Full text of the Keynote Message delivered by UNFPA Country Representative Klaus Beck at the launch of Rafael M. Salas Lecture Series on Population and Development at University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City, the hometown of Mr. Salas, the Filipino who was the first to head UNFPA from its creation in 1969 until his untimely death in 1987.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning!

I am pleased to be here with you today for the launching of this lecture series on population and development in honor of Rafael Montinola Salas, or, to those who knew him, simply Paeng.

When I received the invitation from the Institute for Negros Development of the University of St. La Salle, I recognized what a fantastic opportunity it would be to speak about leadership and population in honor of Mr. Salas.

At the same time I was quite uneasy and apprehensive about accepting the invitation as I am keenly aware that I am not going to be able to do nearly enough justice to his legacy. I am neither a Filipino - nor did I unfortunately ever have the opportunity to meet Mr. Salas – and I am only at the very beginning of my road to discovery of Mr. Salas life and legacy. I therefore most apologize in advance for any shortcomings in my statement this morning.

Nevertheless, however inadequate I felt, I decided to accept the invitation. I did so out of a deep personal and institutional sense of gratitude to Mr. Salas and his family represented here today by his widow, Carmelita Rodriguez Salas, for the difference in the lives of so many that he was able to make – and may I add, continues to make – around the world.

I deliberately say continues to make as I know from reading about Mr. Salas, from reading Mr. Salas’ own writings, and from speaking with people who knew him, that Mr. Salas’ legacy is very much alive to this day.

Unfortunately this is, however, not nearly recognized enough – not here in the Philippines and not outside of the Philippines. Fewer and fewer people working in the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) which I come from has ever heard of Mr. Salas. Even fewer understand how UNFPA today was shaped by and is a product of Mr. Salas’ legacy.

Although I cannot say for sure, I also suspect that unfortunately few young Filipinos today has ever heard about Mr. Salas. Bacolod, where we are today, perhaps being one of the only exceptions to this.

One could say that it may be somewhat logical as 27 years have passed since Mr. Salas’ untimely death. After all, more than half of the Filipinos today were born after his death. Similarly most staff working for UNFPA today joined the organization after 1987. 

However, just because something may be logical does not mean that it is right. It also does not mean that we should not try to change it. UNFPA Philippines is committed to do whatever it can to ensure that younger generations, especially here in the Philippines, become more familiar with Mr. Salas’ work and legacy. It is our hope that some of them, hopefully some of you here today, become inspired to follow in his footsteps and to learn more about Mr. Salas life and work. This is why I am here today.

Former President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, in his foreword to Mr. Salas’ book Population: Conflict to Consensus, illustrates how Mr. Population’s work remains relevant today:

“As the new millennium dawns, we look to men like Mr. Salas who have helped to shape the future by what they did in the past. It is important that such work is reinforced and solidified. We must forge ahead to have a future free of the mistakes of the past.”

In my statement today I will be touching upon how Mr. Salas helped shape the future that is today and will come tomorrow and the lasting contributions he made on leadership and population during his life.

My lecture touches on three leadership themes using UNFPA and the population field as the example:

1.     Organizational growth and development;

2.     Coalition and consensus building;

3.     Leadership by and for young people.

Organizational Growth and Development

When Mr. Salas accepted the offer to serve as Executive Director for UNFPA – riding on his experience in successfully making the Philippines a rice-sufficient country despite having runaway population growth – he thought it was about time that the UN took part in addressing the seriousness of the world’s population problem. This, amidst debates on whether governments should start acting on population problems or prioritize economic and social programmes. Mr. Salas believed these two are complementary, and that a separate fund for population activities would provide a mechanism for countries that seek support and wish to support population programmes.

Thus, the involvement of the United Nations in population programmes and family planning started, recognizing different situations prevailing in different countries.

Starting in a small office at the UN Headquarters with one professional officer and three clerks is quite telling that the Fund was off to a difficult start. In the account provided in the book, Population: Conflict to Consensus, Mr. Salas was faced with the daunting task of creating, virtually from scratch, a comprehensive global programme on population and family planning in the midst of continued controversy over what the Fund’s mandate should be and how the job should be done. Characteristically, Mr. Salas embraced the challenge.

