Nicholas Alipui

Nicholas Alipui is UNICEF's Director of Programmes. He chairs the Global Network for Sustained Elimination of Iodine Deficiency. In 2000, he was UNICEF's representative in Kenya and said that "the ongoing abduction and abuse of children in Kenya is one of the most serious violations of human rights." By 2004, he had become UNICEF's representative in the Philippines and called attention to the lack of official recognition of child pornography as a problem in the country. In this capacity, he also spoke out against the military use of children in the country and denounced infant formula, calling on the country's mothers to breastfeed. In 2008, as Director of Programmes, he met with President of Madagascar Marc Ravalomanana in order to strengthen the ties between Madagascar and the United Nations. In 2010, Alipui said that UNICEF and its partners in the Roll Back Malaria Partnership hoped to put an end to malarial deaths by 2015. In 2011, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) permitted infant formula company Mead Johnson to claim that the addition of docosahexaenoic acid to their infant formula contributes to the development of the visual system in infants, but Alipui opposed the EFSA's decision, saying that "there can be little doubt that the use of such health claims can mislead parents into thinking that the formulas are as good as, if not better than breast milk." He was interviewed in Not My Life, an independent documentary film about human trafficking.