AMERICAN COUNCIL for the UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY
The American Council for the United Nations University is a U.S. non-profit
(501)(c)(3) organization that provides a point of contact between Americans
and the primary research organ of the UN
- the United Nations University (UNU)
- which can focus intellectual resources from all nations on world problems.
Having scholars on its governing council rather than nations and funding
much of its programs through an endowment helps ensure academic autonomy.
This post-graduate research and training institution does not
have professors or students. Instead, the UNU is a world-wide network of
scholars whose purpose is to develop options for the solution of problems
that require truly international collaboration. Founded in 1973, it commenced
operations from its headquarters in Tokyo in 1975 and moved into its permanent
heaquarters in 1993 and has become U.N.'s primary instrument for the promotion
of international scholarly cooperation. It has:
Established the only truly international network of scholars and programs
for food and nutrition and publishes a journal focusing on developing countries.
This program sets international food composition research standards and
developed the basis for new nutritional standards in protein and caloric
requirements, which should lead to improvements in agriculture policy and
health. Its program director received the World Food Prize in 1991;
Established the World Institute for Development Economics Research in Finland,
Institute for New Technologies in the Netherlands, International Institute
for Software Technology in Macau, and Institute for Natural Resources in
Africa located in Ghana with a unit in Zambia, and Biotechnology in Latin
America located in Venezuela. Considerable progress has been made in the
establishment of UNU Centers on Global Environment and Health, Advanced
Studies, Culture and Development, Governance, and Ocean Affairs and Marine
Science;
Initiated the development of a global network of scholars and scientists
to formulate and advance the state-of-the-art in human responses to global
environmental change;
Stimulated a rapid increase in Japanese aid commitments by a study of the
relationship between Third World development and the Government of Japan's
payments surplus, as well as an increase of Japan's pledge for debt reduction
by a study on Third World debt reduction. It has also fielded teams in
Eastern Europe and Russia for intensive economic and policy studies;
Created hazards maps of Asian highlands that will contribute to controlling
floods such as those that have devastated Bangladesh;
Produced new knowledge, concepts and fields such as geophysiology and the
intergenerational legal principle, as well as producing 300 books and five
international journals;and
Supported 1,100 research fellows from 99 countries at 171institutions around
the world, plus another 2000 participants for training in various areas
of study.
The AC/UNU is THE non-profit organization (501)(c)(3) that helps support
the UNU in the U.S. It:
Helps connect American graduate research with UNU's programs around the
world;
Produces a newsletter sharing UNU's research in nutrition, technology,
economic development, software, natural resources, biotechnology, and futures
research.
It announces new projects, books, conferences, and research reports;
Provides speakers on UNU's research and programs;
Offers non-paid internships (usually for college credit) in the work of
the AC/UNU;
Responds to individual American inquiries for UNU's research;
Promotes the independence of the UNU as an academically free institution;
Gives general support in the United States for the UNU and its permanent
Institutes around the world: World Institute for Development Economics
Research (UNU/WIDER) in Helsinki, Finland; Institute for New Technologies
in Maastricht, The Netherlands (UNU/INTECH); International Institute for
Software Technology in Macau (UNU/IIST); Institute for Advance Study (UNU/IAS)
in Tokyo, Japan, Institute for Natural Resources in Africa in Accra, Ghana
(UNU/INRA); and Biotechnology for Latin America and The Caribbean in Caracas,
Venezuela (UNU/BIOLAC).
Coordinates the AC/UNU/Millennium
Project, a decentralized global network of over 500 futurists and scholars
from 50 countreis to assist in organizing futures research to continuously
up-date and improve humanity's thinking about the future, and make that
thinking available through a variety of media for consideration in public
policy, advanced training, public education, and systematic feedback.
The American Council for the United Nations University invites you to become
an Associate Member of the AC/UNU. Associate Members receive UNU annual
reports, UNU's Work in Progress, AC/UNU Newsletter, book catalogs, and
other UNU documents depending on the interests you indicate .
For further information, contact the executive director, Jerome
C. Glenn.
AC/UNU
Board
