UNICEF has a policy preferring orphanages only be used as temporary accommodation for children when there is no alternative. UNICEF has historically opposed the creation of large-scale, permanent orphanages for children, preferring instead to find children places in their (extended) families and communities, wherever possible. This has led UNICEF to be skeptical of international adoption efforts as a solution to child care problems in developing countries; UNICEF has preferred to see children cared for in their birth countries rather than be adopted by foreign parents.
A 2013 article in U.S. News & World Report magazine reported that UNICEF conditions large cash payments to developing countries upon the adoption of UNICEF's recommendations for the welfare of orphaned children, and asserted that "[t]oo often, UNICEF’s intervention leads to a cessation of international adoptions until all of its recommendations are in place".
One concern is that the child mortality rate has not decreased in some areas as rapidly as had been planned, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where in 2013 "the region still has the highest child mortality rate: 92 deaths per 1000 live births", and that "Globally, nearly half of under-five deaths are attributable to undernutrition."
In 2005, Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, editorialized that "over 60% of these deaths were and remain preventable" and that the coverage levels for these interventions are "appallingly low in the 42 countries that account for 90% of child deaths".
A $27 million UNICEF program in West Africa in 2001–2005 which was meant to decrease child deaths from disease has been deemed a failure, according to a study that found higher survival rates of children in some regions that were not included in that program.
Wendy McElroy has argued that UNICEF's focus on rights rather than safety and survival is idealistic, and that by focusing on politicized children's rights instead of mere child survival, UNICEF has contributed indirectly to the child mortality crisis.
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Mismanagement and abuse of funding
In 1995, in what was called "the worst scandal in its history", UNICEF disclosed that 24 employees in its Kenya office stole or squandered $10-million; this fraud consumed more than a quarter of the UNICEF's $37-million two-year budget for Kenya.
In Germany, in the late 2000s, UNICEF was accused of mismanagement, abuse and waste of funds. This has resulted in 5,000 of UNICEF regular donors abandoning their support from the charity, and politicians and public figures, including Angela Merkel, demanding explanations, and the chairwoman of UNICEF Germany resigning in 2008.
In 2012, UNICEF confirmed fraud in a Pakistan school rehabilitation project, where an estimated US$4 million was lost when funds were misappropriated.
NSA surveillance
Documents released by Edward Snowden in December 2013 showed that UNICEF was among the surveillance targets of British and American intelligence agencies.
Sexual assault
Press reports in 2020 disclosed that women in the Democratic Republic of Congo accused foreign aid workers, including UNICEF workers, of sexually assaulting them. The World Health Organization described the alleged actions as reprehensible and a UNICEF spokesperson acknowledged that such sexual assault cases are underreported in the region. Prior to this, in 2018, UNICEF was hit by a wave of sexual misconduct accusations; in 2018, deputy director Justin Forsyth resigned from UNICEF following allegations that he behaved inappropriately toward female staff members.
Child sexual abuse
In 1988, Jozef Verbeeck, director of UNICEF's Belgium committee, was convicted for offences relating to his knowledge of an international child sex ring operating out of a UNICEF office in Brussels. The group was coordinated by Michel Felu, a UNICEF employee who installed a photo lab in the cellar of the office to develop pictures of children engaged in obscene acts. Over a thousand photographs were seized by Belgian police, along with a mailing list of over 400 names in 15 European countries that originated on a UNICEF computer.
UNICEF has also admitted to shortcomings in its humanitarian support of children who said that they were raped and sexually abused by French peacekeepers in Central African Republic.
Peter Newell, a convicted child sex offender, has worked closely with UNICEF: he managed a charity that received hundreds of thousand of pounds from the NSPCC, Barnardo's, Save the Children and UNICEF; and cowrote a manual on children's rights called Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child for Unicef, which was published by UNICEF.
Andrew MacLeod, the former chief of operations at the UN's Emergency Co-ordination Center, had accused UNICEF of failure to take action to prevent abuses; he stated "There are tens of thousands of aid workers around the world with pedophile tendencies, but if you wear a UNICEF T-shirt, nobody will ask what you're up to."
Funding of UK food charities
In December 2020, UNICEF made funding available to feed children in the UK for the first time as part of its Food Power for Generation COVID initiative. UNICEF pledged £25,000 to School Food Matters, a south London charity, to help feed children over the Christmas holidays. A partnership of Devon charities had also been given £24,000 to help feed 120 families over the winter of 2020. UNICEF said it was helping children in the UK because of an increase in food poverty in Britain, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It estimates there are children going hungry in a fifth of households. Anna Kettley, from UNICEF said "We are one of the richest countries in the world and we should not have to be relying on food banks or food aid." Labour MP Zarah Sultana in the House of Commons said, "For the first time ever, UNICEF, the UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian aid to children, is having to feed working-class kids in the UK but while children go hungry, a wealthy few enjoy obscene riches." In response, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Tory MP and Leader of the House of Commons said, "I think it is a real scandal that UNICEF should be playing politics in this way when it is meant to be looking after people in the poorest, the most deprived, countries of the world where people are starving, where there are famines and where there are civil wars, and they make cheap political points of this kind, giving, I think, 25,000 to one council. It is a political stunt of the lowest order. UNICEF should be ashamed of itself." Chris Forster, from Transforming Plymouth Together, one of the Devon charities to benefit from UNICEF donations, said, "We had one family as part of the deliveries last week literally in tears with gratitude because their cupboard was bare." Scottish National Party MP, Tommy Sheppard said, "It is astonishing that these comments are coming from the same government that had to be publicly shamed into following Scotland's lead and providing free school meals for children over the holidays." LBC reported that the UN humanitarian aid agency are providing over £700,000 to feed hungry children in the UK.
"Digital Age Assurance Tools and Children's Rights Online across the Globe" report
In 2021, UNICEF published a report called "Digital Age Assurance Tools and Children's Rights Online across the Globe". The paper, focusing on human rights and digital tools, generated controversy after misleading claims and headlines about the report were spread online, originating from a story by the conservative Center for Family and Human Rights. The fact-checking website Snopes rated the claim that the "report said pornography is not always harmful to children and blocking children from watching pornography online violates their rights" as false. UNICEF pulled down the report, citing misrepresentation of one of its portions.