It was during UNFPA’s formative years that Mr. Salas established that he was, indeed, the right person to lead the organization. He worked to make UNFPA an autonomous unit within the United Nations and gained the support of other UN agencies for it.

UNFPA, being a new agency, did not have a lot of resources when it started. Mr. Salas embarked on a fund-raising effort. In 1970, the Fund’s first full year of operations, the agency only had a budget of $15 million – that’s just about the budget of a UNFPA country office today with medium-sized programme, such as UNFPA in the Philippines.

Of course, for a programme to create great impact in as many countries possible requires substantial resources. Mr. Salas reached out to donors, which by that time included countries from both the developed and developing world such as the United States, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, and Pakistan.

Mr. Salas’ diplomatic skills to woo heads of states worked. As a result of his relentless efforts to raise funds for the programme, by 1974, the total income was $57 million – three times more than what it had four years earlier. His staff had also grown to 86 people from 36 countries, with 21 field coordinators managing country programmes. Requests for help received by UNFPA from countries were overwhelming. By the same year, UNFPA had taken on 1,200 projects in 92 countries. Among the most significant projects was UNFPA’s support to communist Cuba to reduce its dependence on abortion by introducing family planning.

This would have been no easy feat given that population and development issues have never been the least controversial topics to work on.

Forty years on UNFPA’s annual income is almost $1 billion per year all of which is raised through annual voluntary contributions. Fundraising is part of UNFPA’s organizational culture as is our emphasis to get as many countries to contribute as possible regardless of the amount. After all giving money is the ultimate sign of support to the work of an organization. In 2007 182 countries provided funding to UNFPA. Mr. Salas was keenly aware of this.

Another great UNFPA leader, Nafis Sadik, who was part of Mr. Salas’ technical team in the early years of UNFPA and eventually took the reins of the organization after Mr. Salas’ death, has an explanation for Mr. Salas successful fund raising:

“One of Mr. Salas’ great achievements was to make funding for population programmes acceptable to both donors and recipients. His watchwords for UNFPA were neutrality, flexibility and responsiveness, and on that basis he increased UNFPA’s programming budget ten-fold in its first 10 years.”

Today, most countries of the world are still contributing funds to support UNFPA programmes at the global and country levels.

To be a great organization, financial resources is a pre-requisite, but even more so is human resources. Perhaps one of the lesser known and less documented aspects of Mr. Salas leadership was his ability to attract and retain talent, including young talent. Judging from the caliber of staff that he brought into UNFPA, such as its second Executive Director, Dr. Sadik, it must have been significant. Mr. Salas passion for population issues inspired those around him. Anyone that I have come across, who has personally known Mr. Salas speaks very highly of him and his leadership style.

For some specific insight into Mr. Salas own thinking on human resources allow me to quote from the book People: An International Choice in which he describes his thoughts about the staff he needed during the early days:

“I wanted, as far as possible, to assemble a young and vigorous staff who would above all be receptive to new ideas. In the Philippines, in managing the rather large number of people under my direct control and the larger mass of the civil service, I relied much on a group of young people who could work well both on the administrative and the political sides. The former were structured situations where there were explicit rules of conduct and superior-subordinate relationships; the latter, unstructured situations where the people with whom they were to deal were in no way under their control and thus where persuasive skills were the first requisite.”

In my view a realization and statement like this illustrates fantastic foresight and a deep understanding of what is required to manage an organization working on population issues. I can imagine that what Mr. Salas is describing is exactly the kind workplace that young people would like to work in, even more so today. An organization led by a strategic and visionary leader where there is room to innovate and contribute and where one is judged not by age or position but on what one does and the merits of ones ideas.

Coalition and Consensus Building

Mr. Salas made sure that he did not only have the support of his own staff. In fact, UNFPA was one of the first UN agencies to work heavily with non-government organizations, recognizing their role in the success of programme implementation.

