UN Foundation passes $1 billion mark in funds donated to key causes

Eight years after its launch, the United Nations Foundation (UNF) has surpassed the $1 billion mark in delivering funds to the UN and its causes, and aims to leverage another $1 billion in support of the same goals, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced.

UNF and its sister organization, the Better World Fund, have donated more than $600 million through its founder, the American businessman and philanthropist Ted Turner, according to a press release issued today by the UN Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP), which facilitates the Foundation’s work within the UN system.

Another $400 million has been provided by individuals, corporations, governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to UN programmes in the following areas: children’s health, the environment, women and population, peace, security and human rights.

Announcing the milestone last night during a speech to the annual UN Association-USA dinner in New York, Mr. Annan called Mr. Turner’s 1997 pledge to donate $1 billion to the UN “a tremendous financial boost for our organization.

“More than that, it has helped the UN to change – to become a partnership organization, something that has been a top priority of mine… But Ted’s act was perhaps most important for the message it sent to his fellow Americans, his fellow businessmen and women, and to the world.

“Here was an iconic businessman standing up for the UN, and saying to the world that the UN and its work were worthy of support.”

The Foundation also announced it intends to use the remaining $400 million from Mr. Turner’s original gift to leverage another $1 billion.

UNF was created in 1998 with the aim of promoting a more peaceful, prosperous, and just world through the support of the UN. Through grant-making and building new and innovative public-private partnerships, it acts to meet the most pressing health, humanitarian, socio-economic and environmental challenges of the 21st century.

Mr. Turner, who is chairman of the UNF’s board of directors, said: “As we are seeing all across the globe, the UN works – for the world’s poor, for peace, for progress and for human rights and justice. That’s why I’ve always believed in the UN. That’s why I’ve always supported the UN. And that’s why I set up the UN Foundation.”