$1 Billion and 20 Years Later, What’s Next for Global Aid

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Two decades ago, I believed that one of the most audacious experiments of the 20th century — that all nations could unite behind a common purpose — needed some love. So after I pledged $1 billion — one-third of my wealth — to United Nations causes, is the world now where I want it to be? To be frank: No.

But am I discouraged? No way. As I look back on the past 20 years since I started the United Nations Foundation, I still consider my philanthropy to support the UN to be the best investment I ever made.

You won’t find it on cable news today, but one of the biggest stories right now is how the world is getting better. We’re living in the healthiest, most peaceful, and most prosperous time in human history.

Millions of children who would have been lost to diseases like measles and malaria 20 years ago are now thriving. Clean energy sources like wind and solar are no longer some far-off hope for the future — they’re cost competitive with fossil fuels now. And trends are changing so that fewer girls are becoming child brides and more girls are becoming students.

Despite the headway we’ve made, I’m not naïve about the current state of the world. When it comes to how we treat one another and the planet, we have a lot more work to do.

Here are three areas where we can and should step it up:

Support collective action.

We are not a world of foreigners; we are a world of neighbors whose fates and futures are connected. It’s simple: Divided we fall, united we rise. The only way we’re going to conquer obstacles now or in the future is to embrace our common humanity and work together.

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I believe as strongly as ever that the United Nations is where this happens.

It is often said that if the UN didn’t exist, we would have to create it. It just makes sense to have a place to represent all people, where countries can exchange words instead of wage war.

While the UN deals with the world as it is, it also pushes us toward the world we want. And with visionary leaders, including Secretaries-General António Guterres, Ban Ki-moon, and the late Kofi Annan, the UN continues to reform, innovate, and mobilize collective action toward a better world.

Take the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris agreement on climate change, for example. These landmark agreements set shared plans of action — for all countries and for businesses, nonprofits, and other spheres — to end poverty, reduce inequalities, and protect the planet.

Or look at the UN’s humanitarian work providing food, shelter, and medicine to tens of millions of people in their hour of greatest need; or its work supporting free and fair elections, stabilizing communities through peacekeeping, and monitoring human-rights abuses.

The UN is not just a place for governments but for “we the peoples,” as laid out in the UN Charter. And each of us can support the UN to help people and the planet. That’s what the UN Foundation is all about.

Instead of solely writing checks, we’ve focused on enlisting others to join the UN’s fight to help the world’s most vulnerable people. We’ve built the largest-ever network of U.S. supporters of the UN — all kinds of people, including basketball players, bloggers, students, and CEOs. The UN has been an eager partner in this experiment, opening its doors to collaboration.

In the years ahead, I hope more people will join the UN Foundation in its work. I especially hope Americans will answer this call.

Support U.S. leadership globally.

It’s been disappointing to read headline after headline about the United States “withdrawing” from this or that international effort.

When we walk away from the international stage, it leaves a vacuum in the world, and it leaves our country isolated and in a weaker position. If America wants to advance our interests and values, and if Americans want to continue building a better world, we cannot do it alone.

Today’s biggest issues — climate change, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and more — aren’t confined by borders. They are global in scope and must be global in response. Our country is stronger — and the world is better off — when America partners with others and leads on the international stage. That’s why a key part of the UN Foundation’s work has been to educate and engage Americans, including policy makers in Washington.

The silver lining these days is that even as our government steps back, more and more cities, businesses, and everyday Americans are stepping forward.

I’m especially heartened that so many young people are standing up for U.S. leadership in the world. In fact, new polling from the UN Foundation finds that the majority of millennials and Generation Z believe in international cooperation and diplomacy. And the United Nations Association of the U.S.A. has college chapters in nearly every state.

Given what’s at stake, we need more American voices sending the message that the United States is stronger when we engage with the world.

Go big on big problems.

Just because an issue is tough to solve doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. In fact, it’s reason to engage a wide range of people to find solutions.

The biggest threats to humanity today — aforementioned climate change, nuclear proliferation, gender inequality, and poverty, among others — don’t have simple solutions or they would already be fixed. We have to try to figure them out, though, not only because it’s the right thing to do but also because history tells us that progress is possible when we act. We live in an era of astounding technologies, resources, and knowledge; now we need the will.

We don’t have the luxury of time to waste on despair, doubt, and division. We need to act now. And we need to act together. As my good friend, the late, great Kofi Annan, said, “More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together.”

Ted Turner founded CNN and the United Nations Foundation.