The UNICEF International Child Development Centre undertakes and promotes policy analysis and applied research. It provides a forum for international professional exchanges of experience. It advocates and disseminates ideas and policies towards achieving the goals of child survival, protection, participation and development. The core programme is currently concentrated in the following three areas: Economic and social policies research for children; Children's rights; Decentralization, participation and local governance.
A close look at the Convention on the Rights of the Child suggests that the individual articles lie within five principles: survival, development, protection, provision and participation. The most revolutionary part of the Convention is about participation; because in those articles the child develops from an object (of provision and protection) to a subject, an actor and a citizen.