Non-governmental organizations

The Department of Public Information has associated 11 new non-governmental organizations, bringing the total number of such organizations that work with the Department to 1,597, after the 16 March first biannual meeting of its Non-Governmental Organizations Committee, which approves the applications for association.

The fourth and final round table of the sixty-third annual DPI/NGO Conference wrapped up today with a show of overwhelming support for what the Chair of the Conference has called “the people’s document”.

Amid broad agreement that profound disparities in health and life expectancy between the citizens of developed and developing nations were wide and entrenched, a distinguished panel today debated the equity of the Millennium Development Goals for the poorest and most marginalized in society, as the sixty-third annual DPI/NGO Conference entered its second day.

With the advantages of pooling efforts to create a unified and effective governance system for global health gaining traction, the DPI/NGO Conference today examined this concept in the context of strengthening an integrated and systems approach to achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals.

“Advancing global health is essential to the Millennium Development Goals, and you are essential to advancing global health,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon via video message, thanking the 1,200 non-governmental organizations representatives in attendance at the sixty-third annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

Broad agreement emerged this afternoon during a round table discussion at the Australia DPI/NGO Conference that non-governmental organizations were uniquely positioned to confront the intractable challenges to global health; but while they increasingly filled gaps around the world, they could not fill those alone.

As planning for the United Nations Sixty-Third DPI/NGO Conference continues apace, registration numbers are presently higher than in previous years and attention is now focused on the programme for this flagship United Nations-non-governmental organization event, which, this time, has set for itself the twin goal of galvanizing support for improving global health and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

On 30 June, at the first biannual meeting of the Non-Governmental Organizations Committee, 62 non-governmental organizations were associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Kiyo Akasaka, and Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, have jointly announced that the sixty-third United Nations Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organization (DPI/NGO) Conference will be held in Melbourne, Australia, from 30 August to 1 September 2010.

The Department of Public Information’s (DPI) Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations decided this month to accept the applications of 31 NGOs to be associated with the Department, bringing to 1,549 the total number of officially affiliated groups.