Thirteen Non-Governmental Organizations Newly Approved for Association

 

with United Nations Department of Public Information

 

Thirteen Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) were approved for association with the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) at the second biannual meeting of the DPI/NGO Committee, held in New York on 18 August.

According to Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division in the Department of Public Information and Chair of the DPI Committee on NGOs, the majority of the newly associated non-governmental organizations were from Europe, where the Sixty-Fourth Annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference will take place, from 3 to 5 September.  He added that “the newly associated NGOs cover a wide range of issues including environment, sustainable development, women’s issues, democracy, and poverty”.

The Sixty-Fourth Annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference, entitled “Sustainable Societies; Responsive Citizens”, will take place in Bonn, Germany.  As a result, interest from NGOs in Eastern and Western Europe has intensified.  The United Nations Information Centres and United Nations agencies, such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), have played a key role by encouraging participation in the Annual Conference and partnership with the Department of Public Information.

The annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference was held in Paris in 2008, in Mexico City in 2009 and in Melbourne, Australia, in 2010.  All previous 60 annual Conferences were held at United Nations Headquarters in New York.  Taking the annual Conference to other regions of the world has increased the geographic diversity of non-governmental organizations affiliated with the Public Information Department, particularly as the Department now gives priority for association to organizations based in the region where the Conference is held.

Following is the list of the newly associated non-governmental organizations:

Access to Information Programme Foundation (AIP) (Bulgaria); Balkan Assist Association (Bulgaria); Biovision – Foundation for Ecological Development (Switzerland); International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges (IAAI) (Austria); Island Child Charitable Trust (New Zealand); Lebendige Kommunikation mit Frauen in ihren Kulturen (LebKom) (Germany); Meeting Per L’Amicizia Fra I Popoli/Meeting for Friendship amongst Peoples (Rimini Meeting) (Italy); Open Society Institute – Sofia (OSI) (Bulgaria); Partners Albania, Center for Change and Conflict Management (Albania); Ratiu Foundation for Democracy/Ratiu Center for Democracy (Romania); Refleksione Association (Albania); UN Women National Committee (Germany); Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) (Bangladesh).

A key requirement for association with the Department of Public Information is regular contact with the Department.  After an extensive evaluation process, the NGO Relations office identified a number of such organizations that have not made any contact with the Department since 2008.  Based on these findings, the DPI Committee on NGOs agreed to disassociate those organizations that did not meet the criteria.  A total of 322 non-governmental organizations were formally disassociated from the Department of Public Information.  (List of disassociated NGOs.)

The Committee also determined that disassociated non-governmental organizations may reapply for association one year from the date of their disassociation.

For more information about the DPI/NGO Relations section, or to apply for association with the Department of Public Information, please visit the website at www.un.org/dpi/ngosection, or contact DPI/NGO Relations, tel.: +1 212 963 5320, e‑mail:  dpingo@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record