World Solidarity Fund

United Nations General Assembly Creates World Solidarity Fund

New York, 20 December 2002- Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), expressed today hisenthusiastic support for the creation of the World Solidarity Fund by the General Assembly.

The World Solidarity Fund is modeled on the National Solidarity Fund that was set up in Tunisia by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, "In a few short years, the Tunisian National Solidarity Fund helped reduce poverty to around four percent," said the Administrator. "I am delighted that the United Nations has
decided to scale up this innovative mechanism at the world level."

The General Assembly had been discussing the World Solidarity Fund for some time. Perhaps the most important event in the creation of the Fund was the publication by the Secretary-General of a report, this fall, that set his vision of how such a Fund should operate. The issue was then taken up at the World
Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, when governments unanimously decided to create the Fund. Today's resolution of the General Assembly is the culmination of this process.

"We see the World Solidarity Fund as an innovative mechanism that will support national development efforts with the energy of community-based organizations, the commitment of individuals, and the vibrancy of the private sector," said the Administrator. "We certainly hope that the Fund will be well
endowed, and look forward, in UNDP, to making full use of this instrument of world solidarity as we move to implement the Millennium Development Goals, especially the overarching goal on halving poverty by 2015," he added. The Administrator concluded, "On behalf of all of us, working to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals, I want to thank the Government of Tunisia for pioneering this important initiative. I look forward to their continuing support to our efforts so that, one day, all countries can point to an impressive record in the struggle to end poverty."

Source: www.undp.org

Related Story : Top UN development official welcomes creation of global anti-poverty fund