Within the UN system, UNFPA pioneered working with parliamentarians and other lawmakers through Mr. Salas. He recognized the importance of ensuring that population and poverty linkages are integrated into national and local policies and development plans. Policy-makers were consulted at local, national and international levels. UNFPA also supported capacity-building for them through various modes, such as conferences and learning exchanges between countries.

UNFPA is still supporting this work today. For instance we are one of the few UN organizations who support regional and global conferences for parliamentarians. The most recent “International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action” took place this year in Sweden and was attended by more than 260 parliamentarians from 134 countries across 6 continents.

From his first day as UNFPA Executive Director, Mr. Salas carried with him three principles for international diplomacy: First is the sovereignty of countries over their population policies; second, individual freedom of choice in the number and spacing of children; and third, integration of population as part of development. These principles endeared him to world leaders, earning him the title of “Mr. Population” in the international community. To this date these principles are an integral part of UNFPA’s organizational culture.

Back home in the Philippines, when he realized that a population policy would have to be adopted by government, he recognized the position of the Catholic Church on family planning and sought to win the prelates’ approval before an Executive Order was prepared. Fourteen bishops came to his consultation meeting, which ended with them supporting the creation of the Commission on Population that will provide oversight role to the country’s population program.

I was not around at the advocacy for the Reproductive Health Bill, which took more than two decades of struggle, due in large part to the strong opposition from Catholic bishops and clergies. If Mr. Salas would have been around at that time, I would not be surprised if he did the same thing to bring the bishops to the discussion table. If so perhaps the passage of the RH bill could have been done in a shorter period of time?

Today in many places around the World, including in the Philippines, UNFPA supports programmes for local and religious leaders on reproductive health and family planning. We do not tell anyone what to think or what is right or wrong, but provide information and opportunities for exchange of ideas and discussions for instance between Muslim religious leaders in Indonesia and the Philippines. In many ways this is an extension of Mr. Salas three principles for international diplomacy.

Mr. Salas was an intellectual whose perceptions and insights were well-ahead of his time. Through sheer diplomacy, he was able to convince world leaders that the population issue is in itself a crucial development issue that impacts on all other development interventions such as for poverty, health, economic development, and the delivery of services.

Mr. Salas never flaunted his leadership, but preferred to share it with others. On many occasions, he showed how he was able to create an atmosphere of participatory management, with him preferring to serve as primus inter pares (or first among equals). Mr. Takeo Fukuda, former prime minister of Japan, in his foreword on a book about Mr. Salas, said:

“What is most striking about the life of Rafael Salas is that he touched people in so many different ways and brought together so many who would otherwise have remained apart. He brought together more developed and less developed countries helping them to become aware of the extent to which they share a common interest in population and development.”

Nafis Sadik, in her tribute to Mr. Salas, shared another insightful remark on his character:

“He made it his business to visit the head of state of every country in the United Nations. His great strength was that he had no ideology, nothing to sell. He didn’t join either side in the ‘population versus development’ debate – or rather, he ignored the controversy altogether. Instead, he would ask governments what they wanted from UNFPA. This was quite a novel approach on the part of an aid agency – in fact I sometimes think it still is – and it was highly successful.”

These strategies and principles of partnership, dialogue and coalition-building remain part of the framework by which all UNFPA country offices worldwide are implementing their programmes. Today, poverty-reduction plans of governments, such as the Millennium Development Goals, cover the rights-based agenda of the International Conference on Population and Development, or ICPD. UNFPA also continues to work in alliance with government, other development partners and civil society to marshal a broader base of resources and support for key population policies and programmes.

Clearly, Mr. Salas’ leadership set the trajectory for the Fund, and his strategy has withstood the test of time and still proves valuable 45 years later.

Leadership by and for young people

Mr. Salas himself was both a leader of young people and a young leader from early on in his life.

The leadership of Mr. Salas goes back to his younger years. After his illustrious stints as Student Council President in his high school and university years, Mr. Salas embarked on an exciting leadership path, mustering bright young students and intellectuals that helped bring to power two presidents: Ramon Magsaysay and Ferdinand Marcos.

