It is a standard political clichΘ that our greatest resource is our young people, but UNICEF, the UN children's agency, has to put its money where its mouth is. Visiting Dublin yesterday, its executive director Ms Carol Bellamy pointed out that young people are the majority of the population in the developing world.
UNICEF is active in 160 countries, about one-third of which are caught up in a war of one kind or another. In addition, the world's poorest countries are struggling with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and Ms Bellamy estimates that half of all new cases are young people.
All these issues and more are on UNICEF's agenda: "It is a wonderful but challenging mandate."
On a stopover before going to Afghanistan, she said that country's troubles did not start with the latest war. "Long before September 11th, we certainly knew Afghanistan was a significant humanitarian crisis for children."
Starvation and disease are a constant threat. UNICEF's international staff left during the US-led bombing campaign, but local workers remained and assisted the World Health Organisation in a major anti-polio campaign. "Over a million children were, in the midst of the bombing, immunised against polio."
Afghanistan has six UNICEF offices. During her last visit three years ago, Ms Bellamy argued with the Taliban about their ban on girls attending school. The boys weren't getting much of an education either, because most of the teachers were women who weren't allowed to work.
Restoring the education system is a major priority for UNICEF, which has been supporting what Ms Bellamy calls "informal schools", similar to the Irish hedge-schools of the past.
There is an encyclopedia of other problems: water pumps need to be repaired; landmines are widespread; measles is a major health threat and there must be vaccinations; and UNICEF is still sending blankets and medicines.
Due to the closure of borders by neighbouring countries, an expected refugee crisis failed to materialise. Instead, people dispersed within the borders of Afghanistan itself and they still require assistance. "This is still very much emergency humanitarian relief but we also hope to start moving into recovery and reconstruction."
Meanwhile, she is hopeful that the Bonn talks between the different Afghan factions will produce some type of transitional administration leading to a permanent form of government. The UN could only do so much: "We can't run Afghanistan for Afghanistan: Afghanistan has to run itself." The people would need a huge amount of assistance to restore their war-torn land: "They may be able to play some music now but there is not much of an economy."
She will be in a position to judge the impact of the bombing campaign on the country's infrastructure.
Even on her last visit in 1998, the damage to parts of Kabul was so bad that she does not know how it could be any worse.
The schedule for her brief visit included meetings with the President, Mrs McAleese; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and Minister of State Liz O'Donnell. She praises the Irish contribution to the rescue effort and to the developing world in general.
But Ms Bellamy cannot afford to focus on one country alone. She reels off a list of needy lands, some beset by conflict, others affected by natural disasters. Now in her second five-year term, Carol Bellamy can rest assured she will never be idle.