International child welfare organisations are taking on some of the management characteristics of the commercial sector as a result of pressures to be more accountable. This process has been accelerated by the demand for monitoring implicit in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This paper discusses the effects of this process on UNICEF and international NGOs. It suggests that the goals of the Convention cannot be encompassed entirely using such management strategies, though increasing professionalisation of the 'child business' may bring benefits for children.
During the last seventeen years, some fundamental changes have taken place in the structures and cultures of international aid, particularly with respect to children. The Convention on the Rights of the Child has grown from being a twinkle in the eyes of some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to being a common framework for the work of governments and intergovernmental agencies. UNICEF, the main intergovernmental organization working with children, has shifted from focusing entirely on the health of young children to accepting, at least formally, that children are significant social actors. All organizations working with and for children have moved, some reluctantly, some only a little, from charitable amateurism to a new concern with professional accountability. The child business is now under entirely new management. And yet, as we move inexorably towards The Year 2000, it seems that the goals set for the end of the millennium by this management, narrow and limited though they are, will not be met.
As The Year 2000 comes rushing towards us, rather than remaining at a safe rhetorical distance, this may be the moment to reflect on the practical aspects of managing what I think of sometimes as the child business. Many NGOs have embarked on new management strategies. It is hard to visit any office without