Original scientific paper
AN ANALYSIS OF THE INTRODUCTION OF THE UNICEF PROGRAM CONCERNING AUTOMOBILES AND OTHER VEHICLES IN YUGOSLAVIA IN THE PERIOD 1948-1954
Sanja Petrović Todosijević
; Institute for recent history of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia
Abstract
An analysis of the introduction of the UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) program concerning automobiles and other vehicles in Yugoslavia in the period from 1948 to 1954 reveals a number of injustices and misuses which significantly reduced the real value of one of the most expensive programs UNICEF administered in Yugoslavia, ultimately hurting the state as well as the users of the insufficiently supplied health services. Representatives of the government, the police, the military, as well as leaders of organizations misused the vehicles which they obtained from UNICEF. It is apparent that representatives of the government, who were organized according to the principle of political loyalty, did not pay sufficient attention to the problem of allocating UNICEF’s services of resources. More care was shown only in cases when clear warnings were given that further aid would be terminated. In all other cases, a clear lack of care and disregard was shown toward the precious help provided by UNICEF, while its automobile compound was treated as property of the state. Later UNICEF introduced stricter policies regarding the distribution of vehicles, because it realized that the Yugoslav side was using the resources distributed for other purposes than those for which they were intended. Besides this, ten years after the end of the Second World War the situation in Europe had improved to a significant degree, meanwhile new crisis areas requiring UNICEF’s attention had appeared in Asia, Africa, and South America. This change in UNICEF policies created a number of problems for the Yugoslavian government in terms of future cooperation with the UN organization, that is, the Yugoslavians had to pay far greater care and attention to the distribution of services and resources offered by UNICEF.
Keywords
UNICEF; The Cold War; Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia; Program concerning automobiles and other vehicles; Public Health; Social Care System; State Apparatus
Hrčak ID:
48002
URI
Publication date:
26.7.2009.
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