[4]: 59 The genesis of the Child Survival Revolution can be traced to 1973 when James P. Grant, gave his annual lecture at Johns Hopkins University's School of Public Health.
Grant grasped that it was the synergy that came through a package of interventions that would allow children to survive, For much of the child survival revolution, James Grant and UNICEF adopted a strategy known as GOBI-FFF, a form of selective primary healthcare:[12] G for growth monitoring to detect undernutrition in small children, O for oral rehydration therapy [ORT] to treat childhood diarrhea, B to encourage breastfeeding (which had declined precipitously due to working mothers and the marketing of infant formula), and I for immunization against the six basic childhood diseases: tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and measles.
UNICEF took advantage of the growing levels of basic education and access to television and radio to generate support for the child survival revolution through persuasion.
[3] James Grant also "persuaded many heads of state to get personally involved in their national programmes for children, for example in their immunization by being photographed giving polio drops to a baby".
Several figures from film and sports, like Audrey Hepburn, Liv Ullmann, and Peter Ustinov also participated in the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador program.