Voices about the Foundation

Brian Urquhart, former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

Dag Hammarskjöld would have been delighted with the very effective and innovative work the Foundation does, especially in two areas that greatly concerned him – international organisation and the problems of developing countries.

From the article “A Model of Openness”, in:
The Courier. The magazine of Africa, Caribbean,
Pacific & European Union Corporation and Relations, no. 11/May-June 2009

Dag Hammarskjöld’s spirit impregnates every action that the foundation leads today.

Tariq Banuri, Stockholm Environment Institute, SEI

I would want the organization to continue to be at the cutting edge of thinking, of doing what the mainstream would recognize only years or decades later and generally without any acknowledgment of the debt owed to those who thought these thoughts when they were not popular.
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Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, IPS

I know that there are many institutions around the world, research-based and otherwise, that claim to root their work in UN history.  But in my experience the DHF remains one of the few to remain true to the real vision and commitments of the UN Charter, making possible an extraordinary realization of Hammarskjöld’s own vision for a UN “of the peoples,” not simply a multi-lateral meeting place for governments.
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Carlos Lopes, UN Assistant Secretary-General
and Executive Director of UNITAR, 10 June 2010

Any link a UN servant can have with Dag Hammarskjöld is a privilege. On the occasion of this visit to the Foundation it is a pleasant and important opportunity to reinforce his message.

Joanna Kerr, Executive Director, AWID, Canada

The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation has thousands of supporters that hope it can continue to do such ground-breaking work across issues, social movements and sectors.
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Larry Lohmann, Cornerhouse, UK

Only by keeping itself from being tied down in intellectual bureaucracy has the Foundation been able to bring practitioners and activists together with experts of all kinds in such a catalysing way, and to respond flexibly and quickly to global change as it is happening.
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Manfred Max-Neef, Former Vice-chancellor, Southern University of Chile

The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, far from being just a Swedish Institution, has become, over several decades, one of the worlds most important and inspiring initiatives in the quest for true and authentic human development in the more vulnerable areas of the world.
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Thimna Bunte, MA student at Uppsala University, June 2010

I very much enjoyed and appreciated the atmosphere with you – a mixture of inspiring and challenging intellectual discussions and friendly personal conversations. Thank you for all your support to Pax et bellum and students in general and the many things we learn from you – they mean a lot to us!

Kris Weeerasuriya, Sri Lanka
WHO Regional office, New Delhi, India

A Cactus Growing in Winter… At the last meeting in DHF in February 2006 I saw a cactus growing inside the centre near the staircase, while it snowed outside; this to me was the balance that DHF had achieved in it’s activities in the developing world and to especially to us professionals in that world.
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