The Julia V. Taft Award

The Julia V. Taft Award is presented annually by a panel of prominent private citizen and development expertsformerly constituting the US Committee for UNDPto a UNDP Country Office that has demonstrated the impact of teamwork to build a more democratic, prosperous, peaceful, and secure world in a particularly challenging location.

The award was established in 2009 in memory of Julia Taft, an active member of the US Committee before her untimely death from cancer in 2008.

A leading authority on humanitarian and international development issues, Julia Taft served as the Assistant Administrator and Director in the Bureau of Crisis Prevention & Recovery at UNDP from 2001-2004. She served as Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, & Migration at the US State Department from 1997-2001, and as president and CEO of InterAction from 1993-1997. She also served as USAID Director of the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance.

Throughout her distinguished career, Julia demonstrated strategic vision, decisive leadership, and immense humanity in dealing with issues that affect the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.

The Julia V. Taft award was presented to the UNDP Country Office in Sudan in 2009, the UNDP Country Office in Haiti in 2010, the UNDP Country Office in Afghanistan in 2011, and the UNDP Country Office in Tunisia in 2012.


Will Taft introduces the UNDP-USA Julia Taft Award. April 28, 2009 at the House of Sweden in Washington DC. Photo by Liz Lynch.