It was during the time of President Magsaysay that Mr. Salas got the first taste of a high-level leadership role as a young person, having been designated Chairman of the Presidential Consultative Council on Youth. This role allowed him to attend Cabinet meetings and, thus, gave him the opportunity to see firsthand the inner workings of the high-level government bureaucracy.

Perhaps among his most concrete legacy, which is still very much alive today, is when he gathered a group of bright young lawyers, academics and university students who pooled their various expertise and skills to help make Mr. Ferdinand Marcos the country’s tenth president. Through Mr. Salas’ mentoring, this group, which was later known as the “Salas Boys”, excelled in their fields of work and eventually made their mark as Cabinet officials, private sector executives and academic gurus who, even today, are sought-after advisers and eminent persons in society.

They include, among others, former Supreme Court Justice Leo Quisumbing and the late Agrarian Reform Secretary Horacio “Boy” Morales, who was admired by many for his low key but effective public service. It would be a mistake not to also mention former Congressman Edcel Lagman, who aggressively championed the passage of the RH Bill at the House of Representatives for many years, together with many others including civil society advocate, Benjamin de Leon, former Executive Director of the Commission on Population and currently the President of the Forum for Family Planning and Development.

Former president Fidel V. Ramos, who was Salas’ UP high school classmate, once said, “the Salas Boys were the best and the brightest.”

From the description I made earlier on about the kind of staff that Mr. Salas was looking for when he took over UNFPA it is clear that he believed in and valued the contribution of young people.

Mr. Salas himself benefitted from such thinking as he became the Executive Director of UNFPA at a youthful age of just over 40 years. At that time, and even today, it is unusual for a Head of a United Nations organization to be that young. I cannot help, but reflect what he might have thought about UNFPA’s current emphasis on working with and supporting young people, especially young girls, which was initiated under our former Executive Director Dr. Thoraya Obaid and further emphasized and accelerated by our current Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin. Dr. Osotimehin is a tireless advocate for young people’s rights and place in development and has campaigned for a dedicate youth goal to be part of the post-MDG development agenda.

In the Philippines we have established a peer network for young people, called Y-Peer, which is led by young people themselves and also a Youth Advisory Panel that assist us with our work. During the last World Population Day on 11 July 2014 the theme was “Investing in Young People” which focused on education, jobs and rights of young people to reproductive health information and services. The event was organized and directed by young people. Perhaps Mr. Salas would have agreed with this? I would like to think so.

It is part of UNFPA’s organizational culture, it is part of our organizational DNA, to work directly with and support those that can make a difference in their own and in the lives of others, such as young people. I attribute this to Mr. Salas.

Conclusion

The early passing of Mr. Salas was a tragedy and a great loss for the Philippines and the World.

It has been 27 years, but I hope that today I have been able to illustrate a bit of how the legacy of Rafael Salas is very much alive, not just in the Philippines, but in UNFPA and the world at large.

Even the late Cardinal Jaime Lachica Sin, who, during his time as Manila Archbishop, I can imagine may have had some differences of opinion with Mr. Salas, acknowledged Mr. Salas’ skills. He said and I quote:

“Why must a man who could give so much, a man whose services and whose talents this country, nay the whole world, could have profited from so immensely, be so suddenly taken away?”

I am very thankful that we were able to gather here today to honor and keep the life and work of Mr. Salas alive amongst new generation.

On behalf of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, I congratulate the Institute for Negros Development of the University of St. La Salle for this valuable and laudable effort. We hope that this motivates many young people and future leaders to make their own impact in the World we and they live in.

Let me conclude my talk this morning with giving the final word to Mr. Salas, who in this haiku that he himself wrote, tells us of new beginnings. It is my hope that through my lecture today at least one of you present here will commence a new beginning and seizes the opportunity to learn more about Mr. Salas. I quote:

Above the rain clouds

The wing catches the sunset

On the rice fields below

Madamo nga salamat kag maayong aga!