Transparency Statement

1. Commitment to Transparency and Open Information

The Australian Committee for UNICEF Limited (UNICEF Australia) is committed to being open and transparent with information relating to our operations, financial management, the work we do and the people that we work with. Through our website, our people, our publicly available reports and via our engagements with the media, we make factual and up to date information available to everyone.

To support this commitment, we have a clear process via which individuals and entities may request information and we are clear and transparent in the process via which information will be shared and the circumstances when that may not be possible.

This builds on UNICEF’s Transparency and Accountability initiatives which are fundamental in delivering development and humanitarian results for children. UNICEF became a signatory to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) in 2012 – which committed the organisation to publicly disclose its information on programmes and operations and make it easier for all stakeholders to find, use and compare the standardized data. This included the creation of the Transparency Portal in 2015. This monthly updated portal aims to improve access to UNICEF’s program and financial data and keep the public up to date on the results being delivered by all UNICEF country offices. The portal also has links to a growing number of corporate documents such as organisational policies, operational guides, supply and logistics, country programme documents, evaluations, audit reports, and annual programme results reports.

2. Financial Accountability

UNICEF Australia is committed to being honest and transparent in our financial reporting and we apply the highest possible standards of probity in our management of funds.

We are committed to ensuring that the generous donations given by our supporters, and partners across the private sector, DFAT and the Australian Government make the biggest possible impact for children.

Our annual financial reports are externally independently audited and our results and impact we achieve for children is published publicly in our annual reports and on our website.

Our financial management is guided by our Corporate Governance Statement and supported by approved policies including those covering Fundraising, Procurement, and Fraud and Corruption, all of which can be viewed on Our organisational policies & guidelines page.

3. Governance

Australian Committee for UNICEF Limited is a public company limited by guarantee; is established under the Corporations Act 2001; and owns the registered business name UNICEF Australia.

UNICEF Australia is a registered charity with the Australian Charities & Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) and has Public Benevolent Institution (PBI), Deductible Gift Recipient and Income Tax Exempt Charity status with the Australian Taxation Office.

All information relating to our governance structure, including our Board of Directors, our legal status and our commitment to the ACFID Code of Conduct and the ACNC governance standards is shared on our Accountability & Governance page.

4. Our Work

Work directly supported by UNICEF Australia and through UNICEF around the world is shared publicly on our website, through the media, with our partners and via our publications.

UNICEFs global website www.unicef.org is a further publicly available resource where we encourage people to explore details on all of UNICEF’s programs and programs that UNICEF Australia directly supports are further explained under this policy.

5. Our Partners

UNICEF Australia is proud to work with many partners and suppliers in the delivery of our programs and our initiatives. We share information about the people working at UNICEF here and we take pride in showcasing our partners when we share information on our work.

UNICEF Australia is entirely committed to the highest possible standards of child safeguarding, within our own people and volunteers and within the people and entities that we partner with. Our Child Safeguarding Policy provides further information on these standards.

Policies on Procurement and Conflict of Interest, provide further information of how we ensure our standards and commitments to transparency and accountability are mirrored by our suppliers.

6. Access to Information

UNICEF Australia supports its commitment to transparency by openly sharing information. The process to request information is detailed below and on our website.

We will always endeavour to provide the information required but we recommend that individuals first see if the information is available in our annual reports or publications, contained within our Frequently Asked Questions, or housed within our website or our global site www.unicef.org

In certain instances, we may not be able to provide you with the information requested, some of these reasons include:

Private information that could contain private personal data relating to an individual.
Confidential information, including for legal or contractual purposes.
Information that, if disclosed, could endanger the safety of an individual.

In addition, UNICEF Australia may on occasion assess that the cost to provide the information is disproportionate to the request.

In all instances where we are unable to provide the information requested, we will explain the reason why it is not possible and endeavour to suggest publicly available alternative sources of information.