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dam-l Ted Turner's Foundation grants $1.7 million to Dams Commission and UNEP
UN Foundation Announces Million-Dollar Funding
For Partnership in Global Policymaking on Dams
19 May 1999 -- Today the UN Foundation, Inc., created by CNN founder Ted
Turner, announced a grant of US$1.7 million to support the partnership
initiative of the World Commission on Dams and the UN Environment
Programme.
This donation is in keeping with the Foundation's goal of encouraging
international co-operation, through the United Nations, on environmental
and other global issues. UNEP, the UN's principal environmental agency,
and the Commission have joined in a groundbreaking exercise in global
public policymaking on sustainable management of the planet's finite
water resources.
In announcing the grant, UN Foundation President Timothy Wirth said:
"This partnership brings the UN into an exciting collaboration with
business, activist groups, non-governmental organizations, government,
indigenous peoples' groups and international agencies that are
represented in the World Commission on Dams. These kinds of
public-private partnerships are a promising means for working together
on difficult, cross-cutting global challenges."
"The United Nations has a strong commitment to strengthening
multi-stakeholder processes in international policymaking," said UNEP
Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. "The WCD experience challenges
international organizations to re-think institutional structures and
processes, to become more participatory."
Commented the WCD Chair, Professor Kader Asmal: "The UN Foundation's
support for this partnership signals the international community's
interest in developing effective conflict resolution processes. These
are desperately needed in seemingly intractable disputes such as those
over dams."
Of the $1.7 million, $800,000 is a lump sum grant to the partnership.
The remainder is a 'challenge grant' through which the Foundation will
match every dollar the partnership raises from other sources, up to a
total of $900,000. First to accept the challenge is the international
engineering firm ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd. ABB will contribute
US$200,000 under the matching facility, doubling its previous donation
to the Commission.
"Public-private partnerships are key to finding solutions to difficult
issues related to sustainable development," said Göran Lindahl,
President and CEO of ABB and a member of the World Commission on Dams.
"The Commission's work, as a representative process, is vital to
addressing the issue of large dams in the context of sustainable
development. I encourage others in industry, NGOs and foundations to
invest in this ground-breaking venture."
...2
The issues
The planet's limited water resources are subject to increasingly
competitive demands. Population growth and unequal access to the
resource exacerbate tensions over the water needed to provide for energy
and food security, while maintaining river ecosystems. The world's
45,000 large dams (meaning those over 15 meters in height) are an
important yet controversial aspect of sustainable, equitable management
of water: they can provide development benefits in terms of hydro-power,
water supply, irrigation and flood control but there also are costs in
human, economic, and environmental terms (eg loss of land and
biodiversity when valleys are flooded as dam reservoirs).
The public debate on large dams has been characterized by intense
disagreement between advocates and opponents over the costs and benefits
of dams. To break the resultant stalemate, the IUCN-World Conservation
Union and the World Bank brokered a meeting of pro- and anti-dam
interests in Gland, Switzerland in April 1997. The parties took the
surprising step of unanimously agreeing to collaborate in creating an
independent World Commission on Dams.
The Commission's two-year mandate is to research and make
recommendations on tough social, environmental, economic and
institutional questions surrounding dams in the context of sustainable
development, and to assess alternatives to dams. The 12 Commissioners
are eminent leaders from the fields of business, civil society, academia
and government. Their final report will be issued in mid-2000.
The partnership
"Rather than duplicate efforts, the Commission and UNEP are building on
each other's strengths in these difficult questions of sustainable water
management," said Professor Asmal. He is also South Africa's Minister of
Water Affairs and Forestry and an internationally-recognized human
rights advocate. "The Commission will profit from UNEP's strategic role
in the global environmental policy arena and its considerable in-house
expertise. Together our efforts will bolster the Conventions on Climate
Change and Biodiversity as well as Agenda 21, the strategy that emerged
from the Rio Earth Summit in 1992."
Said Dr. Toepfer: "Two major UNEP concerns are the conservation and
sustainable use of freshwater supplies, and the promotion of
environmentally-acceptable forms of energy. In those two contexts, dams
pose both solutions and problems, so we'll learn a great deal from the
WCD's research program and its final conclusions."
This is one of a number of strategic partnerships the WCD has undertaken
to widen its support base and the scope and impact of its work. It
recently organized the first meeting of its advisory Forum, made up of
55 NGOs, governments, donors, utilities, indigenous peoples' groups,
international organizations, researchers and bankers. It also has broken
new ground in attracting no-strings-attached financial contributions
from 26 donors from all sides of the dams debate.
Added Prof. Asmal: "The Commission closes shop after disseminating its
report in 2000. That makes our strategic partnerships all the more
important, to ensure our recommendations live on rather than gathering
dust on a shelf."
-ENDS
For further information, please consult the UN Foundation website
www.unfoundation.org, the WCD website at www.dams.org
<http://www.dams.org> , and the UNEP website at www.unep.org
<http://www.unep.org>.
For general media enquiries regarding the WCD, please contact Kate Dunn
in Cape Town, South Africa at 27-21-426-4000 or 27-83-326-8825; fax
27-21-426-0036; e-mail kdunn@dams.org Please note: Cape Town is six
hours ahead of New York.
Kate Dunn
Senior Advisor - Communications, Media and Outreach
World Commission on Dams
PO Box 16002
Vlaeberg, Cape Town 8018
Phone: 27 21 426 4000; cell 27 83 326 8825;
Fax: 27 21 426 0036
mailto:kdunn@dams.org
Website: http://www.dams.org