Let me share with you a few examples of successful UN partnerships. One is the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Launched in 1988, this global partnership - the largest public health initiative in history - works to eradicate polio. The World Health Organization (WHO) coordinates the effort, while UNICEF provides the oral polio vaccine. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO offer technical expertise while the 1.2 million members of Rotary International have raised approximately $500 million for polio eradication and provided tens of thousands of volunteers in the field. The Initiative also includes private foundations like the UN Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, national governments, the World Bank and other development banks, humanitarian organizations like the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, and corporate partners such as Aventis Pasteur, De Beers, and Wyeth.
Another example is the First on the Ground partnership with Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications company, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The UN-Ericsson partnership is designed as an in-kind contribution to provide and maintain effective mobile communications equipment and expertise for humanitarian relief operations.
In the environment programme area, the Equator Initiative is a partnership that brings together the United Nations, government, civil society, business and foundation sectors to help build the capacity and raise the profile of local enterprises in the tropics that link economic improvement and job creation with protecting the environment. The Equator Initiative demonstrates that using and conserving biological diversity are now a part of the business bottom line for these thriving local enterprises. The Initiative is a partnership of UNDP with BrasilConnects, the Government of Canada, International Development Research Centre, The World Conservation Union, The Nature Conservancy, Television Trust for the Environment, and the United Nations Foundation.
Smaller companies and organizations can also work with the UN to make a significant difference in people's lives. Books for Africa, a US-based non- governmental organization that collects donated text, library and reference books and ships them to Africa, has entered into a partnership with UNHCR to provide books in refugee camps on the continent. Under a pilot project, 25,000 books were shipped early June from Minnesota to Dukwe refugee camp in Botswana where Angolan, Somali and Namibian refugees are living. The transportation cost of US$ 8,000 was covered by a grant from USAID's Education for Development and Democracy Initiative. Books for Africa is now seeking to secure the shipment of 400,000 books to refugee camps in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.
Initial partnership queries from the European Foundation Centre led to UNFIP becoming a member of its Programme Committee. This, in turn, led the International Committee of EFC to adopt the MDGs as part of their agenda and encouraged European Foundations to do the same, particularly advocating for their greater involvement in fighting HIV/AIDS globally. The EFC included three sessions on UN-related issues at their Annual Conference earlier this month as well as had the UN Deputy Secretary-General as their keynote speaker.
Another innovative partnership facilitated by UNFIP is the Rockefeller Foundation-led Mother-to-Child-Transmission (MTCT) Plus initiative, which focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention linked to treatment to increase survival of both infected mothers and their infants. UNICEF and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation, among others, are implementing this $100 million programme. The Mailman School of Public Health here at Columbia University is leading the partnership coalition on technical and operational issues, and a coalition of eight foundations is providing sponsorship.