United Nations Celebrity Advocacy United Nations, October 23, 2000.
	6 Milliarden--betrifft uns das?
	About SWI...

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan invited for the first time ever all of the UN Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace to Headquarters to acknowledge their contribution to the organization's work and to discuss ways of raising public awareness of and support for UN goals and activities. The attendance of 18 UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors far surpassed the celebrity participation level of any other UN organization. During a public forum led by television journalist Riz Khan of CNN, UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors shared their experiences and concerns along with other celebrity UN advocates including boxing champion Muhammed Ali, singers Harry Belafonte and Enrico Macias, football player Luis "Ronaldo" Nazario de Lima, and actors Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover and Mia Farrow.

The Secretary-General paid tribute to and thanked all of the Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace for responding so generously to the UN calls for help. But he also asked the celebrity advocates to think about how they can do more in the future to the make the UN better understood and better supported by the world's peoples.

"Whenever you [Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace] put your name to a message, you raise awareness far and wide, among policymakers and among the millions of people who elect them. The chances of breaking through the barrier of indifference are vastly improved when we have people like you to plead our cause."

Following the United Nations event, the UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors attended a reception hosted by Dr. Nafis Sadik. Afterward, New York Public relations firm Moxxe International invited all United Nations Messngers of Peace and Goodwill Ambassadors to Club One 51.

1. Developing and distributing educational demographic teaching materials... SWI has recently completed its second package of teaching material to be used in Austrian secondary schools with the help of a Face to Face Campaign grant. The main component of the package is a 30-page brochure titled: "6 Billion--are we concerned?" The educational materials are targeted at 15- to 18-year-old students. "6 Billion--are we concerned?" is an interdisciplinary approach to examining the factors contributing to population growth and makes connections with other social trends. To aid the Austrian students in their study of population, SWI's materials contain numerous diagrams and tables providing an overview about demographic developments in past and future projections. A glossary explains all terms and a detailed discussion guide helps to facilitate classroom and peer-to-peer conversation. Students are invited to reflect in their own life situations and to empathize with young people living in other countries under much different circumstances. The Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Research and Culture distributed the "6 Billion--are we concerned?" materials to all secondary schools in Austria. In addition to the brochure, the Ministry included an insert recommending SWI's teaching materials and stressing the importance of population growth related issues. Within a few days of receipt of the SWI materials, a number of Austrian secondary schoolteachers began requesting further information. This positive response has motivated SWI to create an award for the population projects carried out by students.

2. Spreading research-based information... As a direct result of the population educational materials program, SWI has been selected as an adviser for developing an intercultural teaching program on global learning. Although closely linked to existing high school subjects such as geography and social studies, demography is still often considered too narrow and too technical for secondary-school students. There is also a growing recognition that teachers themselves need further training in development and population issues. SWI will present teachers with research-based knowledge in training workshops to increase their interest in teaching demography to their students.

3. Informing opinion leaders and decisionmakers... SWI invited UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador Mpule Kwelagobe to Vienna for a round-table discussion with representatives from the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNIFEM, AIDS Hilfe Wien and the umbrella organization for development-assistance NGOs. Ms. Kwelagobe happened to be in the region at the time visiting with DSW and DSW helped with the Austrian arrangements. SWI also succeeded in securing a reception in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs with the Minister herself, Benita Ferrero-Waldner. The Minister--who was deeply impressed and moved by SWI's mission and Ms. Kwelagobe's commitment--signed a check for over a half of a million Austrian Schillings (approximately US$31,000) as a donation for UNFPA HIV/AIDS projects.

While all of the above-mentioned programs, activities and results reflect the hard work and dedication of Ms. Plichta and SWI, they also illustrate how project collaboration and resource sharing among Face to Face Campaign Partners and Celebrity Spokespersons really pays off.

World population growth and related issues--such as reproductive health, family planning and the interdependence between population and sustainable development--have not been clearly recognized as a common concern in Austria so far. Due to idealogical reservations and common indifference toward upcoming problems related to world population growth, these issues have hardly been discussed in public. World population growth issues are viewed as a taboo subject and therefore are either ignored or kept low-key.

Austria, unfortunately, donates a disproportionately small amount to population aid and the Cairo follow-up process. With the support of the Hewlett Foundation, the German World Population Foundation (DSW) helped to establish the Austrian Foundation for World Population and International Cooperation (SWI). The idea dated back to 1995, when members of the DSW started to think about similiar foundations in other German speaking countries in order to raise awareness for world population related issues and to help organize joint operations and mobilize resources for the Cairo Programme of Action.

Since its establishment in early 1999, SWI has made significant progress in reframing the public discussion of world population growth and related demographic and social issues. Under the management of Ms. Ulrike Plichta, SWI awareness-building initiatives have led to a remarkable public debate about the marginal role of Austria's ODA for bilateral and multilateral reproductive health programs. SWI acts as an information pool for journalists, teachers, educational institutions and decision-makers as well as for the general public.