue to increase in magnitude and complexity, requiring the entire world's support and attention, and integrated cooperation has become the driving force behind all current humanitarian aid for both the 'loud' and 'silent' emergencies.

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