This study intends to problematize the conception of child health propagated by
UNICEF, specifically analyzing the regimes of truth and practices of power, which are
operated by this agency on the health conditions of the children that lives in the
Amazon. Therefore it’s made a documentary research that has its source analysis the
report "Being a Child in Amazonia: an analysis of the conditions for child development
in the northern region of Brazil”, published by UNICEF in 2004. As analysis tools, are
used Michel Foucault's genealogical history, and his analytics of power, especially in
relation to biopower. In the context of United Nations policy, the UNICEF's
performance in the care of children is understood as part of a liberal governmentality
that acts in promoting social progress and economic development of countries, for
safety's sake. In this sense, this research try to give visibility to how the practices of
UNICEF, articulated with surrounding practices, engender a device of government that
operates through disciplinary and biopolitical strategies to control the population of the
Amazon as function of risk management. According to the UNICEF analysis, the child
health is understood as an effect of certain social and economic conditions considered
essential for their survival and well-being. The lack of social infrastructure and the
precarious conditions of existence are pointed as factors that may cause illness and
damage to children's development. In addition the report emphasizes the role of woman
as mother, placing her as the main responsible for the survival an education of children,
and the importance of family performance in guarantee a complete child development.
Notions of health and childhooh, respectively, as a multidimensional field, and a life
stage that needs to be protected and controlled, from this point of view, are used by
UNICEF in the government of the poor population of the region, captured in hygienic
speeches that disqualify families because of their survival conditions and their care
practices in relation to children. These speeches sets up a demand for an endless
network of protections for families that promotes health and ensure life, but imply
controls that put in check their autonomy.
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