By Kul Chandra Gautam
The writer is a former UN assistant secretary general and deputy executive director of UNICEF.
KATHMANDU | 26 September 2024 (IDN) — Ever since UNICEF’s legendary Executive Director Jim Grant passed away in January 1995, I have had a dream that UNICEF, ideally, or some other organization, would establish a prestigious award to honour and continue his great legacy.
I am thrilled to advise that after nearly 30 years, that dream is now coming to fruition.
On 24 September 2024, a US private philanthropic organization, the Eleanor Crook Foundation announced the establishment of The James P Grant Award for Child Survival at the 2024 Annual Concordia Summit held in parallel with the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The Eleanor Crook Foundation (ECF) works to scale up improved solutions to end childhood malnutrition by deploying the power of research, policy analysis, and advocacy, with the ultimate goal of saving children’s lives and enabling them to excel in school, work, and beyond.
ECF was founded in 1997 by a Texas-based philanthropic couple, William and Eleonor Crook. Mr. Crook, a highly successful entrepreneur, was part of US President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty programs, who served as the national director of AmeriCorps VISTA, and later as the U.S. Ambassador to Australia. Eleonor Crook is deeply committed to child survival and combatting malnutrition. Her single vision is to see that in a world of plenty, every mother should be able to nourish her children.
The background to this Jim Grant Award for Child Survival and my interest and advocacy for it goes all the way back to 1995.
Old-timers among UNICEF colleagues might recall that at the UNICEF Executive Board in May 1995, Prof. Ihsan Dogramaci of Turkey was given UNICEF’s highest award, the Maurice Pate Award, which was initially established from the proceeds of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to UNICEF in 1965. Dogramaci, a distinguished pediatrician and a statesman, had been the longest-serving member and a former Chairman of UNICEF Executive Board. He had worked closely with all the early UNICEF Executive Directors, including Maurice Pate, Harry Labouisse and especially Jim Grant.
In his heartfelt acceptance speech of the Maurice Pate Award, Dogramaci referred to his long-standing partnership with Jim Grant who had passed away only a few months earlier. At the end of his remarks, while thanking UNICEF for the Award, he announced that he was giving back the $25,000 award money to UNICEF with the proposal that UNICEF use it to establish a “Jim Grant Award for Child Survival and Development”. He further mentioned that he was prepared to make an additional personal contribution should such an award be established. He even added that the Government of Turkey might also make a contribution to the Award recognizing Mr. Grant’s special professional affinity with Turkey.
Given other urgent preoccupations, UNICEF never established the Jim Grant Award, and the funds returned by Dogramaci remained in UNICEF’s custody. No action was taken by successive Executive Directors to follow up on Dogramaci’s proposal, despite my gentle cajoling.
After my retirement, I resurrected the proposal in 2020 and shared a concept paper with ED Henrietta Fore. If UNICEF alone could not fund or manage such an award, I suggested that it could join hands with some other organizations to establish the Jim Grant Award. Among others, I specifically had in mind RESULTS.org as it is deeply committed to JPG’s legacy and had played a major role in helping UNICEF mobilize bi-partisan Congressional support in the US as well as in Canada, UK, Australia and elsewhere for the child survival and development revolution in the 1980s, and in generating strong public support for the historic World Summit for Children in 1990.
Much to my surprise and delight, the idea of perpetuating JPG’s legacy through an award re-emerged recently and has now gained traction.
Working closely with members of Jim Grant’s family, RESULTS.org, and other friends of JPG, the Eleanor Crook Foundation organized a panel discussion on: “Building on a Legacy of Child Survival” at the 2024 Concordia Summit that is held in parallel with the UN General Assembly.
Along with Jim Grant’s daughter-in-law Marea Hatziolos Grant and UNICEF’s Director of Health Helga Fogstad, I was a speaker at that panel discussion.
At the end of the discussion, the Eleonor Crook Foundation and the Grant Family announced the creation of the James P Grant Child Survival Award.
The details of the award, including the selection criteria and process, are yet to be determined. ECF is reaching out to friends and admirers of JPG for suggestions. However, it has been announced that the inaugural James P. Grant Award will be presented to an individual or an organization in 2025. It is my fervent hope that UNICEF will step up to co-sponsor the award. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo source: @EleanorCrookFdn
