19 May 1999
UN Foundation Announces Million-Dollar Funding For Partnership in Global Policymaking on Dams

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."

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."

Related Links:
the UN Foundation website www.unfoundation.org,the UNEP website at www.unep.org.