The CEO of the United Nations Foundation, Kathy Calvin, said over the past decade there has been an increasing public awareness that what happens in distant quarters of the globe has an impact everywhere.
The foundation is a public charity that supports efforts by the United Nations to solve global issues, and Calvin said she sees Hawaii as being well positioned to help advance U.N. goals.
Initiatives that include climate change, global health, peace and security, the empowerment of women, eradication of poverty, energy access and U.S.-U.N. relations are all supported by the foundation, which was established in 1998 through a $1 billion donation from CNN founder and philanthropist Ted Turner.
Here is a Q&A with Calvin, who spoke with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser about Hawaii and the most pressing global issues, and new and emerging trends in international development.
Question: It is sometimes difficult for people living on the most isolated land mass in the world to focus on issues happening in other parts of the globe. Why should people in Hawaii pay more attention to issues even beyond the mainland U.S.?
Answer: For the last 10 years, the focus for the world’s work in eradicating poverty and building healthier lifestyles has been in Africa. For a long time that even seemed far away to most Americans, but in the past 10 years people have started understanding that what happens in the rest of the world affects the entire country. There’s just been more of a general concern for humanity. I think in the next 10 years we’re going to see a lot of that shift towards Asia, which is more in Hawaii’s backyard. Asian countries are showing enormous progress in economic development and financial growth, but there are still serious health issues in Asia.
The biggest increase in immunizations will be in Asia as both India and China take on campaigns to eradicate measles, which has historically been a primary killer of children around the world. In the last 10 years, we have reduced childhood deaths from measles by
90 percent in Africa, and with campaigns in Asia, we can eventually eliminate this disease. India has just eliminated polio, which gets us close to ending that disease as well.
Even though there’s been a considerable reduction in measles in the Western Pacific they are still dealing with the virus circulating in regions such as China. It’s important for people in Hawaii even to be aware that those diseases exist even as they travel back home and to ensure people that travel to the Hawaiian islands are able to be vaccinated and not bring the disease with them.
When we started our U.S. campaign called “Shot@Life” to help Americans understand the benefits of U.S. dollars supporting global vaccination programs in Asia and Africa, we found that many American moms felt strongly that their children have the right and expectation to make it to age 5, so children around the world deserve the same “shot at life.”
Q: Hawaii-born President Barack Obama has taken a special interest in the U.N. since taking office. What role can the state play in advancing U.N. goals?
A: Hawaii’s perfectly positioned. The fact that you’ve got things like the University of Hawaii and East-West Center, this is a state that focuses both on the East and West at the same time, and certainly understands more than many states on the mainland that we’re truly living in a global world and global economy. President Obama has expressed that it’s better for us when we don’t do it alone, are in partnership with other countries, work with multilateral institutions, better when we lead abroad — core values that Hawaiians share. It doesn’t surprise me that those are values he got from living in Hawaii.
Two of the first things he did in office were: first, to restore U.S. funding for the U.N. Population Fund after eight years of no funding by the Bush administration, which was really important to support access to voluntary family planning around the world. Second, bringing the U.S. up to date in our dues to the U.N. itself. In so doing, President Obama restored U.S. leadership and standing at the U.N., and he helped show that the U.N. is a strategic value to U.S. national interests.
Q: Given the state’s proximity to Asia, does the U.N. Foundation consider people in Hawaii at a higher risk of contracting tropical diseases?
A: Given the amount of travel here and the amount of people who come here to live and to work — your proximity to Asia — there is greater vulnerability to the importation of diseases. We’ve seen movies and kind of know about it, but people sometimes forget that vaccines can prevent most of these diseases. We’ve wiped out one disease — smallpox — and we’re really close to wiping out a second disease in the whole world: polio.
There are three countries left with the disease. That’s a huge accomplishment. The remaining countries are Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are challenges in communicating in those countries with all the conflicts going on. That’s a huge achievement for the world.
As important as we and the U.N. believe the effort to vaccinate against infectious diseases is, increasingly the World Health Organization is also focusing on the increase in chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and others that are becoming as prevalent in the developing world as they are in the developed world.
Certainly there is a school of thought that public health is a major indicator of a country’s overall security. We cannot have a healthy economy without a healthy population.
Q: What are some new and emerging trends in international development?
A: The global awareness trend. We in particular are seeing young people be much more aware of the situation for young people around the world. Nothing but Nets allows young people to donate $10 to send a bed net to Africa to save children and mothers from malaria. The Girl Up campaign activates teen girls in this country to care about the issues facing girls around the world: being in school, access to health care, being safe from violence. We’re seeing a huge increase in activism from young people who want to be an advocate on these issues, contribute money and share information with others. I’m sure it’s happening in Hawaii. Young people are more aware of the world we’re living in and want to do something about it.
For more information on the U.N.’s global initiatives, contact the United Nations Association, Honolulu chapter, at info@unausahawaii.org, visit www.unausahawaii.org or call 387-7271.
