HEADQUARTERS BRIEFING BY UNFPA, ROTARY INTERNATIONAL CLUB

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Rotary International will work together to find solutions to mutual concerns and problems around the world, according to a memorandum of cooperation signed this afternoon at a Headquarters press briefing.

Signing the document on behalf of the two organizations were Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director, UNFPA, and Frank Devlyn, President of Rotary International.

Mr. Devlyn told correspondents that today represented one more step by Rotary International and UNFPA to address one the greatest challenges in the world today:  population growth and development.  He pointed out that a core cause of poverty in the world was the imbalance between population growth and resources such as employment, health-care and education.  There were 900 million illiterate people on the earth and two-thirds them were females.  "This memorandum will allow us to combine resources to best address this great challenge", he said.

Mr. Devlyn went on to say that as President of Rotary International, which has some 30,000 clubs in 199 countries and 1.2 million members, he had strongly encouraged Rotarians to take on projects that contributed to a solution.  "We in Rotary are counting on the UNFPA to lend us their expertise and give us ideas and guidance," he said.  In turn, his organization would encourage its members to further the goals of the Fund through projects that promoted education on population issues, access to family health-care, adequate nutrition, programmes on prevention of hunger, HIV/AIDS, illiteracy and the protection of the environment.

According to Mr. Devlyn, Rotary clubs had already begun to address the issue of population growth and were in fact already cooperating with the UNFPA.  In the past year there were successful population conferences in Zurich, New Delhi and Brasilia.  Each of those conferences provided many new ideas and resources.  The agreement signed today solidified the cooperation between the two organizations.

Presenting examples of how Rotarians were addressing population development, he said that in Brazil, members of the Rotary Club of Guanabara had started a programme called "Mother with Happy Healthy Baby".  That programme provided pre-natal care, nutritious meals and family health education to teenagers and young women.  Rotarian doctors donated their time and services.  In Istanbul, Rotarians were working with the California Rotary Club to educate young adults on reproductive health.  Those were just a few examples to show how joining forces with UNFPA "will increase our effectiveness", he said.

Ms. Obaid reiterated the point that mutual concerns and close collaboration would serve to better address the international development goals of reducing poverty and promoting development in the new millennium.  "Such partnerships are important as we struggle together against HIV/AIDS and work for full gender equality, universal education and reproductive health", she said.  She looked forward to continuing the very productive collaboration with Rotary International, working at the local and international levels, to further the cause that was aptly

expressed by Rotary in their motto "Service to Others".  Partnerships were essential to the work of the United Nations.  "We at the UNFPA are proud of ours with our friends at Rotary International", she added.

A correspondent wanted to know exactly what the memorandum of cooperation said and what difference it would make to the existing collaboration between the two organizations.  Responding first, Mr. Devlyn said although Rotary International was well known worldwide, it was what many people would call a conservative organization.  One of the outstanding features of the memorandum "is that we are going to start addressing something and looking into it whereas before it, was all hands off –- we would not even think about it".

After today, he continued, it would now be hands on and "what can we do". "That is the major difference –- that we are going to start thinking, exploring and finding how we can do something while respecting the ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds of areas of the world in which we are involved", he said. 

Ms. Obaid said that the memorandum would set the framework to allow both organizations to recognize each other formally, instead of having ad hoc arrangements.  "We respect each other's principles, programmes and goals, and together we work to achieve what is common to both of us", she said.  So it was a framework to effectively regulate the relationship between the UNFPA and Rotary International, and help both organizations to achieve common goals.

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