PRESS BRIEFING ON NEW UN WEB SITE

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON NEW UN WEB SITE

A new United Nations Web site -- www.un.org/partners -- which will enable non-governmental organizations and the private sector to access the Organization's programmes was formally launched at Thursday's noon briefing. (See also Press Release PI/1113 issued today.)

Ms. Denise O'Brien, a private sector expert who helped design the Web site, told correspondents that small businesses had been interacting with the United Nations, and that the Secretariat was doing all it could to provide them with the services they needed. Referring to the contributions that civil society was making, she said the adoption of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Ottawa Convention) would not have been achieved so early, but for their activities. She said figures on direct foreign investments, which were outstripping those of official development assistance, showed the magnitude of the impact civil society was having in the world.

Ms. O'Brien said that the Secretary-General had been approached on numerous occasions during his travels by people who wanted to know how they could participate in United Nations programmes and projects. They invariably did not know how to seek the information they required. That was why the Web site had been designed -- to respond to that need. She hoped that the Web site would provide a channel to facilitate the participation of all the different groups within the United Nations system.

Ms. O'Brien used a video to show the arrangements and practices posted on the Web site for the interaction of non-governmental organizations. The business part of the Web site was designed to function as an enterprise liaison service. About 22 United Nations funds and programmes were participating, as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The World Trade Organization was making a special appearance on the business Web site. The site should provide the business community with a "one-stop shop" facility to find out what the Secretary-General had been saying about the need for dialogue between the business community, civil society at large and the United Nations.

A correspondent commented that many countries had been left behind by globalization and advances in technology and wondered how they could benefit from the new Web site. Ms. O'Brien said technology was helping bring them on board. She said computer technology was helping Palestinian refugees to establish businesses. More and more computer centres were being established in communities around the world, and that could be one way of reaching those without individual computers.

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