This policy review presents the views and proposals of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) concerning development goals and strategies for the 1990s. A brief review of the previous development decades in the first section is followed by an overview of the evolution of the situation of children in the 1980s. The third section summarizes the unmet needs of children, including those related to critical poverty, mortality, maternal health, nutrition, water, sanitation, education, and children in especially difficult circumstances. The fourth section discusses goals for the year 2000. In the fifth section, the report suggests strategies for meeting the goals. Strategies for reaching the goals proposed for the year 2000 include a commitment to environmentally sound and sustainable development policies, construction of the necessary economic base for meeting human needs, the reaching of unreached and hard-to-reach populations, advocacy and social mobilization, and the empowerment of women for development. The sixth section suggests ways in which the goals and strategies should be adapted to the different country and regional realities. The seventh section reports UNICEF executive board recommendations. The report proposes that the development of human capabilities and the process of meeting basic human needs should be the underlying themes of the Fourth United Nations Development Decade. (RH)