PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION, TRUST FUND

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY UNITED NATIONS FOUNDATION, TRUST FUND

At a press conference at United Nations Headquarters this morning, the President of the United Nations Foundation, Timothy E. Wirth, announced a first round of grants, worth more than $22 million, in support of United Nations charitable causes in the field of environment, children's health, women and population and institutional strengthening. The Foundation is a public charity established by Ted Turner, Co-Chairman of Time Warner Inc., to oversee the administration of his $1 billion gift to the United Nations system.

Flanked by Miles Stoby, the Executive Director of the United Nations International Partnership Trust Fund (UNFIP), and Paul Isenman, Vice President of the Foundation, Mr. Wirth said the Foundation was delighted to be able to support a good package of projects that advanced its priority programmes. Twenty-two individual grants were being awarded, with life-of-project funding of $22,181,000.

Breaking the figures down further, he said that $6.5 million was awarded to children's health projects, $1.4 million to the environment and climate change, and $9.3 million to women and population. Additional programme areas receiving support included activities relating to landmines ($2.6 million), food security ($1.2 million), and drug control and poverty alleviation ($1.1 million).

Mr. Wirth said the approved grants were selected from proposals developed by the United Nations system in late 1997 and reviewed by UNFIP during the first quarter of 1998. More than 90 separate proposals were submitted late last year in response to a request for them. Those proposals were evaluated against programme priorities and criteria established by the Foundation in January 1998. [Note: UNFIP was established to coordinate, channel and monitor contributions for the United Nations system.]

The Secretary-General had reviewed the relative strengths of the proposals and considered the consistency of individual projects with overall United Nations reform objectives, Mr. Wirth said.. A consolidated set of recommendations was presented to the Foundation by the Secretary-General in late April. The Foundation's Board met on 12 May to review those recommendations and approve final grants.

Mr. Turner's gift, which he announced on 18 September 1997, came in the form of 18 million Time Warner shares, and was to be funded in 10 annual instalments -- valued at $100 million each -- to the United Nations Foundation and other charities established to support United Nations causes.

To provide a central mechanism to facilitate the initiation, execution and reporting of projects funded by the Foundation, the Secretary-General had established a coordinating mechanism -- the United Nations International Partnership Trust Fund, Mr. Wirth said. Grants from the Foundation would be channelled through UNFIP and dispersed to recipients. The Foundation would remain the primary vehicle for cooperating with the United Nations and delivering new and additional resources to its projects.

Outlining the Foundation's major objectives, Mr. Wirth said it would deliver resources to programmes and people served by United Nations agencies. It would provide new and additional resources for United Nations programmes that enhanced economic, environmental, social and humanitarian goals. The Foundation and UNFIP would work together with the key service providers in the United Nations system to ensure that resources reached the people who most needed them.

He said the Foundation would also strengthen partnerships to support the United Nations and its causes. It would help forge new partnerships among United Nations agencies, the private sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in order to build support for the Organization and its efforts, while also enhancing the quality and quantity of services delivered. New partnerships would demonstrate the efficacy and importance of public-private sector cooperation, help forge the necessary support for the Secretary-General's reform objectives, and strengthen agencies and the United Nations system.

The Foundation would also raise new funds to support United Nations programmes and purposes, Mr. Wirth said. Complementing the Turner gift was the Turner promise -- to encourage other leaders from the worlds of business and philanthropy to join in supporting the programmes and purposes served by the United Nations. The Foundation was committed to an aggressive pursuit of other individual and institutional resources, not just in this country but in other countries as well.

Mr. Wirth said the Foundation also aimed to tell the story of the United Nations to the American people. It would help educate the public about what the United Nations did and did not do, and how international cooperation served American and global interests. The American people had good feelings about the United Nations. The Foundation would help the United Nations to better explain its work to them.

He said there was a network of 170 United Nations associations across the United States. The Foundation would like to help broaden the base of those associations to attract all those who were concerned about such issues as the environment, human rights, health, women's rights, population and climate change.

UN Foundation Press Conference - 3 - 20 May 1998

The Executive Director of UNFIP, Miles Stoby, said the Foundation's support represented a timely and important contribution to advancing the crucial work being done daily by United Nations funds and programmes. The Foundation's grants were additional to and consistent with the ongoing work of the United Nations system. The United Nations was pleased to be able to help facilitate that important public-private partnership in an effort to advance peace, development and stability to the twenty-first century.

Would future grants be limited to the three priority areas announced today? a correspondent asked. Mr. Wirth said the Foundation would be interested in other areas, especially relating to issues outside the responsibilities of political institutions. It would continue to focus on preventive programmes which could be sustainable.

Asked about the Foundation's overhead, Mr. Wirth said it would not amount to more than 4 per cent of its resources. The Foundation was scheduled to go out of business in 10 years. It had a small staff in Washington, D.C. and in UNFIP's office in New York. The Foundation's overhead was remarkably low. It would continue to use and build on existing institutions. The Foundation had a sister organization called the Better World Fund, which would be involved in telling the United Nations story to the public and in raising money.

Would the urgency of a problem be a factor in deciding whether or not to fund it? a correspondent asked. Mr. Wirth said that was one of the criteria. The reintegration of child soldiers into society, for instance, was an urgent and serious concern to the Foundation.

Asked why 42 per cent of the grants were going to women and population, Mr. Wirth said there was a need to engage women more aggressively in governing structures. Ted Turner had been deeply committed to women's issues for a long time. The Turner Foundation had worked closely with other groups on the Cairo Programme of Action and on the Beijing Women's Summit.

Did the Foundation have a mechanism for responding to a crisis? a correspondent asked. Mr. Wirth said the Foundation was discussing the issue with the Secretary-General at present. For example, the Secretary-General was concerned about getting emergency assistance to northern Afghanistan and the Foundation was looking into that. The details of a crisis-response mechanism were being discussed right now.

A correspondent asked why the Foundation would be funding landmine projects in Bosnia instead of some other places. Mr. Wirth said the projects were submitted by agencies and the Foundation had reviewed them and selected the best.

UN Foundation Press Conference - 4 - 20 May 1998

To a question on the kind of projects with which the Foundation hoped to tell the United Nations story, Mr. Wirth said the Foundation would not do that directly. It would work with its sister organization, the Better World Fund. The Foundation did not want the United Nations to be accused of lobbying the American people. One of the projects being discussed was a collection of stories on what the United Nations meant to the American people.

Mr. Wirth said it would also help to think through how to respond to a number of accusations that had been made against the United Nations. The Foundation would embark on A polling and focus group exercise to understand the public perception of the Organization. It was important that the United States pay its debt to the Organization and that it support the work of the Organization.

Stressing that there were many affluent Americans who cared a lot about the United Nations, he said the Foundation would like to mobilize such people in support of the world body. The American support for the United Nations was imperative. Support for the Organization must be broadened across America, and it was appropriate for that to be done outside the United Nations.

Asked how the programmes would be monitored, Mr. Stoby said the Foundation would draw from the existing elaborate monitoring and reporting mechanism of the United Nations. However, the Foundation could send its staff to the field to inspect its funded projects.

* *** *