Public information

The United Nations issued the sixty-third volume of Yearbook of the United Nations, covering the Organization’s global activities in 2009.

The new, multilingual version of the popular iPhone app “The United Nations Calendar of Observances: Making a Difference” is now available for free.

The United Nations Academic Impact and ELS Educational Services are organizing an international essay-writing contest for college and university students on the role of multilingualism in a globalized world. A requirement for all participants is that their essay be in an official United Nations language which is not their mother tongue or medium of educational instruction.

The membership of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the Internet Governance Forum has been renewed. The main task of the Advisory Group is to provide advice on the preparations for the next meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, which will be held in Bali, Indonesia, from 22 to 25 October.

Concluding its two-week annual session this afternoon, the Committee on Information emphasized that public information and communications should be at the heart of the United Nations’ strategic management, with a “culture of communications and transparency” permeating all levels so the Organization could best promote an informed understanding of its work among people around the world.

The United Nations’ Department of Public Information must perform a balancing act in expanding multilingual coverage of issues within the existing financial and human resources and finding the right mix of traditional and new media to tackle emerging communication challenges, delegates told the Committee on Information today as it concluded its general debate.

Through new media, multilingual information platforms, and stronger partnerships with Member States, the Department of Public Information was conveying the United Nations’ message to global audiences in a more cost-effective and coordinated way, its senior communications official told the Committee on Information as it opened its annual session this morning.

The thirty-fifth annual session of the Committee on Information, the intergovernmental body charged with reviewing progress in the field of United Nations public information, will take place at Headquarters from 22 April to 2 May.

United Nations Publications released today the first ever edition of United Nations at a Glance, a simple guide that provides a starting point for readers who are new to the Organization. Conceived as an educational resource and illustrated with photos and real-life stories from the field, United Nations at a Glance delves into the work of the Organization in the areas of international peace and security, economic and social development, human rights and humanitarian action.

A new iPhone app developed by the United Nations Department of Public Information with a team of United Nations online volunteers is now downloadable for free. Illustrating the breadth of activities of the United Nations system around the world, the UN Calendar of Observances app uses the international days as a basis to show users, through photos, videos and weblinks, what the United Nations does.