I've been getting some questions lately about the value of the UN and about what I've learned since I donated one-third of my wealth to start the UN Foundation almost nine years ago. Here's the answer.
The fact is that the UN works - for the world's poor, for peace, for progress and for human rights and justice. And we need it to go on working if we're going to deal with the serious and sometimes frightening challenges facing us in the 21st Century.
I'll admit that cooperating through the UN can be difficult at times; and I'll admit that the UN can be improved. But anything worthwhile is hard - and frankly I can't think of a more worthwhile endeavor than what the UN does to foster peace and prosperity on a global scale.
Let's look at the reality.
The reality is that the UN has succeeded in its essential mission of preventing World War III.
The reality is that UN peacekeeping is an incredible value for the United States and the rest of the world.
In fact, UN peacekeeping is one of the great bargains of all time, ensuring that no one country has to pay all the bills or take all the risks for peace and security around the world. The RAND Corporation has estimated that UN peacekeepers can do the job at a fraction of the cost of U.S. troops. The U.S. does not contribute any of the almost 100,000 UN peacekeepers deployed around the world. Financially, the U.S. share of the UN's 17 peacekeeping operations is about $1 billion this year -- equivalent to about 5 days of the U.S. deployment in Iraq. In the world of business, we call that a bargain.
The reality is that the UN handles humanitarian emergencies skillfully. When the Asian tsunami struck, the UN was there immediately, they got the job done - food, water, health shelter - and they are still on the scene helping those communities rebuild. The people of New Orleans would have been lucky to have had such an efficient and effective response after Katrina.
The reality is that there are dozens of unrecognized ways that the UN helps make our complicated world work. The UN's International Civil Aviation Organization makes possible the system of international air traffic. The Universal Postal Union makes it possible to put an American stamp on an envelope and send a letter that will arrive in an Australian mailbox. The World Meteorological Organization monitors global weather patterns. The Food and Agriculture Organization helps keep the world fed. And the World Health Organization and other health agencies help research, monitor and contain diseases that transcend borders.
And the reality is that most UN staffers are not sitting comfortably in New York, but rather deployed around the world:
* They are living in mud huts trying to make agriculture work in Africa;
* They are organizing blue helmets to keep the peace among warring factions, and the elections needed thereafter.
* They are thinking up ways to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
* They are risking life and limb cleaning up landmines.
* They are inoculating children.
* They are giving comfort to the displaced and dispossessed in refugee camps.
Could there be a more meaningful and necessary effort to invest in? I don't think there is and that's why I launched the UN Foundation. And I'm delighted that so many others have recognized the valuable work the UN is doing. Since 2001 every dollar I've put in to the UN Foundation has been matched by another dollar contributed by corporations, foundations or tens of thousands of individuals. In that time, the UN has evolved into an ever more effective partner organization.
An interdependent world needs and deserves planetary philanthropy, not backyard philanthropy. Those of us who invest in the UN are planetary philanthropists - campaigning with the UN for the world's future by taking on the toughest global challenges.
We're campaigning for a new energy future so that we are no longer bound to the fossil fuels that are a threat to our security and our environment.
We're campaigning to rid the world of preventable childhood diseases - measles and malaria and polio - so every child has a chance.
We're on a campaign to elevate the status, the rights and the profile of adolescent girls - so that they have the same opportunities, the same health care, the same education as boys. Equal rights and opportunity is still one of the world's biggest challenges.
And we're campaigning to protect the great natural treasures of the world through our cooperation with the World Heritage Center. We have to take care of the Galapagos, Yellowstone and all the other World Heritage sites around the world - and make sure that the communities that surround them benefit from conservation of these treasures.
The world's greatest challenges are not just the obligation of governments - we're all responsible for the future -- businesspeople and citizens, non-governmental organizations and philanthropists. If we're going to take on the great global challenges of the 21st century, we need to make it possible for the UN to lead a worldwide partnership to take on the toughest problems we've got.