General Assembly Managing change
Official Records
Fifty-fourth Session
Supplement No. 1 (A/54/1) Chapter VI
277. The creation of a new culture of communication within the United Nations is central to our preparations for meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. In pursuing this goal, the Department of Public Information is implementing a new outreach strategy, in partnership with organizations in civil society throughout the world. The aim is to find new ways to publicize United Nations activities and to highlight our successes. In support of this aim, the Department has worked during the year to promote greater openness and transparency by making more information more widely available, and by improving contact between United Nations officials and the world's media. At the same time, the United Nations programme for broadcasters and journalists from developing countries, which the Department sponsors and runs each year, is engaging younger generations of practitioners and helping to build networks of media professionals who can raise awareness of the work of the United Nations around the world.
278. The Department plans to improve the speed of delivery of United Nations news by initiating a Web-based United Nations News Service which will use e-mail to alert journalists to important news stories emanating from the Organization. Wherever possible, such news alerts will be tailored to the journalists' interests and will be linked to a United Nations News Centre on the home page which will provide greater details about each story outlined in the news alert. Tele- and videoconferencing press briefings by senior United Nations officials from Headquarters and other news-making sites will also help to bring United Nations news to the desks of reporters around the world. United Nations Information Centres will play a key role by gathering supplementary information from regional centres and monitoring domestic media coverage.
279. The Department has overall responsibility for the United Nations Internet Web site, which is undergoing constant refinement. In 1999, a new audio-visual home page was created on the site. United Nations radio and television programmes are now available almost immediately to Internet users around the globe. The United Nations home page (www.un.org) is accessed 3 million times a week, from 133 countries. Use has increased dramatically over the past three years: from 11.5 million hits in 1996 to 98.5 million in 1998, and a projected 150 million in 1999. Intergovernmental support will be vital to sustain the Web site in all United Nations languages and keep it up to date, both in content and in the light of technological advances.
280. More than 800,000 schools from over 100 countries have accessed the Department's Cyberschoolbus (www.un.org/cyberschoolbus), an on-line interactive education project which brings together diverse communities of students and educators to learn about the work of the United Nations. The Schools Demining Schools project, for example, raised funds from schoolchildren in donor countries to help to clear mines around schools in war-torn countries. It also helped raise awareness about mines among students who corresponded by e-mail with mine-clearance teams in Afghanistan and Mozambique.
281. During the year, the Department presented a wide range of exhibitions and special events at Headquarters in New York and elsewhere in collaboration with United Nations agencies and outside partners, such as the Walt Disney Company, the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) and the Freedom Forum. The Department has received a record number of requests for assistance for projects to mark the year 2000.
282. Among its services to the general public, the Department continues to target young people both through direct, face-to-face contact -- such as guided tours, briefings and special events -- and workshops for students and teachers. In December 1998, almost 400 young people from 125 schools in 7 countries attended a student conference on human rights at Headquarters. Videoconferencing is also an increasingly important means of connecting young audiences everywhere with the United Nations. In addition, a special effort is being made to involve young people from around the world in the global communications strategy for the Millennium Assembly.
283. To communicate effectively, the United Nations has to be able to get its message across to citizens of Member States as well as Governments. The United Nations Information Centres play a vital role here by organizing events and disseminating information in local languages that demonstrate how the work of the United Nations is relevant to the daily lives of people everywhere. Their presence on the ground and familiarity with local conditions allow the Centres to deliver the Organization's message more effectively to domestic audiences. The United Nations global vision finds a local voice through the relationships that the Centres develop with the local community.
284. During the past year, the Information Centres, in cooperation with Governments and non-governmental organizations, have focused on educational and youth activities, such as model United Nations conferences, after-school educational programmes and community service projects.
285. The Dag Hammarskjöld Library has further increased its "virtual library" capacity by using the Internet to link to United Nations depository libraries and other major libraries around the world. An increasing number of documents are now posted in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish, as well as English, while a new search engine guides users to major reference sources and the most frequently requested United Nations reports. A newsletter is distributed electronically to more than 330 depository libraries around the world, drawing their attention to newly released United Nations documents. The Library is offering on-line training courses and, as part of its outreach to civil society, particularly in developing countries, is conducting regional training programmes to draw attention to the availability of on-line information at the United Nations.