On the 25th anniversary of his death, we remember Jim Grant’s passionate pursuit of his "child survival revolution," a most defining moment of his life.
His selfless devotion and hard work at UNICEF as Executive Director from 1980 to 1995 helped him mobilize global support against child mortality and improving global vaccine coverage.
Grant and UNICEF pressed world leaders and rallied communities around these common causes, with extraordinary results: the advancements made during this era helped save the lives of 25 million children during his lifetime, and many more after his death.
January 28, 2020, marks the 25th anniversary of Grant's passing. In the years since, we've built on his successes, slashing the number of childhood deaths even further and reducing extreme poverty.
But as we face challenges new and old, it's worth reflecting on Grant's unique approach to solving development issues.
Grant was probably the greatest advocate for vaccines ever during his tenure at UNICEF.
Achieving these results often meant braving conflict zones as Grant did in 1984 when he travelled to El Salvador during the country's civil war.
He implored the warring factions to prioritize immunization programmes in their territories as vaccine-preventable diseases killed more kids than bullets.
With his staff, the grant helped negotiate “days of Tranquility” humanitarian ceasefires that enabled diverse humanitarian groups to deliver food, clothes, water to affected persons and immunize children.
Grant championed combatants to fight the common enemies of childhood; the six killer diseases, Polio, Tetanus, Diphtheria, Measures, Tuberculosis and Pertussis.
In so doing, Grant nurtured and extended an olive branch of goodwill that won hearts of people and saved children’s lives.
Today, the lives of children are at great risk due to increasing vaccine scepticism on social media and society.
The World Health Organization reported a record-setting number of measles outbreaks around the world in 2019, a direct result of widespread misinformation.
But just as it did in the '80s and '90s, we could borrow a leaf from coalition-building by Jim Grant.
Jim Grant built progressive alliances of boy scouts, girl guides, politicians, doctors, parents, staff and pharmaceutical companies around the goal of immunization.
Immunization rates around the world started rising, but Grant did not stop there. “He was looking ahead 20 to 30 years all the time," says William Grant, one of his two surviving sons, who also works in humanitarian development.
Towards the end of his life, Grant saw growing inequality as the biggest potential problem of the 21st century.
Sadly, he was spot on again, as income disparities and a lack of opportunities plague both developed and developing countries.
"A country may be doing well at the country level," says William, "but if you break it down into regional levels, you see a lot of communities being left behind. Nobody is focusing at that differentiated level."
That’s where Grant started writes Justin Hemenway Assistant Director, Social Media at UNICEF USA.
Finding examples of what worked, doing lots of hard analysis and developing evidence-based programming was at the heart of this approach.
Years ago, former UNICEF Deputy Director Kul Gautam outlined the Ten Commandments of Grant's leadership for development.
One of those core principles, according to Gautam, was to establish "time-bound, 'doable' propositions."
UNICEF continues to take this approach around inequality in a variety of programs, from education, nutrition, water, sanitation and to build shelters for refugees in remote areas of Bidibidi and Pagirinya in northern Uganda.
“Grant would always say that saving children's lives was a giant step toward his ultimate goal, which was to make the world a better place for everyone by bringing the benefits of progress to the many and not just a few.'
We cannot rest until we achieve that dream Justin Hemenway noted.
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