(1) Overview of activities
The United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP) serves as the operational arm of the Secretary-General in the partnership between the United Nations system and the United Nations Foundation (UNF), a public charity responsible for administering Ted Turner's $1 billion contribution in support of UN causes.
The partnership with the UN Foundation has yielded programmes covering a wide range of sectors in support of the Millennium Development Goals, which include: women and population issues; children’s health; biodiversity; and support to world heritage sites. In addition to providing programmatic resources, the focus of UNFIP and UNF includes resource mobilization and advocacy, reaching out to the private sector and civil society.
UNFIP facilitates innovative partnerships with companies, foundations and civil society organizations to create sustainable livelihoods in developing countries. Engaging partners at various levels, UNFIP mobilizes expertise, technology, delivery systems, funding and other resources in support of the Millennium Development Goals.
Learn more about UNFIP.
(2) Role in emergency relief and reconstruction
UNFIP supports building of partnerships with external groups that can bring new resources and expertise to emergency relief efforts and facilitate the transition from crisis to development.
In response to the 26 December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the UNF committed $5-million of its core funds for the purpose of catalyzing a wide range of partnerships to support the UN’s relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in the affected countries. To date, this approach has stimulated over $40 million of additional resources to UN activities of which nearly $6 million are from the private sector, with the remainder from foundations and international civil society organizations such as American Red Cross, Synergos Institute’s Global Philanthropist Circle (of Switzerland), and The Hewlett Foundation.
(3) Major opportunities for business support
UNFIP provides a one-stop partnership service to the private sector for working with the UN family, including:
> Advice on UN rules, best practices, lessons learned – including funding modalities;
> Assist in the design of programmes and projects;
> Helps establish and, in some cases, manage global and regional networks;
> Advocate for prospective partners to use the Millennium Development Goals as a framework for partnerships.
UNFIP identifies practical opportunities and concrete initiatives for business
to assist with relief efforts.
(4) Contribution/Contact information
If you wish to explore partnership opportunities please visit the UNFIP website or contact : Constanze Westervoss. Special Assistant to Executive Director Tel: 212 963-1576 Email: westervoss@un.org.
For advice on UN rules and procedures contact: Mrs. Shari Klugman, Chief of Operations. Tel: 212 963 8680 Email: klugman@un.org.
(5) Examples of engagement with the private sector
The UNFIP-UNF alliance has created the partnership opportunities such as:
Redevelopment of Water and Sanitation Infrastructure ($2.5 million): The UN Foundation has teamed up with the Coca-Cola Company, Coca-Cola employees and the UN agencies (UNDP, UNICEF) to identify ways to integrate the partner’s combined capacities behind long-term water infrastructure redevelopment and recovery needs in tsunami affected regions.
Communications / Early Warnings ($3 million): UNF is working with the World Food Program, and Vodafone to strengthen UN emergency communications and logistics response efforts. As part of this work, UNF and Vodafone are working with Voxiva, a mobile-based telecommunications firm, to enhance and extend the reach of the Humanitarian Early Warning Service (HEWS) which provides early warnings and forecasts for natural hazards and socio-political developments worldwide. As a result, the HEWS system will be able to send out urgent information and warnings collected by HEWSweb to registered users worldwide by email and text message.
Communications ($21,068 grant): UNF partnered with IBM to donate 16 laptops to UNDP’s relief coordination activities on-the-ground. This effort utilized IBM’s “Office in a Box” aid designed to provide immediate assistance to remote offices needed to assist in the tsunami relief efforts.
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