“Italy considers extremely valuable the activities performed by UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti and acknowledges its strategic role in data collection/processing and in strategies concerning children”. Deputy Minister Marina Sereni said so as she visited the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti in Florence today. Ms Sereni added that “the Centre is a key partner of Italian Cooperation in promoting children’s rights and monitoring the condition of children”.
Ms Sereni, accompanied by the Director General for Development Cooperation, Fabio Cassese, met with the Office Director, Gunilla Olsson, and her staff. Every year, Italy makes a mandatory donation, in addition to voluntary donations, and is the main donor of the Office.
“The symbolic presence of the Office in the ‘Spedale degli Innocenti’ complex in Florence, Europe’s first shelter for abandoned children,” the Deputy Minister added, “reflects the importance our country has historically attached to child protection. Italy funds UNICEF’s development and humanitarian programmes in several areas of the world. This partnership is now more relevant than ever, also considering how much the Organisation has been working for children and their families in Ukraine, which is something we have contributed to”.
